Charmbracelet81
10-18-2010, 10:10 AM
Ok, so I had a phone session between regular sessions with my therapist about my intense attack of losing my mind out of nowhere, and she said since my heart fear went waaayyy down and I am not letting the lung fear get as intense as the heart one (ie, going to Dr.. over and over ect.) and in general I have felt so much better, so out of nowhere, I had the thoughts that anxiety is gone and now I have alzheimers/demensia, ect. and my therapist says there is a phase called "extinction burst" where my old behaviors to the thoughts start becoming "re-trained" and that this means I am improving.
She says, it's like if a rat is used to pushing a certain button and receiving food then all of a sudden they push the button and no food comes, the rat becomes temporarily highly distressed; this is what I went through.
I told her that while I didn't want to search for reassurance, I did need answers for this one since it was so new and literally out of nowhere.
So, although very uncomfortable, I am glad that this really can be good as far as my treatment goes.
What do you guys think? Has anyone heard of the "extinction burst"?
She says, it's like if a rat is used to pushing a certain button and receiving food then all of a sudden they push the button and no food comes, the rat becomes temporarily highly distressed; this is what I went through.
I told her that while I didn't want to search for reassurance, I did need answers for this one since it was so new and literally out of nowhere.
So, although very uncomfortable, I am glad that this really can be good as far as my treatment goes.
What do you guys think? Has anyone heard of the "extinction burst"?