Prior to reading this article, I knew very little about anxiety and its effects on individuals. I knew that anxiety causes people to be worried and nervous very often, and occasionally for no observable reason. I knew it can cause people to fear interacting with other individuals. I had a vague knowledge of anxiety’s physical effects on the body, such as rapid heart rate and accelerated breathing. I had no knowledge of what “The Anxiety Game” mentioned in the title was and no idea what it could entail.
The author of this article begins by listing the different types of anxiety, also known as agoraphobia, and giving a brief history of their treatments. Treatments for various anxiety disorders really began to crop up in the 1960s, when behavioral …show more content…
Wilson says, that those who experience chronic pain can anticipate when the pain will come, and therefore dread it’s arrival which can take control of their waking hours. This is very similar to the way anxiety patients go about their disorders. While using the traditional desensitization and relaxation techniques, he exposed patients to their phobias. This worked fairly well, but most of his patients dropped the program before it could go anywhere. The author decided to begin researching other treatment options.
Wilson found a theory by two therapists from Temple University, Foa and Kozak, stating that “people who develop an anxiety disorder hold on to distorted information about themselves and their environment, which causes them distress” (paragraph 16). This theory led Wilson to believe that patients needed exposure to whatever caused their anxiety, in order to begin improving. This worked for a period of time, but was still not the best treatment possible. This treatment did allow Wilson to treat people in large numbers at one time, it was not the most …show more content…
He realized that he needed to build trust between himself and his patients, so as to convince patients that they needed to take charge and go out of their comfort zones in order to get better. Wilson established long- and short-term goals with his patients, then discussed the treatment thoroughly until patients felt that they could take charge of their treatment. A major component of Wilson’s treatment method is habituation, which involves frequent and intense exposure to a patient’s fear in order to reduce anxiety over a long period of time. After using this treatment for many years, all the while knowing how harsh it may seem to many people, Wilson feels it is an effective
The author of this article begins by listing the different types of anxiety, also known as agoraphobia, and giving a brief history of their treatments. Treatments for various anxiety disorders really began to crop up in the 1960s, when behavioral …show more content…
Wilson says, that those who experience chronic pain can anticipate when the pain will come, and therefore dread it’s arrival which can take control of their waking hours. This is very similar to the way anxiety patients go about their disorders. While using the traditional desensitization and relaxation techniques, he exposed patients to their phobias. This worked fairly well, but most of his patients dropped the program before it could go anywhere. The author decided to begin researching other treatment options.
Wilson found a theory by two therapists from Temple University, Foa and Kozak, stating that “people who develop an anxiety disorder hold on to distorted information about themselves and their environment, which causes them distress” (paragraph 16). This theory led Wilson to believe that patients needed exposure to whatever caused their anxiety, in order to begin improving. This worked for a period of time, but was still not the best treatment possible. This treatment did allow Wilson to treat people in large numbers at one time, it was not the most …show more content…
He realized that he needed to build trust between himself and his patients, so as to convince patients that they needed to take charge and go out of their comfort zones in order to get better. Wilson established long- and short-term goals with his patients, then discussed the treatment thoroughly until patients felt that they could take charge of their treatment. A major component of Wilson’s treatment method is habituation, which involves frequent and intense exposure to a patient’s fear in order to reduce anxiety over a long period of time. After using this treatment for many years, all the while knowing how harsh it may seem to many people, Wilson feels it is an effective