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If phobias begin to interfere with your ability for a normal life or if you are experiencing a lot of anxiety, or if you avoiding situations that matter, there are ways to help. The following is a list of different types of treatments for phobias.

• Desensitization Exposure Therapy

  This is where you are exposed in a safe and controlled way to the object or situation you fear. It involves gradual encounters with the fear-producing object, first in the imagination and then in reality. For example, if you have are arachnophobic, you would first imagine seeing a spider, then view photos of spiders, and finally look at a spider in real life. As you become desensitized to your fear, you no longer react with uncontrollable panic when confronted by it.

• Participant Modeling

  In participant modeling, the therapist models healthy ways of interacting with the object you fear. In the case of a arachnophobia, you would watch while a therapist handles a spider in a relaxed state and without fear. Then you would be encouraged to do the same.

• Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy

  It uses 3-D computer graphics to simulate environments in the real world that you fear.

• Hypnotherapy

  This consists of systematic desensitization and other therapeutic techniques conducted under hypnosis by a clinical hypnotherapist.

• Medications

  Medications are rarely used in the treatment of specific phobias. However, if you are too anxious to participate in exposure therapy, you may benefit from anti-anxiety medications such as benzodiazepines or beta-blockers.

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy:

  It is a form of psychotherapy that emphasizes the important role of thinking in how we feel and what we do. It is structured and therapists teach clients how to do specific techniques.