I have had a few phobias in my life. I am glad to say that I overcame each one. The only one with significant avoidance was my phobia of diving into water. I never dove into water. Ever.
My mother, who never learned to swim, may have given me a genetic predisposition toward that phobia (and also toward reading, but that is another story). She also may set a model for me of avoidance of swimming. An incident that had a great effect on me occurred during my first swimming lesson when I was forced to go down a water slide into deep water — supposedly to be caught by a high school student. I went down, scared as could-be b/c I couldn’t swim, and I never went back for more lessons. My fear going down the slide could be described as unconditioned fear, which generalized (as conditioned fear) to any situation involving diving into water. The relief (lowering of fear) I felt when i decided not to go back could be described as powerful negative reinforcement for avoiding diving.
I overcame the fear years later after I completed an undergraduate class on behavior modification, in which I learned about gradual exposure treatment for phobias. I created a fear hierarchy of about 10 levels that ranged from putting my face slowly into water to diving head first off a springboard. I did each behavior over and over until I felt ready to go on the next higher level. At one point in the trials, I started to breathe in water when going in. That was very bad b/c taking water into my lungs was a unconditioned stimulus for discomfort and fear. So I stopped the trials long enough to learn to blow bubbles when I went it. Then I returned to the trials. Being an amateur at exposure treatment, I allowed big gaps in fear between some levels. That led me to feel very afraid at times. What pushed me on was the desire to remove the limitations fhe phobia put on me. I went all the way thru the highest level and then years later became a scuba diver. I felt proud when I made a giant stride entry into the deep blue sea. Even better was flipping over backward off the boat. I thought: Here I am, John Malouff, entering the water like a Navy diver!
This week I appeared on the SBS TV show Insight to treat a woman for spider phobia. I did the exposure part of the treatment all in one 3-hour session. Before we began I told her how I had used the same method to treat myself for a phobia. I told her that to provide her with a model of someone overcoming a phobia by gradually going toward the feared stimulus. The gradual-exposure treatment that worked for me also worked for her.
I always did first whatever I wanted her to do with a spider — I thus used modeling in that way. I praised (reinforced) her when she showed courage, which was very often! By continually pairing exposure to a spider stimulus with nothing harming her, I applied classical (respondent) conditioning extinction. I just love how I used in reserve all the types of learning that likely contributed to the development of her phobia. She achieved the goal for the session, holding a large huntsman spider in a clear container. For long-term success, she has to expose herself to spider stimuli in her natural settings until she develops a new habitual way of thinking, feeling, and behaving when she enounters spider stimuli.
To see video of the treatment, broadcast on the show, and to learn much more about phobias, download and watch the show at:
https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/watch/55425091998
What phobias have you overcome? How? What phobias do you still have? Is it time to overcome them?
John Malouff, PhD, JD
Assoc Prof of Psychology
Hi John…
I recently overcame a long held fear of needles due to having them every few weeks for allergy desensitization treatment. Not sure how I did it exactly, just know now that having needles doesn’t scare me nearly as much as before.
Still have a major all encompassing and debilitating fear of heights which I can only trace back to when I was young, my father used to tell me that he would rather be dead than be in high places. It’s the only thing I can think of that may have kicked off this fear as I don’t recall any childhood trauma that would have led to it.
My fear is so bad that instead of walking over a bridge to get to my father’s house on the other side of Inverell, (no more than a 30 minute walk)I would walk right around the long way (adding at least another hour onto the trip) just to avoid walking over the main town bridge.
Do you think the treatment you used on Insight would help with this??
Hi Megan. You probably got over the fear of needles thru repeated exposure and habituation. Imagine Pavlov’s dogs, which had been conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell, hearing the bell over and over with no meat anywhere around. After many experiences like that the dogs would cease to salivate when they heard the bell. That is classical conditioning extinction — presentation of the CS (conditioned stimulus — the bell) without the UCS (the unconditioned stimulus — the meat).
Regarding your fear of heights, the process would work the same. After repeated (safe) height exposure, you would habituate to safe heights. To start, you would need to develop a fear hierarchy. You could email me at jmalouff@une.edu.au) so we can discuss how to do that.
Thanks John.
Will do that tomorrow. What type of things would I need to include on it??
Hi Megan. You need to create one that suits your own fears relating to heights. You might read this article, available thru the UNE online library:
Williams, S. L., Turner, S. M., & Peer, D. F. (1985). Guided mastery and performance desensitization treatments for severe acrophobia. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 53, 237-247.
You will need at least 10 levels in the hierarchy, with no level more than 10 points higher than the prior one on the 0-100 (SUDS) scale that goes from 0 = no fear to 100 = maximum fear. You want levels that are slightly more scary than the immediate prior one. For instance, if you want to be able to cross a pedestrian bridge, you might start with standing 50 metres from a pedestrian bridge, standing 40 metres…standing one step onto the bridge, standing two steps onto the bridge…crossing the bridge. You choose the levels that suit you.
Thanks John. Will have a think about it and let you know in the next few days.
Hi John
I really enjoyed watching the Insight program. What struck me more than the bravery of the woman you helped conquer her spider phobia, was the absolute determination of the other guests on the show, not to do something similar. It was as if their fear was so great, they could not even contemplate starting treatment, and could not see beyond the treatment to the freedom from their phobia that they would gain. Can you do anything to help a person decide to commence treatment, or is that something they need to do themselves? (It was as if they had a phobia of phobia treatment!)
PS. I don’t like snakes, but having seen that show, I know I don’t have a snake phobia. I’m lucky.
Hi Penny. Phobic individuals avoid the stimulus they fear. Avoiding treatment is part of their problem. TV shows like the one I was on can help phobic individuals see that they need to go gradually toward what they fear, whether on their own or in treatment, if they want to free themselves of the fear and avoidance. Any story of a person overcoming a phobia is likely to help prod phobic individuals toward taking action to overcome their fear. So, if you have overcome a phobia, tell others. I do that, with my students and with my phobia clients. I usually tell about my students and clients about my overcoming a phobia about diving into water. I also usually show excellent videos of a woman using gradual exposure treatment to get over snake phobia. These are at:
http://www.medclip.com/index.php?page=videos§ion=view&vid_id=103291
http://www.medclip.com/index.php?page=videos§ion=view&vid_id=103292
http://www.medclip.com/index.php?page=videos§ion=view&vid_id=103293
The psychological principle involved is modeling, with vicarious reinforcement. It can be powerful.
Your post is insightful. Pardon the bad pun. Found it while searching for sites with the keyword “afraid of giant stride entry”.
I’m taking scuba classes and I already finished everything I need to pass on the written exam and pool sessions except fortthe giant stride entry. I even managed to perform the back roll.
However, try as I might, I can’t do the giant stride. I freeze and become nauseous. I already tried going to a shallower swimming pool on a different day and attempting to step in, but i couldn’t. I eventually paid the lifeguard to pull me into the water but today, when I went back to the scuba diving pool, I froze again. My next confined water pool session is in a few days, any tips? I already tried striding into bed, didn’t work much .
I’ve already somewhat overcome my fear of water as we had. To do mask clearing underwater, removing regulator underwater, etc. But i have a simultaneous phobia of free falls that’s working in tandem with my gradually fading water phobia.
Any tips?
Hi Gem. You have made great progress! Think of how you made it this far. The secret to further progress may be in there.
Here are some possibilities that occur to me for steps you can take:
1. Use exposure in imagery. Imagine vividly doing the giant stride entry. Use all your senses, including touch, temperature, hearing, and vision. The more vivid the better. Do that over and over until your fear subsides.
2. Use exposure in vivo by practicing entering the water is slightly less scary ways. For instance, if jumping in feet first with no gear on is easier for you, do that over and over until your fear of that subsides. As you make progress, make the dives more and more similar to a giant stride entry into the ocean.
3. Think about what you fear most about taking the giant stride entry. As you do the exposures mentioned above, think about what evidence you have that this fear will come true or not.
4. Think about your experience in flipping over backwards into the water. The main difference from giant stride entry is that you can see the water in the giant stride? Then maybe look to the heavens when you take the stride, rather than looking at the water.
5. Ask a trusted friend and good swimmer to be present for some of the in vivo dives, if that makes you less afraid.
6. Watch others take the giant stride entry. Watch in person or on Internet videos.
7. Think of why you want to take a giant stride entry. Think of that when you do your first one. Then jump — just as I jumped. Courage is doing the right thing despite being scared. Think of the triumph you will feel if you take that one big step.
Let me know how you go.
Very inspiring. I have a long-standing fear of water which has made me feel very embarrassed. I will create a hierarchy and report back. I also want to help a friend with social phobia so I’ll try and apply something similar. Thanks.
That’s great, Neil. Swimming pools are good for hierarchy levels b/c it is easy to control depth and other aspects of the trials in pools. I used a pool for all the levels of my water-related phobia.