Overcome fear of EXTERNAL situations
‘REAL LIFE’ Graduated Exposure Practice
A key moment in Exposure Practice.. learning to ‘WAIT’
One of the most difficult aspects of Exposure Practice is the moment that your anxiety initially rises. That is the moment you will feel like ‘escaping’ and this is a perfectly NATURAL response – after all, the symptoms are a result of the fight or FLIGHT response.
The trick is to remember to just STAY with the anxiety for even a few seconds more – give yourself a CHANCE to at least SEE if you can cope.
Practice your skills.
Restructure your thoughts and WAIT.
Then wait some more..
and if panic rises again,
WAIT again.
After a while you will realise that even though you FEEL frightened, nothing harmful is ACTUALLY happening.
But if you DO feel you have to walk away – don’t be hard on yourself. Just try again as soon as you can – maybe break the exposure down again into smaller steps to make it more achievable.