Phobias
Fears and phobias come in all shapes and forms. Some of them you will be very familiar with such as a fear of spiders or you may be afraid of being sick/vomiting, meeting strangers, flying, of water, birds, or being in a car on a motorway. The list is endless.
Sufferers will often adapt their lifestyles to avoid the huge levels of stress and unhappiness that’s triggered by their particular fear/phobia; which means that everyday life can become an uphill struggle, as opposed to enjoying life.
A list of some phobias you may be familiar with:
It is essential to feel fear in dangerous situations; this is called the fight or flight mechanism and
is necessary for our own survival. The "fight or flight response" is our body's primitive, automatic, inborn response that prepares the body to "fight" or "flee" from perceived attack, harm or threat to our survival. Without fear we would be reckless and irresponsible.
What is a phobia?
A phobia is an unreasonable sort of fear that can cause avoidance and panic. Phobias are a relatively common type of anxiety disorder. This “anxiety” is projected onto an object or situation, i.e. flying. When the sufferer is faced with the thought or action of flying, the phobia is triggered, creating a very powerful type of fear, intense panic, even a panic/anxiety attack.
How does our mind create the phobia?
When a person finds themselves in a situation that creates intense emotions, the person’s
(or child’s) mind has the ability to store those emotions, sometimes described as repressing the emotions. By doing this it removes that emotion from the person’s conscious awareness, and files it in the subconscious; once there, the mind creates a “phobia” to warn the person not to get into that (or any similar) situation again. For example when a person gets bitten by a dog; they could develop a fear of dogs. The fear stops them going anywhere near dogs, and therefore prevents them from getting bitten again.
However, the cause of some phobias are not directly related to the cause of the emotion, they are also symbolic of it. An example of this is the fear of flying. Research shows that millions of people
in the UK suffer with a fear of flying (aerophobia), but have never experienced an air crash or known anyone who has and they may not even have a fear of flying, or a fear of crashing, but they have a fear of being out of control which their brain symbolizes and projects onto flying.
How much more “out of control” could this be: you are in a tin box, travelling at 400 mph, 2 miles above ground, operated by someone you do not know and can’t see.
You may be aware of Social phobias. This appears to be one of the most well known - a fear of being on the spot the, individual could feel that they are being judged, humiliated, embarrassed; they would also tend to worrying about how others perceive them. For someone who has a social phobia, the mere thought of attending dinner parties, going shopping, meeting people, presentations, or even holidays can become a nightmare, and bring on real feelings of fear of rejection, inferiority, lack of confidence, stuttering, panic attacks, heart pounding, hot flushes, and trembling along with other possible symptoms.
How do I get rid of fears and phobias?
Phobias are usually always formed in childhood, even though the symptoms may not appear for many years. The only way to cure a phobia, so that it no longer affects the person, is to find the initial cause (the unconscious anxiety) and release the filed emotion. There are many techniques that can be used to remove and manage phobias, and would be selected by the therapist and discussed with the client in the consultation period. The technique chosen will depend on the severity of the phobia so that the client will have a gentle reduction in stress levels, feel more resolved, calmer, and most of all, in control again of the particular situation or emotion.
