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Exposure Hierarchies

An Exposure Hierarchy is a list of activities that would trigger anxiety. You can write the list yourself or use a pre-made one. After ranking each activity from easiest to hardest, you pick one that produces low anxiety and repeat it several times (as a Real-Life Exposure). With time, you should notice that the activity no longer produces as much anxiety. You then move up to a harder activity on your list and gradually keep progressing until you are able to do all the activities on your hierarchy with only minimal anxiety.

 

More information about using Exposure Hierarchies

You do not have to do every single activity on a hierarchy. Exposures tend to “generalize” in the sense that doing one exposure can help the other ones get easier. For example, saying “Hello” to a stranger should eventually make it easier to say one sentence to a stranger. Similarly, exercising for one minute should eventually make it easier to exercise for five.

In addition, you can leapfrog over certain activities if you feel ready to do something harder. Harder exposures naturally help easier ones. So, if you feel ready to have a brief conversation with a total stranger, it will help you feel more comfortable in a conversation with a friend. If you feel up for a long drive, it should make shorter drives seem easy.

You should re-rate the activities on your hierarchy periodically, both to track your progress and to see how the hardest thing on your list gets easier with time. By the time you work your way up to the hardest thing on your list, it should actually be much less intimidating than they first seemed to be.