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From: Shelley Brundage
Date: 11 Oct 2006
Time: 11:22:32 -0500
Remote Name: 128.164.247.162
hi Drew: I liked Bill's comments on relapse and thought I would add a comment on another aspect of your post. One of the mechanisms underlying why exposure therapy "works" (in psychological disorders anyway) is habituation. That is, over time, with repeated (controlled) exposure to fearful situations (such as giving a speech to a large audience), one's "fear structure" for that situation changes (habituates) and becomes reduced in its magnitude. So, how to "keep that feeling" going? I think you are doing it--keep going to Toastmasters, keep talking to folks 1:1, etc. You've actually done a very difficult task (on you own deciding to attend Toastmasters and then actually doing so!) and you should feel good about that. You may be interested in some work that we're doing in my lab here at George Washington University--see link titled Virtual Reality and Stuttering...we are using virtual reality environments in which PWS can practice reducing stuttering and related behaviors in safe, controlled environments that can be changed over time. Shelley