Systematic Desensitization. (5) The most effective therapy against phobias, fears, and anxieties, ...and the hardest to spell...

Systematic desensitization is the most effective treatment to overcome phobias, fears, and anxiety. But the best of all is that you can have its huge benefits working on your own in autotherapy sessions.

In the previous article, we explain how pre-conditioned reactions have their origin in the past, often during childhood and are the product of a programming that inevitably makes us react anxiously when the same circumstances are repeated. Fortunately, we can overcome these situations and overcome the conditions that cause us anxiety.

In fact, the process is not so difficult if we do it the right way. A clinical procedure to eliminate conditioning that causes anxiety was conceived by Professor Joseph Wolpe, a psychiatrist who made use of the basic principles learned after years of research. It consists of gradually exposing the patient to a series of anxiety-generating conditions while he is in a state of induced relaxation.

This process is known by the name of systematic desensitization and is carried out effectively in many psychiatrists' offices, psychologists, and mental institutions. If carried out properly, it has proven its effectiveness in 90% of cases. By gradually exposing himself to stress generating situations, either in an imaginary (in vitro) or real (in vivo) way, the patient will maintain his state of relaxation until he exceeds the programming that induced him to stress. Exposure will be made gradually from the simpler situations to those who generate the more tension.

Let us take the case we pointed out earlier of someone who fears authority figures. In this case, the person will practice the process of desensitization exposing himself again to similar situations to those that conditioned the state of anxiety. The process will be carried out until he is able to overcome the anxiety that dominates him. It is not the logical reasoning part of therapy, but the gradual process of eradicating the sensibility to that original programming that was causing anxiety.

Although severe cases of phobias require the supervision of a professional during therapy sessions, the vast majority of people have certain areas generating fear or anxiety that can be eliminated through self-therapy.

It's advisable to analyze and write down under what specific circumstances we develop anxiety in each area of interest. That is, we need to be practical and analyze in what specific areas there is a previous programming that is hurting us. Once we have this list, we will take from the different situations, those with which we are most frequently confronted and that we wish to eliminate as soon as possible.

Among others, we found some common fears like having to talk to unfamiliar people or professionals, people with more academic background than ours, or perhaps the stress generated when the boss is present in the workplace or when he calls us to communicate something, or maybe when we have to read or say something in public. Any situation causing anxiety that we often are confronted with can be the subject or our self-therapy.

To be effective in our self-therapy sessions we have to master the art of relaxation and it is precisely what we will be dealing with in our next article.

For a detailed guide on how to implement systematic desensitization, I recommend this link from Dr. Tom G. Stevens: Self-Desensitization Instructions