Phobias
Anxiety is a normal human feeling. We all experience it when faced with situations we find threatening or difficult. When our anxiety is a result of a continuing problem, such as money difficulties, we call it worry, if it is a sudden response to an immediate threat, like looking over a cliff or being confronted with an angry dog, we call it fear.
Normally, both fear and anxiety can he helpful, helping us to avoid dangerous situations, making us alert and giving us the motivation to deal with problems. However, if the feelings become too strong or go for too long, they can stop us from doing the things we want to and can make our lives miserable.
A phobia is a fear of particular situations or things that are not dangerous and which most people do not find troublesome. A person with a phobia has intense symptoms of anxiety, but they only arise from time to time in the particular situations that frighten them. At other times they don't feel anxious. If you have a phobia of dogs, you will feel OK if there are no dogs around, if you are scared of heights, you feel OK at ground level, and if you can't face social situations, you will feel calm when there are no people around.
A phobia will lead the sufferer to avoid situations in which they know they will be anxious, but this will actually make the phobia worse as time goes on. It can also mean that the person's life becomes increasingly dominated by the precautions they have to take to avoid the situation they fear. Sufferers usually know that there is no real danger, they may feel silly about their fear but they are still unable to control it. A phobia is more likely to go away if it has started after a distressing or traumatic event.
About one in every ten people will have troublesome anxiety or phobias at some point in their lives. However, most will never ask for treatment. It becomes an accepted part of them, a harmless neurosis, that their friends and relations see as being a part of their character.
A phobia is an anxiety disorder in which you feel intense fear of a particular object or situation, but know all the time that there is no real danger.
The dictionary definition of the word "Phobia" is "Fear" but, a better word could be "Avoidance", as most phobia sufferers avoid the situations. It is actually an excessive or unreasonable fear of an object, place or situation.
Phobias are extremely common. Sometimes they start in childhood for no apparent reason; sometimes they emerge after a traumatic event; and sometimes they develop from an attempt to make sense of an unexpected and intense anxiety or panic (e.g. "I feel fearful, therefore I must be afraid of something").
When the phobic person actually encounters, or even anticipates being in the presence of the feared object or situation, he or she experiences immediate anxiety. The physical symptoms of anxiety may include a racing heart, shortness of breath, sweating, chest or abdominal discomfort, trembling, etc. and the emotional component involves an intense fear - of losing control, embarrassing oneself, or passing out.
Commonly people try to escape, and then to avoid the feared situation wherever possible. This may be fairly easy if the feared object is rarely encountered (e.g. fear of snakes) and avoidance will not therefore restrict the person's life very much. At other times (e.g. agoraphobia, social phobia) avoiding the feared situation limits their life severely. Escape and avoidance also make the feared object/situation more frightening.
With some phobias the person may have specific thoughts which add some extra threat to the feared situation. This is particularly true for social phobia where there is often a fear of being negatively evaluated by others. It is also true for agoraphobia when there may be a fear of collapsing and dying with no one around to help, or of having a panic attack and making a fool of oneself in front of other people.
With some phobias there may be accompanying frightening thoughts (this plane might crash; I'm trapped; I must get out). However with other phobias it is more difficult to identify any specific thoughts which could be associated with the anxiety (e.g. it is unlikely that a spider phobic is afraid of making a fool of themselves in front of the spider). With these phobias the cause seems to be explained more as a conditioned (learned) anxiety response which has become associated with the feared object.
Some people have phobias of everyday things that most of us never even notice - e.g. fur, birds, buttons, frogs, hedgehogs, baked beans !!! Some of us have phobias that are easily avoided while but others feel that it is taking over their lives because the object of fear is all around - e.g. birds!
There are three types of phobia :-
AGORAPHOBIA
Agoraphobia is not, as many people believe, just about open spaces. It is really a fear of being in any place or situation where the sufferer does not feel safe or where the sufferer feels trapped, and he/she is driven by an uncontrollable urge to escape to a place of safety which, in most cases, is his/her own home. Taking all these factors into account, it is thus not surprising that sufferers of agoraphobia do not venture very far from home. Some agoraphobics find that they can get further from their place of safety if accompanied by a trusted relative or friend. However, eventually the sufferer becomes totally dependent on their "carer" and thus finds that he/she cannot go out anywhere without their helper. It is thus not surprising that sufferers try to avoid these awful sensations Regrettably by doing so they are only reinforcing their fears and so making recovery much harder. Once a phobia has set in then the best way to overcome it is to slowly but surely face up to the fear. This is not easy as the sufferer has to experience those feelings that for so long he/she has sought to avoid.
SPECIFIC PHOBIAS
Specific phobias are, as the name suggests, ones which centre around specific objects, creatures or situations. The sufferer has a continual and irrational fear of the object, situation or creature, he/she realises that this reaction is illogical but, still feels under threat. However, the sensations of fear which the sufferer experiences are very real and very distressing. Many non-sufferers avoid such things as snakes, spiders, large animals and inanimate objects like edges of railway platforms. However, as a phobia develops, the sufferer will probably avoid pictures, or even saying the name, of his/her particular dreaded object, situation or creature and will almost certainly never go anywhere near them. It is not unknown for carers to have to vet T.V. programmes or cut out articles out of magazines or newspapers in order to protect their sufferer. Thus the sufferer becomes severely handicapped in a similar manner to an agoraphobic.
SOCIAL PHOBIAS
Social phobias are characterised by the fear of being the centre of attention and/or behaving in an embarrassing or humiliating manner. It is fair to say that sufferers in this category rarely, if ever, behave in this manner but they "avoid" just in case. Examples of social phobias would be the avoidance of restaurants, public houses, public toilets, having guests in the house, or even being watched whilst carrying out household chores, e.g. preparing food, pouring drinks or even making a cup of tea.
I will not list all the different types of phobia here. It is a huge list, and even includes the fear of phobias phobophobia. If you wish to browse a list of all of them then visit www.nomorepanic.co.uk/phobialist.htm
The good news is that all these phobias can normally be removed very quickly with hypnotherapy. It may only take one session, if it is not deeply rooted in some emotional trauma from childhood.
Anxiety is a normal human feeling. We all experience it when faced with situations we find threatening or difficult. When our anxiety is a result of a continuing problem, such as money difficulties, we call it worry, if it is a sudden response to an immediate threat, like looking over a cliff or being confronted with an angry dog, we call it fear.
Normally, both fear and anxiety can he helpful, helping us to avoid dangerous situations, making us alert and giving us the motivation to deal with problems. However, if the feelings become too strong or go for too long, they can stop us from doing the things we want to and can make our lives miserable.
A phobia is a fear of particular situations or things that are not dangerous and which most people do not find troublesome. A person with a phobia has intense symptoms of anxiety, but they only arise from time to time in the particular situations that frighten them. At other times they don't feel anxious. If you have a phobia of dogs, you will feel OK if there are no dogs around, if you are scared of heights, you feel OK at ground level, and if you can't face social situations, you will feel calm when there are no people around.
A phobia will lead the sufferer to avoid situations in which they know they will be anxious, but this will actually make the phobia worse as time goes on. It can also mean that the person's life becomes increasingly dominated by the precautions they have to take to avoid the situation they fear. Sufferers usually know that there is no real danger, they may feel silly about their fear but they are still unable to control it. A phobia is more likely to go away if it has started after a distressing or traumatic event.
About one in every ten people will have troublesome anxiety or phobias at some point in their lives. However, most will never ask for treatment. It becomes an accepted part of them, a harmless neurosis, that their friends and relations see as being a part of their character.
A phobia is an anxiety disorder in which you feel intense fear of a particular object or situation, but know all the time that there is no real danger.
The dictionary definition of the word "Phobia" is "Fear" but, a better word could be "Avoidance", as most phobia sufferers avoid the situations. It is actually an excessive or unreasonable fear of an object, place or situation.
Phobias are extremely common. Sometimes they start in childhood for no apparent reason; sometimes they emerge after a traumatic event; and sometimes they develop from an attempt to make sense of an unexpected and intense anxiety or panic (e.g. "I feel fearful, therefore I must be afraid of something").
When the phobic person actually encounters, or even anticipates being in the presence of the feared object or situation, he or she experiences immediate anxiety. The physical symptoms of anxiety may include a racing heart, shortness of breath, sweating, chest or abdominal discomfort, trembling, etc. and the emotional component involves an intense fear - of losing control, embarrassing oneself, or passing out.
Commonly people try to escape, and then to avoid the feared situation wherever possible. This may be fairly easy if the feared object is rarely encountered (e.g. fear of snakes) and avoidance will not therefore restrict the person's life very much. At other times (e.g. agoraphobia, social phobia) avoiding the feared situation limits their life severely. Escape and avoidance also make the feared object/situation more frightening.
With some phobias the person may have specific thoughts which add some extra threat to the feared situation. This is particularly true for social phobia where there is often a fear of being negatively evaluated by others. It is also true for agoraphobia when there may be a fear of collapsing and dying with no one around to help, or of having a panic attack and making a fool of oneself in front of other people.
With some phobias there may be accompanying frightening thoughts (this plane might crash; I'm trapped; I must get out). However with other phobias it is more difficult to identify any specific thoughts which could be associated with the anxiety (e.g. it is unlikely that a spider phobic is afraid of making a fool of themselves in front of the spider). With these phobias the cause seems to be explained more as a conditioned (learned) anxiety response which has become associated with the feared object.
Some people have phobias of everyday things that most of us never even notice - e.g. fur, birds, buttons, frogs, hedgehogs, baked beans !!! Some of us have phobias that are easily avoided while but others feel that it is taking over their lives because the object of fear is all around - e.g. birds!
There are three types of phobia :-
AGORAPHOBIA
Agoraphobia is not, as many people believe, just about open spaces. It is really a fear of being in any place or situation where the sufferer does not feel safe or where the sufferer feels trapped, and he/she is driven by an uncontrollable urge to escape to a place of safety which, in most cases, is his/her own home. Taking all these factors into account, it is thus not surprising that sufferers of agoraphobia do not venture very far from home. Some agoraphobics find that they can get further from their place of safety if accompanied by a trusted relative or friend. However, eventually the sufferer becomes totally dependent on their "carer" and thus finds that he/she cannot go out anywhere without their helper. It is thus not surprising that sufferers try to avoid these awful sensations Regrettably by doing so they are only reinforcing their fears and so making recovery much harder. Once a phobia has set in then the best way to overcome it is to slowly but surely face up to the fear. This is not easy as the sufferer has to experience those feelings that for so long he/she has sought to avoid.
SPECIFIC PHOBIAS
Specific phobias are, as the name suggests, ones which centre around specific objects, creatures or situations. The sufferer has a continual and irrational fear of the object, situation or creature, he/she realises that this reaction is illogical but, still feels under threat. However, the sensations of fear which the sufferer experiences are very real and very distressing. Many non-sufferers avoid such things as snakes, spiders, large animals and inanimate objects like edges of railway platforms. However, as a phobia develops, the sufferer will probably avoid pictures, or even saying the name, of his/her particular dreaded object, situation or creature and will almost certainly never go anywhere near them. It is not unknown for carers to have to vet T.V. programmes or cut out articles out of magazines or newspapers in order to protect their sufferer. Thus the sufferer becomes severely handicapped in a similar manner to an agoraphobic.
SOCIAL PHOBIAS
Social phobias are characterised by the fear of being the centre of attention and/or behaving in an embarrassing or humiliating manner. It is fair to say that sufferers in this category rarely, if ever, behave in this manner but they "avoid" just in case. Examples of social phobias would be the avoidance of restaurants, public houses, public toilets, having guests in the house, or even being watched whilst carrying out household chores, e.g. preparing food, pouring drinks or even making a cup of tea.
I will not list all the different types of phobia here. It is a huge list, and even includes the fear of phobias phobophobia. If you wish to browse a list of all of them then visit www.nomorepanic.co.uk/phobialist.htm
The good news is that all these phobias can normally be removed very quickly with hypnotherapy. It may only take one session, if it is not deeply rooted in some emotional trauma from childhood.