“Unsystematic” Desensitization
Desensitization therapy for agoraphobia may be more effective if it is not so systematic - or so an article I just read by Dr. Reid Wilson suggests.
Dr. Wilson is a professor at the University of North Carolina and an internationally recognized specialist in the treatment of panic and anxiety disorders. His book, “Don’t Panic,” helped me tremendously in my own recovery from agoraphobia.
In a recent article called “How to Keep the Fear from Returning,” Dr. Wilson challenges a traditional assumption of systematic desensitization, which is considered to be the most research-proven treatment for agoraphobia today.
The traditional systematic desensitization method is to face your fears in sequential order, from least to greatest. The logic is that you will gain confidence for overcoming larger fears by first conquering smaller ones.
Dr. Wilson suggests that you try just the opposite, to face feared situations randomly. Instead of working all the way through a lesser fear before working on a greater one, work on all of your fears at the same time. Choose randomly which fear you will face on a given day.
Dr. Wilson says that doing “random and variable practice” will send yourself the message that you are capable of handling a variety of situations and “add into memory a larger number of cues” to associate with positive learning. In other words, if you mix up the order in which you face different fears, you will better generalize your success to different situations.