BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION THERAPIES USED IN THE MANAGEMENT OF ANXIETY DISORDERS.

 Definition of terms

Behavior: refers to the action or reaction of

something under a specific circumstances

or observable responses produced by an

organism.

Therapy: refers to any attempted remediation

of a health problem following a diagnose.

Treatments for behavior change

It was shown that phobias might be acquired through paired association and reinforced by avoidance and escapist behavior.Scientists proposed that using the same principles, what could be taught could perhaps be unlearned.

Here are a few examples of behavior therapy or modification therapy for anxiety disorders.

• Exposure therapy
• Response prevention
• Systemic desensitization
• Aversion therapy
• Modeling
• Shaping

Exposure Therapy: 

Exposure is the act of continuously confronting or facing one's worries in order to make them go away. Habituation is a behavioral theory that underlies the effectiveness of exposure therapy. Therefore, the term "habituation" refers to the process through which a person's behavioral and sensory reaction gradually weakens over time after being repeatedly exposed to a certain stimulus.

Have you ever gone to see a friend who lives close to a train station, an airport, or a major road, for instance? You ponder, "How are they supposed to focus or sleep with all that noise?

Perhaps even your friends shared your sentiments.

back when they first shifted in. However, after a while of existence, their sensory neurons simply stopped responding to sound.

The response prevention

A component frequently coupled with

Exposure therapy is called the response.

prevention therapy.

As the name implies, response

Prevention means discontinuing

maladaptive coping responses such as

avoidance and escape.

Exposing a person to what they fear and

preventing them from reacting to a certain

way (response) because of that fear.

For instance, a client can have a phobia of germs and wash her hands excessively.

she feels dirty every time she touches something.

She would touch something filthy but would not wash her hands.

The client's fear would progressively decrease with prolonged, repeated exposure and prevention of response.

Systematic desensitization

Systematic desensitizationis a type of exposure therapy that avoids overpowering those who are apprehensive.They are instructed in age-appropriate relaxation techniques in this way. This aids in their ability to calm down in the face of frightening circumstances.Once the art of relaxation has been acquired, the person is gradually exposed to increasingly acute experiences of the circumstances they fear.

E.g. Consider a person who is terrified of elevators.

They might be instructed to begin by practicing their breathing exercises while gazing at an elevator.

They can then be instructed to unwind while visualizing entering an elevator. As students enter and exit a real elevator, they then practice relaxing. They might then step on it to let the door open.

to close, then reopen, followed by getting off. The last possibility is that they ride one up one story, etc.

 

Aversion therapy

By teaching a person to link conduct with an unwanted stimuli, psychotherapy aims to help a patient minimize or avoid an undesirable behavior pattern.

Electrical, pharmacological, or fictitious aversive circumstances are the main stimuli employed in therapy.

For example 

During chemical therapy, the patient is given a medication that, when mixed with unfavorable behavior, causes unpleasant side effects like nausea and vomiting.

In this approach, the therapeutic medicine and alcohol work together to create nausea, which has been used frequently to treat alcoholism.

Modeling

Learning behavior can take place in a variety of ways. A person models conduct when they see another person's actions and then copy them.Social learning or observational learning are terms used to describe this.

E.g. Parenting; Children would mimic excellent habits in the same way that they imitated their parents' bad ones. By modeling healthy habits like exercise, a balanced diet, reading, and other good habits, parents can take advantage of this.Relationship couples can observe how others battle and work through their problems and use that as a model for themselves.WorkplaceMost modeling is unintentional; nevertheless, someone may be modeling a task to teach someone.You can set an example for others by having a strong work ethic, using professional language, and being honest if you are a manager or business owner.