Fears and Phobias

Not all fear is harmful – it can save your life.  If you didn’t fear the traffic, you would walk out in the middle of a road during rush hour and would probably get killed or seriously injured. 

Fear, at its basic form then, is a way of preserving your life and stems from the ‘fight or flight’ response that originated with our ancestors as a method of survival.

A phobic reaction is when there is an irrational response by the mind to a perceived threat.  It is a very real and very distressing experience to go through and can affect people’s lives, and their loved ones, significantly.  Phobic behaviour such as avoidance, panic attacks, and presenting physical and mental conditions can literally invade and ruin the enjoyment of their everyday lives.

Phobias can originate as:

- the product of severe stress

- the product of a series of experiences occurring over a period of years which has built up into an excessive anxiety

- the product of a fear of fear

- the result of being transmitted to you by another person

- the result of severe past traumas

- the product of a one-off experience

- the result of a past-life experience that has not yet been dealt with effectively

The important thing to remember is that the phobia or fear is not you.  It is a behaviour that has been crated by your mind but it does not represent you and  you do not have to allow into your everyday life.

Once the fear reaction has 'implanted' itself, it is thought to be held in an area of your brain where traumatic memories get stored.  It will remain there until it is 're-encoded', or the energy of it is transformed, and relocated to an area of the brain where other memories are stored, so transforming the emotional connection to the memory.

Types of reactions with phobias

Phobic reactions tend to stem from the ‘fight or flight’ response, as described earlier.  This originated from our ancestors as a method of survival in prehistoric times and it is something which we haven’t, as yet, evolved out of. 

The fight or flight response is actually composed of three responses, fight, flight and freeze and these are all reactions within our autonomic nervous system.  It is a way of preparing our body to run away, fight or become very still to avoid being seen by predators.

The autonomic system regulates emotional responses and releases hormones, which are governed by the endocrine system.  It is the sympathetic part of the autonomic nervous system which prepares us for action and leads us to physical symptoms of stress.  It stimulates the adrenal glands to secrete hormones such as adrenaline and cortisone which prepare the body for action.  As a result of the release of these hormones, the typical reactions (although there are others) are a feeling of sickness, dry mouth, a need to evacuate the bladder and/or bowel, increased heart rate, sweating, shaking, numbness, rapid breathing, dizziness and temperature change.

The mental reactions that are associated with a phobia are panic, confusion, upset, anger, depression and together with an overly heightened mental awareness which can very easily lead to insomnia and social withdrawal.  Whilst the physical reaction will stem from a perceived threat in the mind, the body’s reaction can exacerbate the problem further by reinforcing the feeling that the individual is out of control, when in fact it is the individual’s mind that is causing the symptoms to begin with.

What types of phobia can be dealt with?

Virtually all types of phobia can be successfully dealt with using hypnotherapy.  Some of the more common phobias include:  fear of darkness, Acrophobia - fear of heights, Agoraphobia - fear of fear (not being in control), Aichmophobia - fear of needles, Arachnophobia - fear of spiders, Claustrophobia - fear of confined spaces, Cynophobia - fear of dogs, Dentophobia - fear of dentists, Glossophobia - fear of speaking in public, Hemophobia - fear of blood, Hydrophobia - fear of water, Lockiophobia - fear of childbirth, Ophidiophobia - fear of snakes, Ornithophobia - fear of birds, Pteromerhanophobia - fear of flying, Trypanophobia - fear of injections, Zoophobia - fear of animals.

What happens when I go for treatment?

Transpersonal hypnotherapy and NLP are both highly effective in treating fears and phobias and a session will begin with an in-depth discussion of your condition in order to provide all the information to Caroline so she can guide you through the most effective course of treatment.

In some cases, it may be necessary to take you back in your mind to the origin of your condition in order to clear any emotional blockages, so that subsequent suggestion and NLP techniques can be more effective.  This will depend on the presenting condition and each individual case. 

If you have had a particularly traumatic experience, it isn’t always necessary to relive the emotions again.  Hypnotherapy can be incredibly powerful at removing these irrational fears and phobias without having to go through what you experienced originally, freeing you to really enjoy your life more fully.

"It's not that some people have willpower and some don't.  It's that some people are ready to change and others are not." - James Gordon MD