One of the most effective methods of treating phobias is through the technique of flooding. This involves immersing a person in the fear reflex until the fear itself fades away. The key is keeping the patients in the feared situation long enough that they can see that none of the consequences they are so mightily afraid are actually likely to happen.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy
While flooding is a part of exposure therapy, exposure therapy comes under the heading cognitive behavior therapy. How does cognitive behavior therapy work? It gives the sufferer a better understanding of what frightens him/her, and how to overcome it by confronting facts. This therapy is an excellent combination of two kinds of psychotherapy - cognitive therapy and behavior therapy.

Behavior therapy helps you look closely at the connections between troublesome/fear-inducing situations and your usual reactions to them. These reactions can include fear, depression or rage, and self-defeating or self-damaging behavior. It also teaches you how to control your mind and body, so you can feel better, think more clearly, and make better-informed decisions.

Cognitive therapy brings to the surface, how certain thinking patterns are causing distressful symptoms - by giving you a inaccurate picture of what's going on in your life, making you feel anxious, depressed or angry for little reason, which leads to ill-chosen actions.

When combined into CBT, behavior therapy and cognitive therapy provide you with very powerful tools for getting rid of symptoms and bringing a more satisfying turn to your life. The two instruments that the therapy offers are:

• Altering ways of thinking - a person's thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, assumptions, mental make-up, and ways of thinking - for the better. This constitutes the cognitive aspect of CBT.
• Helping a person meet the challenges and opportunities in his or her life with a clear and calm mind - and then taking constructive actions. This comprises the behavioral aspect of CBT.

In comparison to other therapies, CBT is a more comprehensive therapy, it enables one to achieve beneficial change, as opposed to offering mere explanation or "insight."

Experts caution that CBT should be administered by a trained professional. Here's what the therapy entails:

1. 1. Distinguish between thoughts and feelings. Make a list of your thoughts with regards to spiders(or whatever phobia you have) and then list the feelings that accompany that thought (ie. Thought: the spider will bit me; Feeling: scared, panicky). Realize that your thoughts can create feelings or even intensify a feeling further. By distinguishing between the two, you will gain a better vantage point to identify ways to control your feelings and overcome your fear.
2. 2. Make a concentrated effort to change your reactions. Make a list with four columns. In the first, write a situation (There's a spider in the bathtub). Then write down how the situation makes you feel. In the third column, write what your usual reaction would be (run away). The fourth column is for an alternative behavior (kill the spider). While there could be many alternative behaviors, the key is to start trying to adopt one of these more rational behaviors.
3. 3. Accept that your thoughts can be a long way off from fact. The first step for an arachnophobic for instance, is to identify the thought (That spider is poisonous). Next, tell yourself that investigation is necessary before jumping to conclusions. Observe the spider and try to identify what kind it is(this may require you to do a bit of research) When you are more calm and equipped with more information, you might be able to convince yourself that it's a harmless spider instead of a brown recluse. Then the fear, would in probability diminish.

While ideally, cognitive behavior therapy should be carried out under the supervision of a mental health professional, however you can try out these techniques before you decide to approach a therapist. However, it is advisable that those with acute phobias desist from trying CBT themselves.