Track SUDs across sessions to see your own progress
Record distress ratings before and after each session so progress is visible and motivating.
Key takeaways
- What it is: Record distress ratings before and after each session so progress is visible and motivating.
- Why it works: Anxiety reduction during extinction is gradual and uneven — there are bad sessions. Without a data record, people rely on recency bias and quit during a temporary plateau. Visible progress graphs build self-efficacy by providing concrete evidence of change, and self-efficacy is one of the strongest predictors of treatment completion.
- Evidence: Plausible mechanism, limited direct outcome data.
- Avoid: Using the log to look for session-by-session perfection rather than a noisy downward trend across weeks — one bad session does not mean the treatment is not working.
Why it works
Anxiety reduction during extinction is gradual and uneven — there are bad sessions. Without a data record, people rely on recency bias and quit during a temporary plateau. Visible progress graphs build self-efficacy by providing concrete evidence of change, and self-efficacy is one of the strongest predictors of treatment completion.
How to do it
- 1Before each session, rate peak anticipated distress (0–100 SUDs).
- 2After each session, rate actual peak distress and distress at the session end.
- 3Plot both over sessions and look for the downward trend across sessions, not within them.
- 4Share the log with a therapist or coach to calibrate pacing.
What the evidence says
MechanisticSelf-monitoring supports behavior change across domains; its specific value in exposure protocols is primarily mechanistic and clinically derived rather than from controlled trials isolating monitoring itself.
Honest caveat: SUDs are subjective; over-reliance on them can cause premature termination (person stops when SUDs are low mid-session) rather than staying through the full habituation curve.
Common mistake
Using the log to look for session-by-session perfection rather than a noisy downward trend across weeks — one bad session does not mean the treatment is not working.
IX Coach visualizes your SUDs trend across the hierarchy so you can see extinction happening even during weeks that feel like stagnation.
Practice this with IX Coach →