But did you actually go to a therapist or you tried yourself?
Yes I been seeing a councellor every 2 weeks or so over the past 2.5 years & I see a psychiatrist every 6 months or so. The councellor convenes with the psychiatrist also, they work together.
Honestly, to give the OP a 100% view of my experience with exposure therapy, I admit I have not been 'challenging' myself constantly, ie everyday. Its more once a week or so. For example; I go to a cafe constantly (2/3 times a week) but I do the same thing every time usually I order my coffee, sit in the same spot of the cafe & read my magazine or do some homework.
I understand that the idea of exposure therapy is to, for eg,
step 1 - just walk through the cafe dont sit down or order anything
- go to cafe & order a takeaway coffee.
- go to cafe order a coffee & sit in back of cafe(area with least amt of people)
- go to cafe order a coffee & sit right at the door where its a very public area with lots of people
- go to cafe, intentionally knock over a glass to see the reaction of people & experience being stared at in an environment where you are comfortable etc.
Now honestly I have been going to my cafe for 2.5 years now & I just do the same thing most everyday, order coffee, sit in my main spot, read my mag & leave. I have not moved up the scale of challenging myself.
BUT, the main idea of exposure, is to attemot something small but difficult then keep attempting it UNTIL you feel comfortable in that THEN move on to challenge urself abit more, ie, knock over a glass in public.
And what I am saying that doing 2.5yrs of step 2, sitting in a cafe, hasn't got to be an experience where I feel practically no anxiety, dont have thoughts that the waitstaff hate me, dont think that other customers dont want to sit near me etc.
THIS is where I have lost almost all faith with exposure therapy. You think after the effort of 2.5yrs, literally, no exageration 2/3 times a week, that this experience would be second nature, nuh uh, yes honestly its about 15%easier than week one.
But sitting in a cafe with people, is not as hard as getting & maintaining a job. If it takes 2.5yrs for these measily results in a cafe, how long will it take to climatise to being in a job. I'm 23, I can expect to be able to feel comfortable in a job at 35 I expect, f*** that.
If they can invent a drug that can identify the chemical in the brain that is responsible when I feel that someone is judging me or thinks I look weird then I could take the pill & attempt some social things. But right now, the drugs available numb your senses or artificially increase your chemical happiness, serotonin(?), give me a drug that artificially decreases chemicals responsible for the bad thoughts (which cause anxiety but are not anxiety).
Right now u take a drug to keep you happily anxious & then I have to be a jedi master over my thoughts to control/defeat my anxiety. Trying to reprogram ur brain is like climbing mount everest.