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Originally Posted by willravel
I was slowly able to overcome my claustophobic tendencies by exposing myslef to enclosed situations, but the general psychological community frowns on that as cruel. I would never ask anyone to do that to themselves if they weren't ready. Just wanted to make that clear.
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Exposure therapy is actually a positive therapeutic practice. It should be done with a trained practioner, but it actually is a method of developing appropriate responses to stressful situations.
I don't have a source (of course) but one of the anecdotes we were told in our class was that a therapist was working with a client who had to wash their hands like 50 or 60 times a day.. they were afraid of germs. So, the therapist started working with them slowly and gradually, making them touch, say, a dirty spoon from a meal they just ate. Then he wouldn't let them wash their hands for, say, a minute. Then he would increase that time until they were comfortable with it. Then he would go to dirtier situations and dirtier and dirtier... The anecdote ended with the client being able to pick up roadkill off the road and not washing their hands. Of course, this was way too far to push the client, but they were cured of their compulsive need to wash their hands.