CDate:: [[05-04-2024]] Status:: #🌱 Tags:: Links:: # It's easier to treat fears, phobias, and anxieties with exposure based approaches Therapies involving exposure depend on medial prefrontal areas that contribute to extinction, the process on which exposure is modeled,” explains neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux. “[T]he fact that medial frontal areas connect with the amygdala, whereas the latter areas do not, might account for why it is easier and faster to treat fears, phobias and anxiety with exposure-based approaches.” Dissecting your beliefs, in other words, may not be helpful if anxiety is being sustained by neural circuitry in a different part of your brain. It might help you get over the initial lump of beginning to do exposure therapy, but it won't help with the anxiety itself. I've noticed this with my discussions talking to guys about approaching women. No matter how much talking you do, it won't decrease the actual fear response. They simply have to go out and talk to more women. The trick is to do it in small steps. Start with looking at them in the eye more often. Than have a five minute conversation. Than ask for a number. Than go on a date. And so on and so on. Learned from [[Get Better At Anything]].