Phobias
A Phobia is a marked and persistent fear of a specific object or situation (e.g., animals, bugs, heights, elevators, bridges, flying, driving, seeing blood, receiving an injection, dentists, crowds, stores) that is excessive, unreasonable, irrational, and exaggerated. If you have a phobia, your anxiety response is cued or triggered by either the presence of, or your anticipation of the feared object or situation. Your anxiety response probably interferes with your smooth functioning, productivity, and enjoyment of your life. You probably have marked distress about having the phobia.
In most people who have a phobia, exposure to the phobic stimulus almost always provokes an immediate anxiety response, which can take the form of a situation bound Panic Attack (DSM-IV-TR). As a result, the phobic situations are avoided if at all possible, and if exposure does occur, the situation is endured with intense anxiety and distress.
A separate but related category of Phobia is called “Social Phobia”. If you have this condition, then you have a marked and persistent fear of one or more social or performance situations in which you are exposed to unfamiliar people or to possible scrutiny by others (DSM-IV-R). You fear that you will act in such a way that will be humiliating or embarrassing.
We view all phobias as negative ways of coping that have become exaggerated and have evolved in an attempt to reduce anxiety. Our hypnosis approach to treating Phobias is to get to the root of the problem and to treat the underlying anxiety as well to remove the underlying fixed idea that, if violated, causes you to have an anxiety reaction.
Our conceptual approach often allows us, when working with you, to start at the beginning, and change the initial response that your later and more debilitating negative symptoms were built upon. Thus, we can be very focused and goal directed. This allows us in working together to “uncomplicate the problem” into workable components. Our approach often brings some recognizable feeling of partial relief from the intensity of your presenting symptoms very quickly. By reframing your belief that you are trapped, we can establish the possibility for new choices and change. This “untraps” your “trapped” feelings and fears.
We use a number of very effective Hypnosis techniques to help our patients diminish their phobic anxiety, and eventually, be rid of their phobia. These techniques include:
- Teaching you how to relax yourself so that you can feel more comfortable and confident and resourceful, and helping you to build a memory of those positive feelings that will allow you to feel relaxed and unafraid for longer and longer periods of time. This new feeling of relaxation will then become your feeling of choice and your anxiety feelings will go away.
- Giving information to your Subconscious to help you better understand which signals are dangerous, and which are not. This makes it easier for you to discriminate on both a conscious and a subconscious level. It also makes it easier for you to change the way you feel and behave.
- You will be taught how to bring about a feeling of instant relaxation, with your eyes open, without anyone knowing you are doing it. This allows you to prevent panic before it even starts, when you may be in a stressful situation.
- Treatment is short-term. Length of treatment is typically two to five visits lasting an hour each.
Fears and phobias are fairly common. A phobia is a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity or situation that poses little real danger. In general, phobias are long-lasting, cause intense physical and psychological reactions and can affect an individual’s personal and social life.
Phobias are rooted deep in the subconscious mind. This is why hypnosis is a very effective way to manage phobias. With hypnosis, we help you by communicating directly with your subconscious mind, bypassing the critical mind. Out of all treatment modalities, hypnosis is the most successful way to manage phobias in the least amount of time.
Some of the more common phobias are:
- Agoraphobia (fear of open spaces or crowd)
- Arachnophobia (fear of spiders)
- Bacteriophobia (fear of bacteria)
- Claustrophobia (fear of closed places)
- Dentophobia (fear of dentists)
- Nyctophobia (fear of dark)
- Ornithophobia (fear of birds)
- Ophidiophobia (fear of snakes)
- Pteromerhanophobia (fear of flying)
In addition to these, there are many different types of phobias.
If you have any phobia that is affecting your personal or social life, you should take action to gain control of it. We can definitely help you combat your fears.
