Why is desensitization harmful

Young girls on the other hand are led to believe that they are inherently weak or inferior, allowing society to view women as victims. These standards simply enforce a culture of violence and sexism. Older adolescents are especially vulnerable to violent influences because of developmental processes that are taking place.

For example, constant exposure to violence in video games decreases the ability for teens to elicit guilt. Those who frequently listen to rap music may become desensitized to lyrics that condone relationship violence, sexual aggression, and objectification of women.

Even if none of the instances mentioned above apply to you, believe it or not, you have been desensitized to violence. One of the most horrific incidents that we repeatedly hear in the news is the case of mass shootings.

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After urinating, the patient felt compelled to spend 45 minutes cleaning his genitalia, two hours washing his hands, and four hours showering. Treatment involved placing the young man in a state of relaxation and then asking him to imagine low anxiety scenes such as an unknown man touching a trough of water containing one drop of urine.

In addition, a real bottle of urine was presented at a distance and moved closer to the patient in gradual steps. A follow-up 4 years later revealed complete remission of the compulsive behaviors. The fact that the systematic desensitization technique can be applied in images means that many of the practical disadvantages involved in in vivo exposition with this type of phobia can be eliminated.

Some people cannot create a vivid image and thus systematic desensitization is not always effective there are individual differences. Systematic desensitization is a slow process, taking on average sessions. Although, research suggests that the longer the technique takes the more effective it is. This absence of disturbing elements makes this technique less likely to provoke abandonment of the therapy.

However, systematic desensitization is not effective in treating serious mental disorders like depression and schizophrenia. Studies have shown that neither relaxation nor hierarchies are necessary, and that the important factor is just exposure to the feared object or situation. Systematic desensitization is based on the idea that abnormal behavior is learned.

The biological approach would disagree and say we are born with a behavior and therefore it must be treated medically.

Treats the symptoms not the cause s of the phobia. This is a significant weakness because cognitions and emotions are often the motivators of behavior and so the treatment is only dealing with symptoms not the underlying causes. Social phobias and agoraphobia do not seem to show as much improvement. Could it be that there are other causes for phobias than classical conditioning?

For example, if a fear of public speaking originates with poor social skills then phobic reduction is more likely to occur in a treatment which includes learning effective social skills than systematic desensitization alone.

Once your dog is relaxed enough when you are out for a short period of time, you can also introduce more positive associations with you leaving, like yummy treat toys. For our in-depth article for more information on dealing with separation anxiety. If your dog is fearful of other dogs or people it can be difficult to manage scenarios enough to work on this successfully.

This may be through a friend or a dog trainer that has a very calm and unflappable dog. You can then start at a far enough distance away that your dog is comfortable and does not react. It may be that they are only a spot on the horizon, and that is fine. From this point you would work on rewarding your dog from this distance anytime they look at the dog or person that would normally cause a reaction. Once they are eagerly anticipating a treat for looking at the stimulus from this distance then you could move a few steps forward.

If, at any point, you move forward and it triggers a reaction, just move a step back again and work some more at this distance before moving forward just a little less than the last time. It is also important to gradually work on introducing new stooge dogs or people.

For dogs with an extreme aversion to other dogs, you may never get to the point where they are comfortable off leash with strange dogs but, if you can get them to a point where they are happy to pass other dogs on the street without getting super stressed. If your dog is fearful or stressed when on a car journey, sometimes you have to take it back to absolute basics, depending on the level of their anxiety.

You may need to just start by letting them approach the car at a distance and then reward them and build up gradually to have them get in and out of the car, then onto sitting in it for short periods without the engine on, then with the engine on, then in and out the drive, then on a very short journey.

If this is the case, then you need to start making some journeys where the endpoint is something your dog loves, like the beach or a park.

See our article on helping your dog to be relaxed and safe in the car for more in-depth guidance. It can also be a useful technique for helping a dog to get over their fear of car journeys.