# Would "flooding" help you with your fear/phobia? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 5, 2011, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-flooding-help-you-with-your-fear-phobia/595220 "2011-09-05T04:01:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Electric\_Warrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2011, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-flooding-help-you-with-your-fear-phobia/595220/21 "2011-09-05T20:55:04Z")
Put me under the category of ‘it’s psychological torture’. Something happened to me recently that _did_ ‘confirm’ one of my big fears/phobias and rather than being cured through exposure, it has made me much, much worse and greatly increased the effort I make to not respond to irrational thoughts caused by this fear. This theory would say that instead, it would teach me that it’s really not that bad when something like that happens, since I got over that specific occurrence (but not my overall fear), so it would decrease my fear. ---
**Author:** ![Otara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Otara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otara)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-flooding-help-you-with-your-fear-phobia/595220/22 "2011-09-06T00:11:52Z")
You wont find many self help books on it, because its generally considered to be a treatment that needs to be done with a therapist. Its a bit counter-intuitive because most people consider the solution is to stop being anxious rather than improve ones ability to cope with anxiety symptoms. Heres a handout that runs through some of the concepts one model uses: [http://www.brieftherapyconference.com/old-site/handouts/brief-strategic-treatment-for-the-anxiety-disorders.pdf](http://www.brieftherapyconference.com/old-site/handouts/brief-strategic-treatment-for-the-anxiety-disorders.pdf) Otara ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-flooding-help-you-with-your-fear-phobia/595220/23 "2011-09-06T05:46:42Z")
My one phobia is ghosts and spirits. I can’t even go into buildings I suspect have a room that’s haunted, and I have no interest in curing it. However, if I were interested in trying to overcome my fear staying in a hotel with hauntings would do it, then work up to staying in a haunted room, then. … brrrr I can’t go on. Seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-flooding-help-you-with-your-fear-phobia/595220/24 "2011-09-06T07:55:01Z")
> [@Mosier](#): > > 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 don’t comment on whether the therapy is effective or humane but I don’t think your examples do much to clarify. The therapy could only possibly work where the fear is irrational, and where exposure to the cause of the fear gradually causes you to realise that. You are never going to start thinking “actually, this torture isn’t too bad really” or “now that I’ve been raped for an hour it’s becoming OK”. But you might think “I’ve been with spiders for an hour and they haven’t actually done anything bad and I’m getting used to it”. ---
**Author:** ![Double\_Foolscap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@Double\_Foolscap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Double_Foolscap)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-flooding-help-you-with-your-fear-phobia/595220/25 "2011-09-06T08:22:32Z")
Spiders freak me out, but I was able to deal with them when I worked at a summer camp over the summer. I had to, as they would crawl over everything and asking a seven-year-old to take care of a harvest spider would have done nothing for my camp cred. I spent a few minutes on Saturday perched on my couch like a fifties housewife while my friend scooped up a spider and dropped it out of the window, so I can safely say my experiences didn’t cure me. In my defence, it was a really big spider and I was sharing the couch with another friend. ---
**Author:** ![Chipacabra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@Chipacabra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chipacabra)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2011, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-flooding-help-you-with-your-fear-phobia/595220/26 "2011-09-07T06:54:28Z")
Since my fear of heights stems from _falling off a cliff_, I’m skeptical of how effective flooding would be in my case. Please don’t throw me off an airplane just to prove a point. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2011, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-flooding-help-you-with-your-fear-phobia/595220/27 "2011-09-07T08:20:58Z")
> [@Gil-Martin](#): > > 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. Aw, she’s the mother of your kids, for God’s sake. You could show some respect when talking about her. ---
**Author:** ![ecseas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ecseas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ecseas)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2011, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-flooding-help-you-with-your-fear-phobia/595220/28 "2011-09-07T09:33:19Z")
> [@Chipacabra](#): > > Since my fear of heights stems from _falling off a cliff_, I’m skeptical of how effective flooding would be in my case. Please don’t throw me off an airplane just to prove a point. ☹ A small cliff (a metre or two) over looking deep but calm water? doesn’t sound that bad 😃 ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2011, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-flooding-help-you-with-your-fear-phobia/595220/29 "2011-09-07T10:17:31Z")
> [@Gil-Martin](#): > > 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. > [@Capitaine\_Zombie](#): > > Aw, she’s the mother of your kids, for God’s sake. You could show some respect when talking about her. /thread ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2011, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-flooding-help-you-with-your-fear-phobia/595220/30 "2011-09-07T16:28:40Z")
They did that on _King of the Hill_. Dale tried to cure Hank’s phobia of bats by using the “G. Gordon Liddy method” which was basically this. No, it didn’t exactly work, although he did manage to control his phobia long enough to save Bobby. I’d take slow desensitization myself. ---
**Author:** ![mrklutz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mrklutz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrklutz)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2011, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-flooding-help-you-with-your-fear-phobia/595220/31 "2011-09-07T17:16:26Z")
[Relevant article](http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-study-shows-people-with-panic-disorders-respon,20892/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-flooding-help-you-with-your-fear-phobia/595220.md?page=1)