An Experiment in Phobia Immersion, Flooding and Transference

An Experiment in Phobia Immersion, Flooding and Transference

Sometimes I still feel like I am back in high school trying to figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life. I was convinced by my father that pursuing a career in performance art was not going to happen for me and at the time, I thought being an English teacher or attorney would be a good back up plan. However, as I began to pursue a Master’s degree in English, I began to feel like Psychology is the direction I should have gone.

While most people spend their evenings watching television, I spend my evenings doing a variety of activities; including looking up psychology articles and books that discuss phobia immersion therapy and trying to find out if anyone has ever used the idea of transference in immersion therapy when more than one phobia is present. Other potential activities, in case you are wondering, might include reading, social media, music, or writing.

Prior to a few years ago, I never talked about anxiety or phobias. I never would have admitted that I even suffered from anxiety or that I was afraid of certain things. I just avoided those things that made me fearful. Then one day, I went to an outdoor summer party which included a bonfire. I brought marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers. My friend burned numerous marshmallows for me. Another guest at this party apparently was paying attention to the fact that I never burned my own marshmallows and asked if I was afraid of fire. Before I could say anything, as my brain was trying to figure out exactly what to say, he assured me that he was not trying to make me feel bad and proceeded to tell me about how he was a shut-in for two years due to anxiety. Two things happened as a result of this situation. First, over the course of the evening, I had enough to drink that I decided to try burning my own marshmallow and oddly noticed a few scientific properties about marshmallows (science is another area of interest to me). Specifically, I noticed how they burn and how easy they are to blow out. I also, in the course of having something on fire in my hand and near my face, became desensitized to fire. I repeated the same activity the following night, this time without liquid courage. I am no longer afraid of fire. The second thing that happened as the result of this encounter is that I began to admit that I suffered from anxiety, that I had certain things I was fearful of, and began to seek counseling (again) to help me with my anxiety and depression.

At times, I will immerse myself in the very thing I am afraid of. I will go where there are crowds, even though I do not like crowds. I will drive on the freeway even though I hate the freeway. Lately, I have been trying to revive my artistic endeavors by doing theatre and teaching music. Due to earlier hang-ups I had about singing in front of people, and a terrible bout of chronic bronchitis in my early twenties, I get very nervous when I have to sing in front of people. I would like to get over this. At one time, I was trying to tackle my fears one by one, but after a while, I just stopped and there were certain fears that I felt were unnecessary to conquer. Now I wonder if maybe I should return to attempting to conquer my fears, even the unnecessary ones. Is it possible to use immersion therapy to desensitize the fight or flight response to one stimuli in order to eliminate that same response to other “threatening” stimuli? In other words, can I learn to get rid of other fears by getting rid of a fear that is not at all related?

I did not end up studying Psychology or becoming a psychologist, but these are the types of discussions I sometimes have with my therapist. I still construct the hypothesis. I still do the research. Sometimes I even conduct an experiment, as I will this time. The last time I saw her, we briefly talked about a series of articles that I read about a gene that is linked to promiscuous behavior and/or the tendency to be unfaithful to your spouse or significant other. The next time I see her, I might tell her about my experiment in phobia immersion, flooding and transference. I believe that immersion therapy is a viable method of anxiety treatment. I also believe in the concept of transference. Typically transference relates to people and feelings, but I think it can relate also to phobias and response. If a person can learn to not fear something by being exposed to it, perhaps they can learn to transfer the feeling of being desensitized to other stimuli. My first experiment will involve attempting to desensitize myself to clowns by seeing Stephen King’s It. I hope to gain two things from this experiment. First, I want to become desensitized to the presence of clowns or even the mere sight of the word clown. Second, I hope that my hypothesis that the learned behavior of desensitization can be transferred to other anxiety-inducing stimuli like freeways or singing in front of people can be verified.