Applied Tension

Description of the Strategy

Specific phobias are a common experience in people, and yet relatively few present with these concerns for [Page 28]formal treatment. In this respect, specific phobias differ significantly from other anxiety disorders. People who suffer with a variety of other common anxiety disorders (e.g., social anxiety, generalized anxiety, panic disorder) frequently present themselves for psychological interventions. Interestingly, specific phobias, when treated, often remit faster, and gains endure well over time. This phenomenon may in part be due to the circumscribed nature of specific phobias. Whereas many of the other anxiety disorders may have an insidious fashion of spreading into large parts of a person's life, specific phobias, virtually by definition, are limited to some relatively confined stimulus. In this way, ...