Countless studies show: If you want to overcome your fear, you would do well to face it. Whether it’s a fear of spiders, dogs, lectures, heights, thunderstorms, small rooms, dental treatment, etc., as soon as we manage to shed our avoidance behavior, we can make the important experience that the feared situations are nowhere near as dangerous as we originally feared (or sometimes even fun).
But what mindset allows us to get the maximum therapeutic benefit from a confrontation? A classic study by Southworth and Kirsch (1988) with subjects suffering from agoraphobia provides exciting answers…

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Studies (small sample only):

Southworth, S., & Kirsch, I. (1988). The role of expectancy in exposure-generated fear reduction in agoraphobia. Behavior Research and Therapy, 26(2), 113-120.

Burck, E. (2019). Angst-Was hilft wirklich gegen Angst und Panikattacken?: The most effective strategies against anxiety and panic from a research perspective. BoD Books on Demand.