This is similar to my experiences with getting blood drawn. About two-weeks prior to the draw I would watch a couple of videos on YouTube of blood draws each night. By the time the day came, I was still anxious but fine.
I've been told that the anxiety was created by my nearly passing out when getting blood drawn but the mechanism for nearly passing out is different from panic or anxiety. Still, my "exposure therapy" worked. The last time I had my blood drawn I watch a couple of videos the night before but probably didn't even need to.
OK, so I just saw Tom Cruise and James Corden jump out of a plane. Before I saw Will Smith do it. It looks like so much fun, but its so scary.
I wonder if the visualization aspect of jumping out of a plan would also help my nerves. Maybe set a date and then watch YT videos for a few minutes a day on tandem jumping.
That is, in fact, a facet of ACT. Do things to expose yourself to tiny amounts of fear an anxiety, then progressively increasing that exposure that until you either don't feel them or don't perceive them as bad.
Put another way; you become comfortable with being uncomfortable. Believe it or not, you can actually enjoy those feelings.
I remember watching an episode of MTV's True Life where they profiled people with OCD.
For 2 out of the 3 people profiled, the OCD stemmed from a fear of something bad happening and that was their way to cope. For one specifically, her mother had a surgery gone wrong and almost died.
The therapy was to have a mock funeral for her mother, go to the hospital and watch her mother have blood drawn and essentially go through all of the motions of having her mother die so that she could process it.
By the end of the treatment (which seemed to be a little ad for only a few weeks) her symptoms were drastically reduced.
I've been told that the anxiety was created by my nearly passing out when getting blood drawn but the mechanism for nearly passing out is different from panic or anxiety. Still, my "exposure therapy" worked. The last time I had my blood drawn I watch a couple of videos the night before but probably didn't even need to.