Some problems lend themselves easily to relatively clear definition. Fear of public speaking is one such problem. Compulsions are another. Although there are important exceptions, the more specific the problem, the greater the likelihood that it can be treated successfully. It is common, therefore, for therapists to encourage clients to define their problems as carefully as possible. Such definition unfortunately does not guarantee therapeutic success, but it surely increases the likelihood that the outcome of treatment will be positive.
SPECIFIC TREATMENTS Once a problem is defined, it may become especially amenable to treatment by the specific behavioral and cognitive therapies, as well as biological ones. These therapies address symptoms primarily. But this is surely no shortcoming, for as we have seen earlier in this chapter, the symptoms often are the problem and, in any event, they are fully capable of breeding more intense and intractable problems. Symptoms treatments are, therefore, significant treatments, made all the more so by their comparative likelihood of succeeding. We turn to these first.
Treatments for Fears, Phobias, and Anxieties There are three psychological treatments that are enormously effective in reducing fears and anxieties. Perhaps the oldest, and surely the most researched of these, is systematic desensitization, which is useful not only for simple animal phobias, but also for the more complex social anxieties, as well as for agoraphobias and even insomnia (Steinmark and Borkevic, 1974). It is, in fact, so successful that it has become the yardstick against which the effectiveness of new treatment techniques is measured (Kazdin and Wilson, 1978).
A second psychological treatment consists of flooding and reinforced practice. As discussed earlier, flooding consists of encouraging the client to remain in the presence of the feared object (Crowe, Marks, Agras, and Leitenberg, 1972; Leitenberg and Callahan, 1973). A variant of flooding, called implosion, requires clients to imagine fearful scenes (Stampfl and Levis, 1967; Levis and Carrera, 1967). Gradually, the terror that is induced by the feared stimulus will diminish. Flooding and implosion are particularly effective with agoraphobia, which sometimes is resistant to systematic desensitization.
The third psychological treatment that seems particularly effective with phobias is modeling, which consists in observing a non fearful model perform the task that generates fear in the client (Bandura, Blanchard, and Ritter, 1969; Bandura, 1977b). Modeling appears to work as well as do desensitization and flooding in alleviating both mild and severe phobias (Rachman, 1978).
Biological treatments, such as the administration of Valium and Miltown, are often useful for alleviating anxiety, especially anxiety that is manifest in body tensions. Untreated, such body tensions tend to accumulate and mount, rendering a person continually anxious. Unlike psychological treatments, however, these biological treatments do not teach people to cope with anxiety; they merely alleviate the symptoms that present circumstances have generated. If active coping techniques are not learned, new troubling circumstances will probably bring further anxiety symptoms and require further treatment.
Biological treatments, therefore, are relatively transient and passive treatments that minimize present symptoms and prevent new ones from developing during a particular crisis.
Treatment of Anxiety Disorders: The way to resolve your... Social Anxiety, Generalized Anxiety, Agoraphobia or Panic Disorder (and other psychologically based issues) is to engage in an in-depth process of emotional healing and self-nurturing psychotherapy.