I know you wrote this a couple of months ago but I have a question about exposure therapy and driving over bridges. I never had any issues with this until I heard someone talking about how they had a phobia of driving over bridges and that seemed have planted a stubborn seed in me. My worry about exposure therapy is: "what if I black out while I'm driving?" I know it's not rational, but I worry about hurting others in an attempt to conquer my fear. I have discussed this with my therapist but can't seem to get myself to drive over a certain bridge that I've had panic attacks driving across. Since it's the bridge I need to cross to go visit my daughter, it's very frustrating to have this fear. Do you have any resources to suggest? Thanks!
That jump sounds horrifying! I have an adult daughter who may benefit from some of the resources you listed. Thank you for sharing! I’m subscribing to learn more. 🙂
So glad you are here! And feel free to share if you have specific ideas for topics that would be helpful to hear more about. I tend to bounce around on topics a bit week to week, but anxiety is definitely a theme I will continue to return to.
Thanks for this lovely piece of writing. I initially clicked it because I thought you were talking about the kind of processing I do with EMDR in therapy too. There’s a big truth in knowing you can only move on if you move through all the emotions. Harder said then done for me 😅
My understanding is that there is exposure in EMDR as well, it just looks a bit different than behavioral exposure! The "imaginal exposure" of calling to mind painful memories, for example. And it's not just you, it is so challenging and brave to confront something that our nervous system is telling us to avoid. The alarm is blaring, saying "danger!" so of course it's terrifying to ignore that and go for it.
I know you wrote this a couple of months ago but I have a question about exposure therapy and driving over bridges. I never had any issues with this until I heard someone talking about how they had a phobia of driving over bridges and that seemed have planted a stubborn seed in me. My worry about exposure therapy is: "what if I black out while I'm driving?" I know it's not rational, but I worry about hurting others in an attempt to conquer my fear. I have discussed this with my therapist but can't seem to get myself to drive over a certain bridge that I've had panic attacks driving across. Since it's the bridge I need to cross to go visit my daughter, it's very frustrating to have this fear. Do you have any resources to suggest? Thanks!
That jump sounds horrifying! I have an adult daughter who may benefit from some of the resources you listed. Thank you for sharing! I’m subscribing to learn more. 🙂
So glad you are here! And feel free to share if you have specific ideas for topics that would be helpful to hear more about. I tend to bounce around on topics a bit week to week, but anxiety is definitely a theme I will continue to return to.
Thanks for this lovely piece of writing. I initially clicked it because I thought you were talking about the kind of processing I do with EMDR in therapy too. There’s a big truth in knowing you can only move on if you move through all the emotions. Harder said then done for me 😅
My understanding is that there is exposure in EMDR as well, it just looks a bit different than behavioral exposure! The "imaginal exposure" of calling to mind painful memories, for example. And it's not just you, it is so challenging and brave to confront something that our nervous system is telling us to avoid. The alarm is blaring, saying "danger!" so of course it's terrifying to ignore that and go for it.