Exposure Therapy - need some advice please

[Primula]

Hi all, I'd really like some advice from someone who is familiar with Exposure Therapy for Health Anxiety.

I've been seeing a CBT therapist for the last few months and have been very slowly improving. Now I am doing exposure to the things that frighten me. My task is to read the blog of a person diagnosed with terminal cancer. The past few days have been horrible, and my anxiety is raging. Does anyone know how long before the anxiety will start to wane? I don't know whether to carry on with it as I'm feeling so scared, and worried I'm making things worse.

Has anyone ever done Exposure Therapy and managed to keep with it? I'd love to hear some positive outcomes, no negative stories please.

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[LunaLiuna]

Expose therapy is hard, but massively rewarding. I only have experience with it in terms of Social Anxiety but it's still the same.

I found it very hard because my therapist would push me in the directions of things that well, I didn't want to do. We did this for months but to no avail. So I took it in my own hands and exposed myself to various triggers and my anxiety has really improved.

I think it's key to notice your I improvements during the treatment, so when things get hard you know that your takings steps in the right direction :)

Good luck!

[crazybrain]

I’ve been doing it for 30 mins a day Monday to Friday right when I get home from work. I have to sit and be mindful of feelings that come into my head. I have a large issue with being a lone and have found that this over time has made it better. I no longer have to turn to “problem behaviors” to deal with it. I am also in a DBT group once a week and have a 1 on 1 therapy session with my therapist. I used to just nap, etc. If nothings coming up you can listed to mindfulness apps on your phone – check out headspace. It’s 10mins and really helps.

[Female healthanxiety]

Hello Primula,

I am not sure I have been asked to do it by my counsellor - but I have faced my fears in terms of airplanes!

It sounds like you have a great one!

Good luck with it and let us know how you get on............
xxx

[swanick15]

I don't know if you remember Stephen Sutton, he was the 19 year old with the exceptionally rare (for his age) bowel cancer. He had a Facebook page which he updated every few days right up until his last few days, his mum still caries it on in his memory. I'd read all of his posts from beginning to end as he updated it like a blog. Its really will help you especially his positivity in such a dire situation.
https://www.facebook.com/StephensStory

[RoseEve]

I have done exposure therapy for both HA and GAD. It's like chewing glass at first but it is extremely useful in overcoming anxiety. Hang in there it will get better soon!

[Primula]

Thanks everyone, really appreciate your replies.

[MyNameIsTerry]

It can be a painful experience. I haven't done this for HA, as I have GAD & OCD but I found it hard at first. The whole point of it is the gradually expose you to stronger stimuli within ERP or can start at the strongest point by 'flooding' in Exposure Therapy. So, if you are doing the 'flooding', if its too much right now, your therapist may look towards the ERP method of building up, but thats really something to discuss with them.

Habituation takes time, but it will happen for you if its done the right way. I did it with my GAD in social occasions and it does work.

With ERP its a matter of cutting back on the 'safety behaviours' or responses. Are you clear on what yours are?

I wish you all the best with it.

[Primula]

Thanks for that Terry. I am finding the exposure overwhelming, so I am going to go back to things I'm not so frightened of. I will discuss with my therapist next week.

[Fj2014]

Hey Primula,
How's it going?
So I tried some exposure today and read an article written about a lady with terminal cancer - as much as it was an inspiring article it's terrified me.
I think the only way to deal with this is to keep reading but I feel as if reading and reading will make cancer seem the norm and exacerbate my fears =/!

xx

[Primula]

Hi there, yes I feel terrified today. It makes me feel sure I have cancer, and all my aches and pains are more noticeable. Feeling doomed and anxious. Maybe it's too big a task at the moment. I know that ideally you should stay with it until your anxiety drops by half., but it has increased by anxiety massively, maybe I'm not doing it properly. I'm going to discuss this with my therapist next week.

Hate hate hate you health anxiety. :mad:

Which article are you reading? I'm reading about a young doctor who has a very rare cancer. I find it so sad, and it just makes everything more real

[Fj2014]

It must work as it wouldn't be included in the therapy but it really doesn't feel like it right now - I know exactly what you, I was reading about a lady with lung cancer and now I want to cough.
This is a bloody nightmare!!!

I think if we spur each other on and log how we're doing with this it may help?

Will you let me know what your therapist says please?

I'm still waiting for my referral :) xxx

I'm reading a blog by a 30-year-old with terminal lung cancer and a Huffington Post article about a young woman with breast cancer who plans weddings for other cancer patients. I feel like it's inevitable that it will happen to me reading all this and that both scares me and makes me feel incredibly selfish!

[Primula]

Yes I'm sure it does work, but it's very scary. Yes let's update our progress. It really does help talking to someone who is going through the same thing.

Of course I will let you know what my therapist says. :)

I have a week off work this week, and I was so looking forward to having a relaxing time with my teenage daughter. Instead I have too much time to think. I'm going to do my ironing to take my mind off myself. Xx

[swgrl09]

Oh my gosh, Primula, I give you so much credit for doing that. Even just thinking about reading a true account of cancer got me going. I used to not even watch fictional tv shows with cancer, but I can at least do that (most of the time) now... unless it's too similar to what my mom died of.

The fact that it is so hard means it is the RIGHT thing to use to challenge you. You wouldn't benefit from it if it was easy. Your therapist chose something she knew would be hard because that's what you need. If you can get through this, you can get through anything.

Some therapists start smaller if it is too much and you work up to it. Some even start with "in vivo exposure" which is just imagining doing something (such as reading the blog) until that does not give you anxiety anymore. Then taking it a step up each time until you can do the whole thing.

Good work! I see my new therapist Tuesday ...

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Hah! Decided to try some exposure therapy myself - BAD IDEA convinced I have cancer too. So we both can't just magically have cancer now, right? :)

[MyNameIsTerry]

Primula, it sounds like you are doing ERP where you start small and work through more difficult exposures to reach your goal. You should be finding you habituate through this process and it seems this is occuring as you said you were going to go back to your previous conquests. (Well done for getting through those, I bet you thought that was impossible before).

Perhaps the current goal is too big a leap and maybe you need an interim step to edge closer towards it? I learnt that if a goal is too hard, you just end up judging yourself so I was always told it was about micro goals that lead you to your larger goal.

Until you get to talk to your therapist, is there a step inbetween the last achieved goal and this one you are struggling with? Your therapist may look at this anyway but perhaps you can make a partial achievement by stepping closer to the current goal?

I wonder if it helps to add some form of relaxation prior and maybe after?

I know when I did this I was shown a graph that charted the exposure process and how anxiety measured during it. It showed a peak very early that would then decline nito a much lower level of anxiety as time progressed. Are you finding this as you start new exercises?

[Primula]

Hi swgrl, ha ha, yes I'm convinced I have cancer now. My aches and pains have increased this week, surely it can't be a coincidence that I have started the exposure therapy? Today I'm determined to get on with things, I've wasted the last two days. Today , I've been shopping, pegged out washing and next to walk my dog. I may do some milder exposure later on. How about you, what have you planned.


Thanks Terry, I really appreciate your input and advice. It really helps to hear from someone who has been through it. Yes I think this might have been too big a jump, so I will go back to some easier tasks. I have overcome quite a few things, but so fed up as this has been going on since this February. My therapist says it's still early days and not to let it get me down. She says there is a lot of habits and thought patterns to sort out, as I've had these problems on and off for the last 20 years. Just don't want to waste any more of my life. Thanks again :)

[swgrl09]

I'm glad you got out and about! I'm working today... picked up a shift at the hospital, although I'm tired and regretting it but we get paid a little more for the weekend. Terry, that's really interesting about the chart. Was it your own anxiety levels they charted?