Freedom from Fears and Phobias
A fear/phobia is a high anxiety response to an object, situation, or even a thought. Because the fear/phobic trigger can be absolutely anything (we've had balloons, belly buttons and goldfish among the more unusual ones!), phobias can seem ridiculous, absurd and not logical.
For the phobic person however, the intensity of terror can be disabling and horrific. The good news is that phobias are simple to understand and usually easy and quick to treat.
2 Types of Fear/Phobia - Specific or Non specific
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About one in ten people have a specific phobia. A specific phobia is an intense fear (or panic attack) triggered by a particular object or situation. This can be literally anything - from spiders to balloons, frogs to flying.
A non-specific phobia is a more generalised fear such as agoraphobia (fear of open spaces). They work in a similar way to specific phobias, in that the fear appears to be 'attached' to something less discrete. |
Surely That's Irrational?
Often phobias cause people to be scared of non-threatening objects, they are often seen as irrational.
And, in a way, that's right. A fear/phobia has nothing to do with the thinking, rational part of the brain.
A fear/phobic response is simply a survival mechanism 'gone wrong'. The person experiencing this fear is otherwise perfectly normal and can often see the irrationality of their fear/phobic reaction. This, however, rarely helps you. Well meaning attempts to talk someone out of a fear or phobia nearly always end in failure.
This type of learning is not of the intellectual, or rational type. If you had to think, "Yes, I think this would be a good time to have a panic attack" our species would have died out long ago. This type of learning takes place at an emotional level so that the response can bypass the 'thinking brain'. In the past, an immediate phobic response to a predatory or poisonous animal would have been exceedingly useful.
We therefore evolved with the ability to become fearful (survival mechanism). In today's complex world however, this learning mechanism often works in an inappropriate way. |
What can be done to gain freedom from fears and phobias? Or rather how can Hypnotherapy help you?
In order to cure a fear/phobia (which is usually surprisingly easy and painless) we need to change the experience on an unconscious level.
Simply put, you need to be able to treat the fear/phobic object in the same way as they would any other everyday object. The best way to do this is to keep the person relaxed whilst they imagine the phobic object. Hypnosis is extremely useful to keep the person relaxed whilst doing this.
This process is called 'de-conditioning', and it simply changes the association a person has with the fear/phobic stimulus. Once you have experienced the fear or phobia in a totally relaxed state (hypnosis) your unconscious mind is able to make the necessary changes to your body's response, therefore enabling you to overcome the fear or phobia.
It really is that simple! |
