gest that fearful people sample what’s available and devise a technique
of their own, record it, and practice it. This enhances the sense of inter-
nal control.
In addition to the relaxation itself, imaginative techniques effortlessly
present an insight that is critical to the success of cognitive therapy: What
you feel is determined by the words that are playing in your mind.
There are techniques that combine mechanical and imaginative
methods. Most of these involve eye movements. Hypnotists have been using
eye movements to induce trance (think pocket watches) for centuries.
Wilhelm Reich devised an elaborate set of eye exercises to free bound-up
neurotic energy. Twenty years ago Neuro-Linguistic Programming made
elaborate claims about how eye movements could stimulate various parts
of the brain. Today, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
(EMDR) is often used in treating PTSD. Such approaches usually begin
as miracle cures that bypass laborious verbal therapy, and later settle into
their place among the many techniques for achieving relaxation while
imagining uncomfortable or frightening events.
Speaking of combination techniques, yoga has been combining
exercise and relaxation for millennia.
The most supportive thing you can do for people with fear disorders
is exercise and practice relaxation techniques with them on a regular basis.
How you do it doesn’t matter so long as you do it every day. If you’re
serious about wanting to help, this is how. Don’t just tell them to do it, do
it with them.
No amount of talking by you, doctors, therapists, or anyone else
can substitute for the internal change that comes from actually being
able to dosomething about fear. Fearful people will often delay, pro-
crastinate, or pass exercise and relaxation off as no big deal because it
doesn’t get rid of the problem. Just smile and say, “Get your coat; we’re
going walking.”
Desensitization
The basic behavioral procedure for fear disorders involves substituting
relaxation for the fight or flight response, and using the new connection
to help frightened people move progressively closer to what they fear.
Where sympathetic was shall parasympathetic be.
The Psychology of Fear ❧ 119