Interoceptive exposure

Interoceptive exposure is a treatment technique that deliberately evokes feared bodily sensations in a controlled setting. Repeated contact helps weaken fear and avoidance of those sensations.

Panic disorder: An anxiety disorder marked by recurrent unexpected panic attacks and persistent concern or behavior changes related to them. Fear of sensations such as a racing heart often drives panic and makes them targets for exposure.
Cognitive behavioral therapy: A structured psychotherapy that targets patterns of thought and behavior associated with emotional difficulties. Interoceptive exposure is commonly delivered within this broader treatment approach.
Classical conditioning: Learning in which a previously neutral cue comes to elicit a response after being paired with a meaningful stimulus. It helps explain how ordinary bodily sensations can acquire threat associations.
In vivo exposure: Exposure to feared real-life situations or objects in their actual settings. It targets external situations, whereas interoceptive exposure targets bodily sensations.
Interoception: The sensing and interpretation of signals arising within the body. Exposure deliberately changes the internal signals that interoception detects.
Panic control treatment: A cognitive behavioral treatment for panic disorder that combines education, cognitive methods, and exposure exercises. This protocol incorporates exercises that reproduce feared panic sensations.
Catastrophic misinterpretation: An interpretation of an ambiguous sensation or event as evidence of imminent catastrophe. Exposure often tests predictions such as a racing heart causing a heart attack.
Imaginal exposure: Repeated, deliberate imagining of feared events or memories as a treatment exercise. It evokes feared scenarios through imagination rather than deliberately produced bodily cues.
Habituation: A reduced response to a repeated stimulus that occurs without reinforcement. Repeated exercises may reduce distress as bodily sensations become familiar.
Hyperventilation: Breathing faster or deeper than the body's metabolic needs, lowering carbon dioxide in the blood. Controlled overbreathing can produce dizziness, tingling, and breathlessness for exposure exercises.

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