The harder phobics work to avoid the things they fear, the more the brain grows convinced that the threat is real. We have to strip those things away. So doctors try to confront patients with their fears. A patient visiting Barlow's Boston clinic is first assessed for the presence of a specific phobia and then guided through an intensive day or two of graduated exposure. People who are afraid of syringes and blood, for example, may first be shown a magazine photo with a trace of blood depicted in it.
Innocuous photos give way to graphic ones, and graphic ones to a display of a real, empty syringe.
Over time, the syringe is brought closer, and the patient learns to hold it and even tolerate having blood drawn. Patients spend up to three weeks at the clinic and have a personal therapist who works with them for six to eight hours a day. After a brief introductory conversation, the confrontation starts. In the case of someone suffering from arachnophobia, for example, we wouldn't start with small spider and then bring in bigger and bigger spiders because the patient would become accustomed to the method. Instead, the spiders vary in size from day to day.