Overcoming Fear: The Only Way Out is Through

克服恐懼的唯一方法是穿過恐懼

To get rid of fear, you must first embrace it.

想要擺脫恐懼，你必須先擁抱它。

Posted Sep 20, 2010?|??Reviewed by Devon Frye

發(fā)布于2010年9月20日?|?由Devon Frye審核

A story about the Nobel winning writer Isaac Bashevis-Singer has him resting at home after receiving news of his award. A reporter appears at his door:

有一個有關(guān)諾貝爾獎獲得者Isaac Bashevis-Singer作者的小故事，講的是他在得知獲獎消息后在家中休息時，有一個記者來到了他家門口：

"Mr. Bashevis-Singer, are you surprised? Are you happy?"

“Bashevis-Singer先生，你感到驚訝嗎？你感到開心嗎？”

"Of course," answers the elderly writer, "I am very surprised and happy."

“當然，”年邁的作家答道，“我很驚訝，也很開心?！?/p>

Ten minutes later, another reporter appears:

十分鐘之后，另一個記者也趕到了：

"Mr. Bashevis-Singer, are you surprised? Are you happy?"

“Bashevis-Singer先生，你感到驚訝嗎？你感到開心嗎？”

"How long can a man remain surprised and happy?" comes the reply.

“一個人又能驚訝、開心多久呢？”他回答。

Along with the late writer's wit, this anecdote also illustrates the mechanism of?habituation. Habituation, defined formally, refers to the fact that?nervous system?arousal decreases on repeated exposure to the same stimulus. In layman's terms, it means that familiar things get boring. This mechanism is hard-wired into the human genetic program. It has clear adaptive value, because habituation to familiar stimuli allows more energy to be directed to novel stimuli, hence improving the odds of survival.

這則軼事不僅表現(xiàn)出了作家的才智，也闡明了習慣化的機制。習慣化的正式定義是，當重復暴露在相同的刺激下時，神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)的喚醒程度會下降。用通俗的話說，就是類似的事物會變得無聊。這種機制是人類基因程式中固有的，它對于適應(yīng)環(huán)境來說有明顯的價值，因為對于類似刺激的習慣化將允許我們把更多的精力導向新的刺激，以此提高生存的幾率。

Psychology has made several uses of this principle. For example, an infant can't report on whether they can tell the different between red and blue, or between "pah" and "bah" sounds. But you can habituate infants to one color or sound, and then switch to the other. If the infant dishabituates (shows physiological arousal), then you know they saw the difference. Marriage?therapists will often advise a couple struggling with sexual boredom to "try something new." This works because a novel stimulus dishabituates the nervous system, causing arousal. That arousal can in turn be mined for satisfying?sex.

心理學已經(jīng)多次應(yīng)用過這個原理。例如，嬰兒在看到紅色、藍色，或者聽到“pa”、“ba”的聲音時，是無法告知我們他們能否辨認出不同的。但是我們可以使嬰兒習慣于一種顏色、聲音，然后切換成另一種。如果嬰兒表現(xiàn)出了去習慣化（表現(xiàn)出生理層面的喚醒），那我們就可以得知他們看到了不同?；橐鲋委煄煶３＝ㄗh性倦怠的夫婦“嘗試點新花樣”。這是有用的，因為一個新的刺激將使神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)去習慣化，導致興奮，而這種興奮可以被利用以獲得令人滿意的性愛。

But the most important application of the habituation principle has been in the area of anxiety treatment.

但是在治療焦慮領(lǐng)域的應(yīng)用才是習慣化原理最重要的應(yīng)用。

The experience of anxiety involves nervous system arousal. If your nervous system is not aroused, you cannot experience anxiety. Understandably, but unfortunately, most people attempt to cope with feelings of anxiety by avoiding situations or objects that elicit the feelings. Avoidance, however, prevents your nervous system from habituating. Therefore, avoidance guarantees that the feared object or situation will remain novel, and hence arousing, and hence anxiety provoking. Moreover, avoidance tends to generalize over time. If you avoid the elevator at work, you will soon begin to avoid all elevators, and then all buildings that house elevators, etcetera. Soon enough, you'll be living in a prison of avoidance.

焦慮的體驗涉及到神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)的喚醒。如果你的神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)未被喚醒，你是不能體驗到焦慮的。可以理解但卻不幸的是，大多數(shù)人會嘗試通過避開引發(fā)焦慮的情景或物體來應(yīng)對焦慮，而這種逃避將使你的神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)無法習慣化。因此，逃避確保了恐懼的事物或情景對你而言將永遠都是新鮮的，也就是“令人喚醒的”，也就會誘發(fā)焦慮。此外，逃避會隨著時間而泛化，如果你在避開公司的電梯，很快你就會開始避開所有的電梯，最終你就會避開所有有電梯的建筑。用不了多久，你就會住在逃避的監(jiān)獄中。

Moreover, when you avoid something that scares you, you tend to experience a sense of failure. Every time you avoid a feared object or situation, your anxiety gains strength while you lose some;?you accumulate another experience of failure and another piece of evidence attesting to your weakness. Finally, avoidance eliminates practice. Without practice, it is difficult to gain mastery. Without mastery,?confidence?is less likely to rise.

另外，當逃避讓你害怕的事物時，你常常會感到一種失敗感。每當你避開一個事物或場景，你的焦慮就會更強，你就會更弱，你就累積了另一個失敗的經(jīng)歷、另一份證明你的懦弱的證據(jù)。最終，逃避杜絕了練習，沒有練習就難以精通，沒有精通就很難形成自信。

So, avoiding anxiety maintains and magnifies it. To get rid of your anxiety you should instead capitalize on the principle of habituation through the use of "exposure." Exposure is by far the most potent medicine known to psychology. It is responsible, directly or indirectly, for most positive improvement achieved in?therapy—any therapy, but particularly the treatment of anxiety. Exposure entails facing your fears, which makes it aversive in the short-term. But many worthy long-term?goals?entail short-term discomfort (think studying for an exam).

因此，逃避焦慮會維持焦慮并且放大焦慮。想要擺脫你的焦慮，你應(yīng)該反過來利用習慣化的原理，讓自己充分“暴露”在焦慮下。到目前為止，暴露是心理學最強的良藥，是它促成了治療中的大多數(shù)的積極進步，——任何治療，但尤其是應(yīng)對焦慮的治療——有時是直接影響，有時是間接影響。暴露要求我們直面恐懼，這在短期內(nèi)是令人反感的，但是許多有價值的長期目標的達成，都要求我們經(jīng)歷短期的不適（比如為了考試而學習）。

Exposure also seems counter intuitive, but many truths are counter intuitive (think about the fact that we're residing on a ball floating in infinite space). Exposure scares people, but scary things are not necessarily dangerous (think roller coasters, horror films). Exposure is scary primarily because most people, lacking an understanding of the habituation principle, expect their?fear?to escalate indefinitely in the presence of a feared object or situation. But nothing rises indefinitely. And fear, if you face it, will soon begin to subside?as you habituate.

暴露看起來也是反直覺的，但是許多的真理都是反直覺的（比如我們居住在一個漂浮在無盡空間中的球上）。暴露讓人害怕，但是可怕的事情不一定是危險的（比如過山車、恐怖電影）。暴露是可怕的，主要是因為大多數(shù)人沒能理解習慣化的原理，他們認為自己的恐懼會因為暴露于他們懼怕的物品或場景面前而無限增長。但是沒有事物會無限增長，恐懼也是一樣。如果你面對它，隨著你逐漸習慣，恐懼很快就會開始平息。

Thus with anxiety, the only way out is through. If you're?anxious?about spiders, you will have to handle spiders. If you're scared of the elevator, you will have to ride the elevator repeatedly. If you dread talking in class, you will need to start talking in class. This is not easy to do, since confronting your fear will produce a lot of initial anxiety. You will have to stay in the feared situation and stay with the heightened fear response until it begins to subside, which it will, because it must by design.

因此應(yīng)對焦慮的唯一方法就是穿過它。如果你害怕蜘蛛，你就要學著應(yīng)付蜘蛛。如果你害怕電梯，你就要反復乘坐電梯。如果你害怕在課堂上講話，你就要開始在課堂上講話。這并不容易，因為在剛開始面對恐懼時，我們會產(chǎn)生大量的焦慮，你需要在你害怕的情景中停留，你需要在強烈的恐懼反應(yīng)下停留，直到它開始平息。你要相信的是它一定會平息，因為它一開始就是這么設(shè)計的。

Exposure works better than avoidance on the physiological level by bringing about nervous system habituation, which is the physiological antidote to anxiety. But it works better on three other levels as well.

在生理層面上，暴露比逃避更有用，因為它能帶來神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)的習慣化，這正是焦慮在生理層面的解藥。但同時，比起逃避，它在另外三個層面上也同樣更有用。

On the psychological level, confronting your fear instead of backing down brings about a sense of accomplishment and empowerment. Every time you confront your fear, you gain power while your anxiety loses strength (I can tolerate it; it's difficult but not impossible; it's not the end of the world). Every time you confront your fear you accumulate evidence of your ability to cope (I did it yesterday; I can do it again today).

在心理學層面上，直面恐懼而不是退縮能帶來成就感和主權(quán)感。每當你直面恐懼，你都會更有力量，而你的焦慮就會更弱（我能忍受它；這很難但不是不可能；這并不是世界末日）。每當你直面恐懼，你都能累積證據(jù)，來證明你有應(yīng)對焦慮的能力（我昨天做到了，今天我也能做到）。

On the behavioral level, confronting your fear repeatedly helps develop skills and mastery. Mastery decreases the chance of failure and therefore reduces the need to worry.

在行為層面上，反復直面恐懼能幫助你培養(yǎng)技能、達到精通。精通能減少失敗的機會，因此可以減少擔憂的必要。

Finally, exposure is particularly useful on the emotional level. It turns out that many (perhaps all) anxiety problems are at their core a "fear of fear."?Most people who fear crowds, elevators, or planes know that these objects are not dangerous (they most likely?let their kids go to the mall, ride the elevator, or fly in a plane). What they fear are the sensations of fear itself. Exposure to the sensations of fear allows them to habituate to these sensations, while at the same time improving their emotional literacy, since staying in the terrain helps to learn how to navigate, manage, and work it.

最后，暴露在情感層面上是尤其有用的。其實許多（也許所有的）焦慮問題在根本上都是“對于恐懼的恐懼”。大多數(shù)害怕人群、電梯或者飛機的人都知道這些物體并不是危險的（他們可能大都愿意讓自己的孩子去商場、坐電梯或者坐飛機），他們害怕的是那種恐懼的感覺。暴露在恐懼的感覺下能允許他們?nèi)ミm應(yīng)它，與此同時提升他們的情商。處于這種境況中有助于他們學會摸索方向，嘗試應(yīng)對并最終成功。

Exposure isn't easy. However, living in the prison of avoidance isn't easy either, and it isn't much of a life. The short-term discomfort of exposure is the price we must pay to purchase a valuable long-term asset—a life free from debilitating anxiety.

把自己暴露在恐懼下不是件容易的事情，但是活在逃避的監(jiān)獄中也不見得簡單，甚至那都算不上是真正的活著。暴露帶來的短期不適是我們必須付出的代價，以換取一項擁有長期價值的資產(chǎn)——一個不用感到衰敗、一個免于焦慮的人生。

About the Author

Noam Shpancer, Ph.D.,?is a professor of psychology at Otterbein College and a practicing clinical psychologist in Columbus, Ohio.

原文地址：https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/insight-therapy/201009/overcoming-fear-the-only-way-out-is-through