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An example of Prolonged Exposure would be,

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I had a patient one time who was a Navy Veteran,

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and he had a pretty upsetting experience on a ship.

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And ever since then he avoided water.

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And he lived in Charleston, South Carolina, which is

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surrounded by water, and there's rivers and harbors everywhere.

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And so he had a lot of situations that really made him feel

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nervous and anxious any time he was around water.

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And he was actually spending a lot of time driving out of his way

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to places he wanted to go so that he could avoid water.

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And ultimately he ended up just staying at home

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a lot more than he wanted to.

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And through this therapy we slowly confronted his fears

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and his anxiety about water and actually spent some time

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near water, near the harbor, out at the ocean.

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And over time he gradually learned that

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this water isn't dangerous.

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The original water, the water that he was surrounded by

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during his traumatic event was dangerous.

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He was in a very dangerous situation.

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But here in the United States, in not a combat zone,

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the water he was around was safe.

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And it took a little while to learn that,

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but through therapy he was able to do so.

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Ultimately he was able to, on his own,

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get on a cruise and take a cruise around the Bahamas.

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And he was very far from shore at that point,

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but that was sort of the end goal for him.

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He wanted to be able to take his wife on a cruise,

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and he was able to do that.