thank you diva. i wish you would sign on the instant message somethime so we can talk. thanks again!

Hiya Lisa! I just wanted to say congratulations on your great exposure work success! Keep at it, that was super! Eventuallt it gets better :) -Diva

Hi Lisa, Good for you for carrying on with your exposure plan. As hard as it may be for you to see it, this really is a success and you should be proud that you are able to make a plan and carry it out. I just wanted to highlight 2 of the points I mentioned above that you may find helpful in answering your questions about continuing on. "Set a goal for the exposure that you can reach. Set a goal for the exposure session. You may want to stay in the situation for at least a certain amount of time (say 30 minutes) or experience a certain decrease in you fear rating (say go from a 7 to a 5). Setting a reachable goal will give you something to aim for. Achieving your goals step-by-step will allow you to feel good about what you're accomplishing. Stay in the situation until your fear goes down. This can happen in two ways. First, if you pick a situation for an exposure that causes you a fear rating of a 4 to 8, then after an hour you should be experiencing a drop in your fear rating. If not, maybe it was harder than you thought. However, there€™s another way to experience a decrease in fear, which is to repeat the exposure again and again. So for example, if your anxiety doesn't come down from an 8 in the first hour, try it again the next day. Eventually, if you repeat the experiment every day, it will start to drop." Keeping these instructions in mind, you may want to keep repeating this process until you notice an improvement. Remember, small steps are key. Stick close and keep us posted, Casey ____________________________ The SSC Support Team

Hi. I continued with my exposure plan to drive to work today. I drove the 30 min drive with about an 8 level. I went to my office and sat for and hour and a half. My anxiety was 8-7. I drove back home and I would rate my anxiety level at 7. I have to admitt is was very very hard. I felt miserable the entire time. I also felt extremely depressed. Do you think I should continue doing this? Am I doing the right thing even though it feels horrible? My only alternative was to sit in the house and that makes me so depressed. I was hoping I would feel proud of myself and feel a bit more incouraged, but I don't. Please give me your thoughts. Thank you

Hi Lisa, The program advises to keep the following points in mind when it comes to planning your exposure work: 1. Learning occurs at moderate levels of anxiety and arousal. In planning your exposure work don€™t make it too easy or too hard. If you pick something that doesn€™t cause you any anxiety (a fear rating of 1 or 2) you won€™t experience a drop in your fear rating because there's really nowhere to go. As a result, you won't unlearn anything. On the other hand, if you pick something that causes a fear rating of a 9 or 10, it may be too difficult. Try to stay in the 3-8 range. 2. Exposure should be predictable. Plan your exposure work in advance and stick to the plan. Unplanned exposure doesn€™t work well. Planning your exposure makes it a bit more controllable and a little less frightening. 3. Set a goal for the exposure that you can reach. Set a goal for the exposure session. You may want to stay in the situation for at least a certain amount of time (say 30 minutes) or experience a certain decrease in you fear rating (say go from a 7 to a 5). Setting a reachable goal will give you something to aim for. Achieving your goals step-by-step will allow you to feel good about what you're accomplishing. 4. Stay in the situation until your fear goes down. This can happen in two ways. First, if you pick a situation for an exposure that causes you a fear rating of a 4 to 8, then after an hour you should be experiencing a drop in your fear rating. If not, maybe it was harder than you thought. However, there€™s another way to experience a decrease in fear, which is to repeat the exposure again and again. So for example, if your anxiety doesn't come down from an 8 in the first hour, try it again the next day. Eventually, if you repeat the experiment every day, it will start to drop. 5. If something is too hard, pick something just a little bit easier. If you end up having a fear rating of 9 or 10 try to figure out what you could do that would be almost the same but would result in a fear rating of 7 or 8. For tomorrow, keep in mind that you have already succeeded. Let the previous successes give you the strength to take on these future challenges. Many here share your same driving concerns. You may want to use the site's search feature to view previous members experiences and discussions on this topic. Stick close and let us know how tomorrow goes. Casey __________________________ The PC Support Team

I have had a hard time leaving my house for the past 2 months and have not been able to work. I am trying to do the exposure work to get myself back to work. It says not to try anything too difficult. My problem is, being at work is not so hard (probably a 6), but getting to work is an 8. It is a 30 min. drive and just thinking about it gives me anxiety. I had set a goal for myself this week to drive to the office everyday whether I stayed or not. I did it Mon and Tue but chickened out today. I feel like a loser. Should I try again tomorrow? Is this too much to take on? Am I causing myself more problems doing this? I really really need to get past the fear of driving to work because I desparately need to work. I will take any and all advise. Thanks, Lisa