Panic serves a purpose as the body’s physiological system of self-protection during a threatening, stressful or dangerous situation. For some people this natural alarm system becomes unbalanced through mental disorders such as post-traumatic stress (PTSD),obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), or a general phobia. In those cases, the patient’s life may become significantly restricted by their fears and both quality of life and ability to maintain relationships can be heavily affected.

Exposure therapy, an integral part of cognitive behavioral therapy, is a treatment technique that is utilized to reduce fear and anxiety responses resulting from phobias or anxiety disorders. Exposure therapy is effective in preventing the progression of acute stress disorder to post-traumatic stress disorder according to the June 2008Archives of General Psychiatry.

Exposure therapy is considered extremely effective in that it aids a patient in gaining control over his or her anxiety disorder by confronting the triggers that cause negative reactions. All exposure therapy is held within a controlled and therapist-supervised environment. The basis of exposure therapy is that the management of anxiety is the means for overcoming that anxiety, and that phobias are the result of habitual thoughts not entirely based in reality or developed as a result of a trauma.

Such habitual thoughts have either developed spontaneously or over time to the point that the body’s physiological responses are maladjusted toward overreacting to certain stimuli. By using coping mechanisms and therapeutic confrontation of the fear, a patient’s mind is retrained to respond to a particular trigger with relaxation versus panic induced by the body’s natural “fight or flight” response.

Exposure therapy is carefully administered through one of two primary methods to avoid re-traumatization of the patient. The first method is known as “flooding.” Flooding is a confrontation of trauma memories or reminders all at once. Desensitization, the second method, is one in which relaxation techniques, imagery and other methods provide a more gradual confrontation of life stressors through dissection of the trauma. As each patient is different in both stressors and coping ability, the therapist will assess the best means of exposure therapy to utilize in that individual patient’s recovery.

One of the most important factors in exposure therapy is providing the patient with adequate tools and life skills for coping with their fear. Without such skills, the exposure will likely heighten the fear or intensify the phobia and provide a setback in treatment. To force the confrontation of fears without the patient being aware of how to cope with his or her own response is much like forcing someone who does not know how to swim into deep water. When patients have first learned how to cope with anxiety through relaxation techniques and positive imagery they are prepared for actual confrontation of their fears.