It's ok, all is good and i appreciate all your help everyone :) I have started the exposure thing, it is scary but i can do it! -Diva

Alright Diva! Go for it! Thanks to our members for fielding the question. We apologize for the delay in response. Danielle ____________________ The PC Support Team

Thanks B that sounds like great advice :) -Diva :)

Good luck Diva!!!!! I hope you achieve some of your goals. I know it is scary at first but keep trying. One thing my psychologist told me is just try to do one goal at a time,because if you have too many goals and are working on them all at once you might get overwhelmed and fail, and get discouraged and think that you are unable to do it. I know this because I tried to do two things at once and I failed. Which sent me back to the begining and start all over, which I did and now I am working on my second goal. Which I am having trouble with, so I'm breaking it down into more smaller steps to reach that goal. So that I can take it one step at a time and not feel like I failed. Like I said in the begining good luck and if you don't succeed the first time don't get discourage just start over or think of smaller steps to reach that goal. "B"

Oh my... I could cry right now i am so grateful to you. You have answered my questions to a Tee. I have no more questions. You completely got where i was stuck and unstuck me and i am so very grateful! Now i am all ready (and nervous lol) to do my exposure work and i can't wait to regain control of my life! Thanks again so much for helping me! I am extremely grateful!!! I finaly feel like somebody understood where i was getting hung up on lol Well i must say thanks to you Saint and to you B. Between the two of you i now feel ready for my exposure work (ready but nervous lol) . Here i go! -Diva

To my understanding you are completing the exposure work correctly. Your goals worksheet does not need to have goals which are related to one another. For example my includes - staying at home alone, going to my local shopping mall, going out for a meal with my family. These are just a sample ... you can have as many as you want the reason the have suggested 5 or so is because this is more managable. You can always add more at a later date when you feel you are on top of one or two of the original ones. I have the got my exposure plan, which is just a detailed list of exposre excersises that will hopefully help me towards my end goals. For example staying at home along for 30 minutes, with my family close by. Staying at home for an hour with my family close by, stay at home alone for an hour with my family further away........etc etc. There is no time limit on the exposure plan, you should keep doing items of the exposure until it no longer cause you any anxiety and then move on to the next step in the exposure plan, until you reach your final goal. If one item is too tough, then add an extra step, if you find one too easy, then skip to the next step in the list. I am currenty doing three of my exposure plans, the first one staying at home alone, the second is going into work and the third is going shopping. This seems managable to me and I can usually fit plenty of practise in each week to make me feel like I am making good progress. So my advice here is to do as many or as little of you exposure goals as you feel comfortable or can mangage time wise. I hope this helps, and this is based on my own understanding of the programme and my own experience. Let my know if you have any further questions. :)

Btw thanks b for answering part of my questions, it really helped. But i would still love a complete answer. Thanks -Diva

I would really love if somebody who is farther along in the program then me or if one of the supports specialist could answer this question. It seems it keeps being ignored. Two support specialists have been one since i posted this and i have not gotten and answer from them yet. I am feeling like i want to really do this right but i have unanswered questions that are bugging me. So anyway, i would love a clear answer on this from the support specialists or by anoyone who has a clear answer for me. Thank you :) -Diva

Oh it does help in that i understand how this works but my problems is this. I have goals sheets. then i have exposure plans sheets. Then esposure work sheets. The exposure work sheets i know are to use when i do exposure work. Fill it before and after and you are set. Easy enough. The exposure plan sheet easy enough too. I take one of my goals. Say my goal was to eat a banana. I set the steps to get there according to degree of anxiety. 1- Looking at a picture of a banana, 2- looking at a banana 3- picturing myself touching the banana, -4- touching the banana- 4- pisturing me eating the banana- 5- pcikcing up the banana 6- peeling the banana but not eating it. 7- a bite of the banana... and so on and so foth till i can eat the banana. Now, where i have a glitch is with the goals sheet. They say to set like 3-5 exposure goals. I set 7, but i couldnt whittle it down to less. But on their sheet, all their goals are like one big goal. In the sense that all the goals are related to each other and having to do with being able to stand animals. My goals are all different. Like 7 different goals and objectives. would be like my goals were like this: Going out alone taking the bus grocery shopping not fearing santa claus not fearing exercise taking a plane etc... which is a list of several goals. Where as their list is more like peting a cat petting a dog feeding pigeons feeding a squirrell going to zoo i.e. all one big objective that has to do with animals So what i want to know is do i need to have a goal list like theirs that is just one big objective split in many? and then why would i need an exposure plan, wouldnt that be my exposure plan? If i keep my list with all the different goals, how do i proceed. I know i have to make an exposure plan for every goal. That i know. But once my exposure palans are made, how many goals do i tackle at a time and for how long? Do i just oick goal A then do it till i master it (however long that is) and then work my way to goal B till i master that and just keep going till alll seven goals are done with? Do i tackle them 2 at a time, all at once? Is their a time frame i should respect for each goal? Anyway, please help me here because i am drowning in questions and i am so psych

What my psychologist gave me was a sheet for putting 10 distressing situations/objects.Ranking them from 1-Most distressing down to 10. With that being the least distressing. Also you rate the distress, from (0) which is no distress (25) mild distress/slight interference (50) moderate distress/some interference (75) significant distress (100)highest possible distress.With that she said start from the least distressing and do your immerssion therapy from there. So you would keep doing the same situation until you were able to be in that situation with no overwhelming anxiety.She called it a state of habituation that the more you keep repeating the situation it reteachs your brain that it is okay and that you don't have to panic because you have done the situation so many times that it becomes a normal habit.It seems to work for me. The lowest distressing thing for me was going out of my apt and getting some free newspapers. I used to get up and 6:00 am, when it was still dark out so no one could see me because there is not a lot of people out that early. But with making sure I did it every day I now can go out at anytime to pick up those papers and have no distress. I have moved up to the 9th distressing where I am having problems now.Its to go on the subway and be able to stay downtown for a period of time. But I have only been able to do it twice in the last 2 weeks.The last time being Feb. 28 it was so busy I started having an attack.I tried to use every coping method I could remember . But it got so bad that when I had to go the washroom, without looking I ended up in the ladies washroom.Luckily there was no one in there,accept at the end when i was leaving a lady was brushing her teeth,so her head was down and didn't see me. That was so distressing thing that I had to go home right away. I am able to laugh at it now but not then. When I was in there I thought it didn't look like the mens room but still didn't put 2 and 2 together untill I was leaving. So that has caused me to avoid the subway for awhile. But I'm going to try again this weekend as long as my agoraphobia isn't to bad and that the weather is better than it is now. (snow,freezing rain and blowing wind, that sounds like it wants to break my window) I'm sorry Diva for typing so much but I hope