You see a spider in your bedroom and freak out. You can’t leave your house to attend a party because your social anxiety skyrockets whenever you try to meet new people. If you have an intense fear or phobia, it might feel like you’re alone or people don’t understand you. But there is therapy available that can help you face your fears and not let them dominate your life anymore. An example is exposure therapy.
Exposure therapy is when a psychologist helps you confront your fears in a safe environment. You can learn techniques to reduce your fear and decrease your avoidance of it. Immersion therapy is an example of exposure therapy, but it differs from it a bit.
According to Olivia Pelts, Owner of Sunshine City Counseling, immersion therapy not only addresses the immediate symptoms of anxiety but also fosters long-term resilience by creating a deeply engaging and supportive therapeutic experience. This method contrasts with exposure therapy, which focuses on gradual desensitization to specific fears.
This article covers everything you need to know about immersion therapy and exposure therapy. We’ll explore how they work and how they effectively treat various mental health conditions.
What Is Immersion Therapy and Exposure Therapy?
Immersion and exposure therapy expose people to phobias to reduce their fear response. Inducing a fearful situation activates neurons in the brain’s amygdala. Exposure to a fear makes the neurons in the brain less active, so the fear response decreases over time.
Although exposure and immersion therapy achieve this, they work differently.
Exposure therapy gradually exposes an individual to their phobia, such as heights or spiders (two of the most common phobias). The psychologist will start by exposing them to their fear so they feel mild-to-moderate anxiety. For example, if someone is afraid of spiders, the psychologist might show them pictures of spiders.
They will slowly work up to a more stressful level of exposure when the person feels comfortable, such as letting them sit in the same room as a spider.
In this way, repeated exposure helps the person to manage their anxious response as they progress through treatment.
By comparison, immersion therapy is more intense than exposure therapy. Usually, people will get exposed to their fears at a faster rate. But, it works in the same way as exposure therapy in that the patient undergoes extended exposure to their fears in a safe environment.
What Immersion Therapy and Exposure Therapy Can Treat
It’s not just phobias that immersion and exposure therapy can treat. These therapies can effectively treat mental health disorders such as the following.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Immersion and exposure therapy treat various types of anxiety, such as social anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, and panic attacks.
A study published in the Harvard Review of Psychiatry found that both virtual reality therapy and exposure therapy worked effectively to treat anxiety, which includes phobias and social anxiety disorder. The researchers stated that virtual reality exposure therapy helps people better manage their exposure to anxiety and fear stimuli and their duration.
Virtual reality therapy is one way of treating anxiety with exposure therapy. Role-playing with a therapist is another method. During exposure therapy, a person who suffers from social anxiety will be exposed to frightening social situations, like giving a speech in front of people or attending a party.
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Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Immersion therapy and exposure therapy treat anxiety and trauma that’s associated with PTSD. Psychologists help the patient explore their traumatic experiences more comfortably.
There are different types of exposure therapy for treating PTSD. These include the following:
- Imaginal exposure therapy. This involves imagining fearful situations. Imaginal exposure is useful for people with PTSD, such as combat veterans for whom it wouldn’t be safe to expose themselves to their fear in real life.
- In vivo exposure. This is direct exposure to fearful situations. For example, a therapist might encourage a man hijacked in an alleyway to return there to face his fears.
- Interoceptive exposure. This type of therapy treats panic disorders but can be used for PTSD. The therapist helps people deal with the physical sensations they experience during a panic attack in real life, like a racing heart.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
In recent years, exposure therapy has become an effective way of reducing one’s symptoms of OCD. Exposure therapy gradually exposes someone to their obsessions, such as a fear of touching a “contaminated” object. They’re then prevented from following obsessive actions, like washing their hands many times throughout the day.
They will be exposed to their triggers slowly over time so that they can increase their tolerance to them. Repeated exposure to the triggers will also be done during therapy so that the person will eventually not experience anxiety. This can help them become desensitized to severe symptoms, like unwanted thoughts and fears.
How Virtual Reality Works In Exposure Therapy and Immersion Therapy
Virtual reality exposure therapy is effective in both vivo and immersion therapy. It enables people to confront their fears in a virtual reality technology setting, so they don’t have to leave their therapist’s office.
Treating phobias with virtual reality is beneficial because, although the experience feels real, you know it’s not. This enables you to behave differently and gain confidence when interacting with your phobia.
A study published in the Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry monitored 29 people who feared heights, flying, needles, dogs, or spiders. They participated in a six-week trial in which they received virtual reality exposure and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) via an app. They reported an approximately 75% reduction in their symptoms.
Prolonged Exposure Therapy: Is It Effective Treatment?
Another type of exposure/immersion therapy can work well for treating PTSD, phobias, and anxiety disorders. It’s called prolonged exposure therapy, and it’s cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) that treats PTSD.
By working with a therapist, the patient is guided through exercises that help them deal with their upsetting thoughts and feelings about traumatic events that trigger their PTSD symptoms.
These exercises can include imaginable exposure and in vivo exposure. The individual is gradually exposed to fearful situations, objects, or activities they have been avoiding due to trauma.
Prolonged exposure can also be used to treat anxiety disorders. It’s recommended to take eight to 15 prolonged exposure therapy sessions. This will provide individuals with enough time to learn about exposure therapy. They will also work through relaxation techniques, such as breath work. Over time, they can control their anxious response during repeated exposure to their fears.
Conclusion
Exposure therapy and immersion therapy can be useful to help you treat symptoms of anxiety disorders and PTSD. While exposure therapy exposes an individual to their fear over time, immersion therapy does so in a more intense way.
