How to use exposure therapy to overcome phobias

3 steps to conquer your phobias: 1. Make an exposure plan; 2. Start low; 3. Get bored. I show you how to do this, and face my own bee phobia in the process, on this week's episode of THE PSYCH SHOW.

Topics Discussed:
- phobia
- cognitive behavioral therapy
- exposure therapy
- bee phobia

Learn more:

THE PSYCH SHOW! Weekly adventures in psychology, the brain, and behavioral sciences with Dr. Ali Mattu!

[drali]

What fears are you trying to overcome?

[AdrianoFerrari]

My 7 year old son developed a phobia of wasps when he saw his friend get stung in the face. It was preventing him from going outside this summer (and we finally have a backyard!). Watched this video with him, chatted a bit, and we got to work on exposure therapy right away with a wasp in a jar. 30 minutes later he was standing in the backyard next to the flower patch the wasps were buzzing around. A week later and we're pretty much back to normal.

Thank you! The concept of exposure therapy is so important (not just for phobias, but for facing difficult things in general), and this was a very well explained and executed video on the topic.

[DrawCuriosity]

well done on facing your fear of bees! Also it sets a good example because not only do you present the theory, but walk the talk :) you're very brave! :)

[_Killkor]

Because the greatest phobia is the fear of unknown!

The less we know something, the less predictable it is to us. That's why we create insane scenarios involving the subject of out fears, where often in reality it's completely (or almost) impossible to occur. This is the source of most of the phobias - misunderstanding and the lack of information.

Well, some of the phobias have a strong reasoning, like the fear of heights - you slip, you fall and you badly injure yourself or even die. But, most of them are completely ridiculous (fear of birds, or butterflies). Food for thought.

[monelisa]

I am currently speaking with my therapist about exposure therapy so I can overcome my fear of roaches, it’s taking over my life and I would like to have my comfortability back

[douglasespindola]

I have phobia of almost every insect that fly, specially bees, wasps and bumblebees. Maybe your video will be an inspiration to me. Thanks!

[Thaiannec]

I have agoraphobia and every time I think the exposure is working, all of sudden, I go back to being extremely anxious again. It's been 3 years already. This is so hard.

[BoyfriendFreeMaizie]

I have forced myself to be around people but the anxiety just never goes away

[kynguyen]

Thank you for the explanation. I jumped stages during my exposure therapy and got more anxious and quit. Will start over with better hierarchy

[kurt]

Had a client that was a bee-whisperer. One or two would often check in with him as he arrived or left the building ..crawling around his hands and arms. I don’t have a bee phobia but that didn’t seem fun to me until observing his joy of nature. It’s amazing how those we serve often teach us.
Thank you for being vulnerable.. Best video I’ve seen this week!

[ABetterLoveProject]

"Wife to the rescue..." Love it! :D

[milkbread]

This was very inspiring!! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I have a fear of failure--- I'm an artist so I fear of doing a bad drawing and people pointing and laughing at it. Sounds SO silly but to me it has paralyzed me from drawing at all! Which is so sad! It comes from the perfectionist mentality. But it's actually just fear. I'm not going to die even if someone laughs. I think I'm going to try this and not edit everything perfectly, maybe allow a few mistakes.

[AJ-dbkc]

You are amazing. The idea of using yourself as an example to help us is very kind and unpatronizing (don't know if that's an actual word). Thank you.

[x_ellxeplays_x]

Glad people are recognising cynophobia and I do have it and it’s really severe I avoid places where dogs are me my teacher brought his dog to school it was legit tournure I had a massive panic attack and passed out I’m glad that people are recognising it and not bullying me like they have before!

[iwonderwhatgoesnext]

I have emetophobia. The fear of vomiting, hear or see other people vomiting. It's the worse. It's still a thing that few people talk about and It's "rare" compared to other phobias, I can't avoid vomiting, I can't controll my body to not doing it, I have panick attacks, I can't eat properly and I can't sleep. I feel like nobody understands me.

[leerwesen]

Just watching this makes me anxious. You did really well!

[sadieblack]

i have a phobia of cockroaches and it’s gotten to the point where i’m constantly on edge, i get paranoid before i can sleep and then i’m awake. i don’t do thing because i’m scared i’ll find them. it’s really freaking awful, but i’m going to try this and hopefully i’ll be able to live my life again.

[navys]

This one really help me.
It's first time i search for help. First step i made is watching videos about bees, then i went fishing with my dad(a lot of bees there), now im here. If i keep going this way, imma get over this fear.

[lachrymoseUndine]

Very helpful! I, too, have a phobia of bees and I appreciate this a lot. I’ll try out these steps and hope to overcome this fear. I also heard that bees can sense fear, which is another cause of the stinging to occur. Thanks for this video!

[purplrach]

This was very helpful! I'm going to use this for overcoming my fear of having my blood pressure taken.