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Is is systematic desensitization used only for phobias?

Cleoleo

can it not be used for things like depression and obsessions ?

thank you!

Reply 1

IFondledAGibbon

Perhaps for anxiety related disorders, although I really don't know.

Reply 2

Arcane Barn Elk

What would you be desensitising people with depression to?!

If there's a component of socila phobia then you might use it, but otherwise it is used only for phobias.

It would have no effect on obsessions either as SD is behaviour based and obsessions are cognitive.

You might be mixing it up with behaviour modificatiopn which uses positive reinforcement to treat a wide range of behavioural maladaptations.

Reply 3

Kim-x

It won't work on depression. You can't teach someone to not be depressed for increasing periods of time so that they are no longer depressed any more. You'd have to target the reason for them being depressed. They might be depressed because their thoughts about whatever are irrational (eg. Hardworking student thinks they're going to fail their exam), but you'd have to teach them that their thoughts were irrational first, through CBT for example. When the stimulus that were triggering the depression goes, the depression goes.

Reply 4

SpicyStrawberry

Systematic desensitisation is only really used to treat people with phobias or other anxiety disorders.

Reply 5

wellpastmybedtime

Systematic desensitization is a behavioural therapy devised especially for the treatment of phobias. It works best on what are termed simple phobias ( fear of specific objects , animals situations) but can be used with some social phobias .

It doesn't work for anything else as a general rule, although the relaxation element can be used in the treatment of high anxiety disorders.

Reply 6

UnderTheBridge1994

It's very effective when used to treat phobias that don't have some sort of evolutionary background - it doesn't work well on fear of heights or a fear of the dark, for example.