Stress And Anxiety: Systematic Desensitization Technique

It’s fundamental exposing oneself in a real or imaginary way to stimuli that produce anxiety-producing emotions and the more times the better. It is about never avoiding, about facing but armed with resources that you did not have before but that can be learned. That is why it is very important to repeat, repeat and repeat. Carrying out systematic and progressive approaches (slowly but surely, little by little until the anxiety element loses strength) which will be reinforced punctually, so that the response loses power in the face of said situation.

We can do it reviewing with the imagination the exposure to the stimulus that generates anxiety (e.g. how to respond to a situation or thought to which we feel out of control or with great psychological or physiological discomfort) and after mastering the situation with the imagination (seeing, for example, ourselves responding in a controlled way and in a much more positive and adaptive) later move on to practice with direct exposure. It is about undoing conditioning that causes anxiety and learning more positive and adaptive ones. This works for any situation that can cause anxiety.

The steps are:

1. Relax your muscles at will (differential or progressive relaxation).
2. Make a list with all the fears or anxious situations.
3. build a hierarchy of anxiety scenes from lowest to highest intensity of anxiety.
4. Advance through imagination or through confrontation, with the feared situations of the hierarchy It is important to practice visualization so that the situation is experienced as very real. You will not move on to a new anxiety-producing situation until you have achieved that the previous situation in the hierarchy is completely resolved in terms of the anxiety experienced.

This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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