So apparently there’s this type of therapy called Flooding.
I could link to a bunch of cites that explains it with many paragraphs and large words, but instead, I’m just going to put it in my own words, hopefully keeping it short and simple.
Flooding is basically forcing you to confront a fear with no escape allowed. It hits you hard with your fear, in the hardest, most terrifying way imaginable.
For example, say you had a huge fear of spiders.
Flooding might consist of making you lie in a bathtub, handcuffed to the sides, while buckets and buckets of (live) spiders were poured all over you.
Apparently there’s so much fear and panic the human mind can take, however, before it maxes out and you become “desensitized” to the fear.
I mean, sure, the first hour or two you’ll probably be screaming your head off and going crazy as the spiders are crawling all over you. But with no means of escaping the situation, I guess the theory is…after a few hours the spiders will seem like the norm to you and you’ll actually be used to them there. Thus, you won’t ever find spiders a problem again.
So what I’m wondering is if flooding would work for you (and whatever fears you have)?
No. Just look at people who have survived real traumatic events. Are torture victims desensitized to violence? Are rape victims desensitized to sex? Putting someone in an extremely traumatic situation is no cure.
I sort of had that happen to me…I’m afraid of heights…mostly things that are over open areas…in this case it was a ladder to a roof that went over an open stairwell (hope my description makes sense). I was afraid to go up it (I went up a few rungs then stopped) so an aquaintance decided to hold me by the legs and not let me down until I went all the way up it. Which I did after about 30 minutes of shouting and trying to get away. It wasn’t so bad but, still…probably not the best way to “help” someone get over a fear…especially if it’s a fear that’s borne out of something traumatic (which this was not).
My psychologist discussed this with me, when we were discussing the many different therapies for anxiety disorders. He said that, when it does work, it works really quickly. However, it has a very large potential for backfiring, and the outcome can actually be someone who can no longer be desensitized to the fear. The flooding actually reinforces the fear, so every time you feel better, you instantly feel worse again. Needless to say, he did not recommend it.
Furthermore, I’ve since learned that clinical studies of this are extremely flawed. The patient, in order to avoid doing the therapy again, will often lie and pretend to be okay just to get away, and wind up even more traumatized than before.
Finally, if you’ve ever had ongoing panic attacks, you know that the whole “only 2 hours of fear” is bullshit. It’s not like the fear just shuts off. It decreases, yes, but it’s still uncomfortable, and it doesn’t take long to recharge and become bad again. You can have days of constant panic attacks, something I’ve experienced first hand.
Only lesser, non-cyclical fears will go away in a couple hours, and, guess what? That’s better done with systematic desensitization, which is exactly what therapy actually uses. Flooding was instrumental in learning that you could desensitize people, but the actual method is barbaric and often detrimental.
In fact, the last time I read anything about this, both of those methods were called “flooding”. They were just looked at as different versions of the same thing; one just took longer and was less unpleasant. And apparently has turned out to be more effective.
And really; even without the apparently superior effectiveness, why not use the slower, less unpleasant method? How often do you need to get over a phobia right now?
Flooding is considered to be quite effective and is in common use.
The idea is to engage the client in it as a process, ie where there is an experience of ‘I did it’ and wanting to take on more, rather than ‘you are not getting me near that again you freak’.
The fundamental idea behind the model is to help people cope with the experience of high anxiety better, rather than to make the stimulus cause less anxiety.
One keen proponent of it would be Reid Wilson, who essentially has two paths for clients, eg the ‘Permissive’ approach for people wanting a slower less stressful approach, and the ‘active’ approach for people who want faster results, with more challenging tasks.
A fear of spiders would not be confronted by a bathtub full of tarantulas. The idea is to go a bit beyond what you can stand. Flooding an aracnophobic might be everything from putting him in a room with a spider in a jar, to having one spider crawl on his arm.
Also, the human mind is supposed to be unable to be in a blind panic for longer then twenty minutes. So the “couple hours of agony” makes it too much of a horror story.
Lastly, all of this is done with a caring therapist on your side encouraging and praising. Not with a guy chaining you to the bathtub, evilly cackling while he closes the door behind him.
I don’t think I have any real phobias. I do have an irrational fear of falling face first down steps and breaking my front teeth. I don’t see how flooding would help with that.
I have had a couple of real panic attacks, and brief episodes in specific situations that seemed like claustrophobia and cannot imagin prolonging those sensations to be therapeutic. If I was being treated for clasutrophobia and knew that “next session we’ll leave you in the box five minutes longer” I don’t know how I’d make myself drive to the appointment.
Thanks to one of my children, I was forced to come into physical contact with the creepiest, slimiest, vilest, most disgusting lifeform on the planet for an extended period of time. Now I regard this terrible thing from Lovecraft’s worst nightmare as just another creature that I can comfortably share space with on a regular basis. Just one guy’s story, I know, but I think flooding worked for me, even though it wasn’t supervised by a therapist or something.
I would be interested if somebody could point me toward a book, article, or trustworthy website that discusses this. I’m not disputing the quoted claim; I just find it interesting.
I am not sure how effectively it would work, but I am willing to try anything to advance the cause of science…
(My phobia is being trapped in a room surrounded by a dozen nude Victoria’s Secret models who have been on a 3-day Ecstasy and Pinot Grigio bender without having another man around for the whole time)
Some people can compartmentalize when they need/want to, and some can’t. I don’t know if this is something that can be learned by force, such as in the flooding scenario. I hate spiders, and when I have to deal with them, I do, because I have to. That doesn’t make me like them any more, it just means I’ve managed to turn off the switch that makes want to avoid it altogether.
I don’t know if this is something that can be ‘taught’ or forced. If someone is capable of compartmentalizing but simply never does it because they can always get out of it some other way, then it might work…as noted upthread, this would likely happen very quickly, once the conscious mind realizes it’s not going to get away from it. But for people who don’t have that switch…whatever it is…it’s a question of whether it can be learned or forced or turned on or whatever.
Regardless, there’s got to be a better way of doing that.
I have googled about ten minutes for you, but I can’t find such a source. Must be a tidbit I picked up when studying psychology.
There are many sources describing a flooding session as lasting about twenty minutes, though.
No problem. I appreciate your effort, though. The “twenty minute” thing sounded so specific to me, I was curious who determined that this period was the human “panic limit,” how they determined that (experiments, surveys, battlefield observations, research by scientists interested in neurotransmitters, whatever), and so forth.
I have social phobia/social anxiety and I don’t think it would really help, since I’m fine once I’m forced into the situation, it’s just the anxiety of approaching it. In other words, I can’t initiate contact and conversation, but if I HAVE to initiate contact or somebody starts talking to me I’m perfectly fine. Since flooding falls in the latter category, I can’t imagine it being very useful.
However, my actual biggest fear is losing my memory, or even getting anterograde amnesia, to the point where sometimes I freak out beyond what I should if I get distracted and utterly forget what I was doing. I can’t think of a way you even COULD flood that in an effective manner, not to mention the side effects are probably worse than the fear in this case.
That sounds like something Evil Online Skald would do, or perhaps someone interested in selling patients adult underwear.
I used to have a terrible dog phobia. I got over in in therapy, which involved slow desensitization. My doctor brought her little dog into the room over many weeks, closer to me each time, until at last I could handle having it on my lap and even feed it. Then we went through it again (more quickly this time) with a larger dog. Now they don’t freak me out any longer.
I still hate the disgusting little monsters, though.
