Using CBT on intangible things

[Guest guest]

Kathy--

I've been reading about Lil's great success w/ her son and naturally,

I want the same success for . Unfortunately, most of his fears

are intangibles-- unknowns, unseen kinds of things. I can't take him

into a restaurant because he doesn't have any fears of public germs

(that I know of). His #1 thing is the fear of germs (acted out at

home only)! What can I do to help expose him to 'normal' household

germs? You can't see it, touch it, feel it, etc!! Very

frustrating. I guess I *could* take him to a hospital (and come to

think of it, he's scared of the school clinic, too) but--- *cringe*

he'll probably panic, or REFUSE to go. I doubt the school clinic

would welcome an E & RP session if and I paid a visit and gawked

at all the poor lil sick children, sneezing and coughing. Maybe a

book about germs/flu's and colds? The pharmacy/drug store? A sick

relative/friend? Lord have mercy on my soul! I'll lose allll of my

friends!!! LOL

Has anyone had any success w/ CBT with intangible stuff? Do you

suppose a loop tape would help?

His new thing this week is the food I give him: " Is this FRESH mom?

No germs, right? " I'm like, " Fresh? Hell no!!! Did you forget that

I've been trying to poison you since birth? " *wham* He DOESNT think

it's funny!

Running out of ideas on how to wage war with the Germ Bully,

Joni

> Hi Kerrie, I wanted to add, the technique is called using a loop

tape

> because usually you use the small cassettes such as are used in many

> answering machines. These loop endlessly until you hit " stop. " I

didn't

> have this type of tape player (and didn't want to devote our

answering

> machine to this exercise--LOL) so we used what was at hand and Kel

just hit

> rewind when the " story " was over.

>

> Therapists are divided I believe over whether using these loop

tapes is

> appropriate for children. But other types of exposures didn't help

my

> daughter much with this particular obsession, and using the tape

did.

>

> Kathy R. in Indiana