Carrying on with exposure and habituation

Carry on with your exposure and habituation exercises each week until you feel you are no longer struggling with your symptoms, are no longer avoiding situations or triggers and you have met your targets and goals

There is no set answer of how long you should be carrying on with exposure and habituation. Both Alison and Ferg both differed in how long they carried on working up their hierarchy and the time it took them to meet their goals. We would usually see an improvement within 6-8 weeks, but this varies and you may want to continue working on your hierarchy and symptoms further or may need some more support. Further blank graphs and diaries are provided at the back. Look at whether your symptoms are improving. Go back to the vicious cycle you completed at the start • Have they improved since you started? • How are your physical symptoms and your avoidance, escape and safety seeking behaviours now? • What changes have you noticed? • Are you able to go to the places that were difficult at the start? • Are you able to do the things you wanted to be able to do? • Are you still having any symptoms out of the blue? How far have you moved towards your goals? • Have you met any of these? • If not, are you close to meeting any? • Are there any which need more work? If so, what are you going to do and when are you going to do it? When you feel you are ready, you can move on to the Moving Forwards section.

“Alison: Remember it takes time for you to reverse the cycle. It took me a few weeks for me to start to feel better and I felt a bit worse initially as I was ringing on my anxiety I normally avoided. Do not rush your exposure exercises and stick to the conditions. You want to make sure your symptoms have improved fully and you have met your goals.”