Using imagination to unlearn fear

Imagining a threat activates the same brain process as real exposure.
28 November 2018

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Using your imagination to overcome fear

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Fear is a human instinct. We don’t need to learn how to be afraid, but through our experiences we do learn what to be afraid of. This can be fear of slithering snakes, crawling spiders or more abstract concepts like social status or embarrassment. Whether it is phobias, post traumatic stress disorder or every day anxieties, these fears can severely impact people’s lives. Hannah Laeverenz Schlogelhofer spoke with Daniela Schiller, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, to find out whether we could use just the powers of our imagination to help us overcome fear.

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