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The Rationale For Prolonged Exposure Treatment

8/19/2021

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Edna Foa PhD, Explains, “The rationale for treatment
 
This treatment involves exposure and ritual prevention. 
 
I’m going to explain to you how “in vivo exposure” together with “ritual prevention” helps overcome OCD symptoms. 
 
When you confront a situation because you’re distressed and you stay in the situation for a long enough time without escaping -you’re not doing rituals, you learn several things first, you learn that the anxiety does not last forever. 
 
In fact, it decreases even without escaping- avoid the ritualizing. Also, you’ll find out that at the same time your anxiety decreases, your urge to ritualize and escape also decreases. 
 
If you have OCD that includes disastrous consequences, such as dying from an illness, causing a fire or flood, think about this but confronting Fear.
 
You will learn that if you are afraid it will happen if you don’t ritualize, it actually does not happen. You also learned that anxiety does not last forever but you don’t have a nervous break down.
 
On the contrary, you have to do the same exposure several times, so you’ll feel that you are in control and you’re gonna start feeling like you can overcome the OCD. Do you have any questions about that? 
 
By confronting the things that trigger your fears about something bad happening in years to come, you’ll learn to live without certainty and to tolerate the uncertainty just like most people don’t really know what the future holds. Avoiding, escaping in response to the triggers only gives you the illusion of control.
 
The rituals strengthen your OCD symptoms in the present.
 
To help you with some of these objects, images, situations, or thoughts that trigger disastrous consequences, I will obviously not recommend the use of in vivo exposures to certain things. Instead, I will teach you how to do exposures in your imagination. The worst case scenario is that your OCD is presenting to you coupled with ritual prevention so that you can learn that although the thoughts that allowing the thoughts in, increases her stress level, you can tell her and find out That your anxiety will decrease just like with the in vivo exposure.
 
I now want to explain to you how images in imaginal exposure works to reduce your OCD symptoms. Imaginal exposure can help you in several ways. Imaginal exposure, you and I will write down in detail the things that you’re afraid will happen to you. I’ll ask you repeatedly to imagine these things actually happen. How will imagining these bad things actually happened, help you?
 
First you will learn that repeatedly imagining that the terrible things you’re afraid of when did happen while to get used to these things you gradually be able to think about them without experiencing high levels of anxiety and distress.
 
Second you’ll learn that even though your anxiety decreases when thinking about the things you’re afraid of happening, you’re not likely to start engaging the fear."

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    Don Boice
    Don Boice, LCSW-R, specializes in gender communication with couples in conflict.  

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