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Log interoceptive exposure exercises that deliberately produce feared body sensations to break the link between sensations and catastrophic interpretations.
Interoceptive exposure involves deliberately producing the body sensations you fear (e.g. breathing through a straw to feel breathless, spinning to feel dizzy) in a controlled way. This helps you learn that the sensations are uncomfortable but not dangerous. For each exercise, record the sensations produced, how similar they are to your panic symptoms, your anxiety level, what you predicted would happen, and what actually happened.
Use during the behavioural experiment phase of panic treatment to systematically induce feared bodily sensations in a controlled setting. Interoceptive exposure is a core component of evidence-based panic treatment and directly tests catastrophic misinterpretations.
Explain the rationale clearly: by deliberately inducing the feared sensations, the client can test whether the catastrophic outcome actually occurs. Demonstrate each exercise in session first and complete initial exposures together before assigning as homework.
Tailor the exercises to the client's specific feared sensations: hyperventilation for dizziness or breathlessness fears, spinning for vertigo, straw breathing for suffocation fears, cardiovascular exercise for heart rate fears. Adjust intensity and duration to create a graded hierarchy.
Screen for medical conditions that could make specific interoceptive exercises unsafe (e.g., asthma for hyperventilation, cardiac conditions for exercise-based exposures). Obtain medical clearance where clinically indicated. Avoid exercises that could trigger genuine medical symptoms.
Record the client's anxiety predictions before each trial and actual outcomes after. The accumulation of prediction-outcome discrepancies is the primary mechanism of change. Ensure the client drops safety behaviours during the exposure rather than attributing the non-occurrence of catastrophe to their coping strategies.
Suitable for clients working with interoceptive exposure, panic, cbt, body sensations, clark, behavioural experiment. This tool can be used as a standalone worksheet or as part of a structured homework plan.
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Gather normalising evidence by surveying others about whether they experience the same body sensations and fears — challenging the belief that your experience is abnormal.
A formulation based on Clark's cognitive model of panic — mapping the vicious cycle of catastrophic misinterpretation of body sensations.
Record panic episodes with triggers, sensations, catastrophic thoughts, safety behaviours, and actual outcomes to identify patterns and build evidence against catastrophic predictions.
Challenge catastrophic misinterpretations of body sensations by examining evidence and generating realistic alternatives.