Flooding Programme for a Scenario
Scenario
Marie is terrified of dogs. Whenever she sees a dog or hears a dog barking
she comes very anxious and shows obvious signs of stress. She avoids
people’s houses if she knows they have a dog and will no longer go to the
park because people walk their dogs there. She thinks this goes back to
an incident when she was six years old when she was bitten by a
neighbour’s dog.
Treatment
The reason she has the phobia of dogs is because of her traumatic
experience when she was six years old. So, with the use of flooding, Marie
needs to be directly exposed into a situation where she is with a dog.
Before Flooding
Conditioned Stimulus (Dog) = Conditioned Response (Fear)
During Flooding
Conditioned Stimulus (Dog) + Unconditioned Stimulus (No Attack)
After Flooding
Neutral Stimulus (Dog) -> No Fear
Positives of This Treatment - It can be effective as you are immediately
exposing them to the phobia that they are having issues with, and over a
period of time the patient will begin to calm down as they come to the
realisation that everything is okay.
Negatives of This Treatment - This is an extremely risky way of treating
phobias, as for the patient it can be extremely traumatic.
Scenario
Marie is terrified of dogs. Whenever she sees a dog or hears a dog barking
she comes very anxious and shows obvious signs of stress. She avoids
people’s houses if she knows they have a dog and will no longer go to the
park because people walk their dogs there. She thinks this goes back to
an incident when she was six years old when she was bitten by a
neighbour’s dog.
Treatment
The reason she has the phobia of dogs is because of her traumatic
experience when she was six years old. So, with the use of flooding, Marie
needs to be directly exposed into a situation where she is with a dog.
Before Flooding
Conditioned Stimulus (Dog) = Conditioned Response (Fear)
During Flooding
Conditioned Stimulus (Dog) + Unconditioned Stimulus (No Attack)
After Flooding
Neutral Stimulus (Dog) -> No Fear
Positives of This Treatment - It can be effective as you are immediately
exposing them to the phobia that they are having issues with, and over a
period of time the patient will begin to calm down as they come to the
realisation that everything is okay.
Negatives of This Treatment - This is an extremely risky way of treating
phobias, as for the patient it can be extremely traumatic.
