We know that exposure work is considered a gold standard to treat anxiety disorders. Without it there is a lower success rate and more of a risk of relapse.  A good way to think about exposure work is an experiment, in which you put your fear-based beliefs to a test and see if you learn anything new.

In short, exposure work is:

• A systemic confrontation of feared stimuli
• Promotes new learning about feared stimuli
• Gold standard for anxiety conditions

Exposure gives you the opportunity to learn that the probability of ‘bad’ things happening is much lower than you think. With exposure work you are also going to learn that your feelings of anxiety are not as dangerous as they seem. But the only way to learn this is to try it out to see what happens.

Each exposure task is designed to foster new learning. Each exposure is a mutually agreed-upon undertaking rather than something a therapist makes you do.  As a rule, exposure tasks should represent ‘acceptable’ levels of risk – meaning, situation and stimuli that, although not guaranteed to be absolutely risk-free, can be generally counted on not to have severe consequences.

You might be thinking that you are already exposing yourself to a particular feared outcome/situation. However, they are usually not as long, repetitive, or deliberate.  Also, you are probably using safety behaviors and when safety occurs, you don’t learn anything new.  To learn something new, we must be present and that means not using safety behaviors. If you are struggling with an exposure exercise that you think is too dangerous for exposure therapy, ask yourself: ‘do people incidentally or inadvertently confront this item (perhaps without even realizing it?)? – as a general rule, if the answer is ‘yes’ then the exposure is probably ‘safe enough.’  Consider for example how often people answer questions wrong, become anxious in front of others, ride elevators, think distressing, obscene or traumatic thoughts; leave appliances running while asleep, handle money without washing their hands, and so on.  The difference is that in exposure therapy, these experiences are systematically planned and carefully executed to promote new learning, as opposed to occurring at random or by accident.

With exposure work, we want clients to think of it as a new way of life by leaning into anxiety, fear, and uncertainty rather than fighting it or trying to avoid them.  We encourage you to take opportunities and view situations that usually trigger anxiety as ‘golden nuggets’ that will allow you to learn something new!   Each time you approach a feared situation and confront it head on you are helping yourself become less anxious and afraid.  The more you avoid, the more you make your fear stronger.  Our question to you is how will you challenge your anxiety and do something hard today?