A phobia is an intense feeling of fear which is triggered by a specific situation, animal or object which very often poses no actual threat to our physical safety. This fear, which is beyond conscious control, results you taking extreme action to avoid potential phobic situations which can affect your behaviour, thought patterns and lifestyle.
This avoidance only serves to reinforce the phobia, thus making it stronger and creating a more negative affect in your life.
Many phobias are established as a result of past experiences. Many of these are created in childhood through traumatic experiences although many phobias can develop in adulthood through learned behaviour from others, long periods of stress or by developing a fear of fear.
A phobic response creates the stress response known as fight or flight. This is when the body reacts to the stressing event or the fear and causes symptoms such as increased heartbeat, uneven breathing, increased adrenaline production, muscle tension, dizziness, faintness, physical freezing, butterfly stomach and sweating.
Treatment of phobias
Personel Therapy can help you take control of your fears and there are a number of ways we can tackle this. For example, a Cognitive Behavioural technique such as graded exposure (where you decide the small steps forward) can bring great benefits. Also Hypnotherapy can quickly allow the brain to learn new behaviours to replace the fear or feelings of panic with confidence, control and calmness. NLP techniques are also a very powerful to allow you to view the phobic situation in a way that you want to
By choosing Personal Empowerment, we can discuss what is happening for you to safely eradicate or reduce your phobia using the therapeutic tools that fit best for you.
| Specific phobias | Process Phobias | Social Phobia |
|---|---|---|
| spiders | flying | social situations |
| flies | dentists | interacting with others |
| frogs | driving | eating out |
| thunder | exams | being watched |
| heights | interviews | Agoraphobia – open areas |
| insects | tests |
Agoraphobia
Often described as a fear of open spaces, it may be better defined as being fearful of public places such as crowded areas, cinemas, pubs, town centres and public transport. Agoraphobia can often be symptomatic of a broader problem that leads to a person feeling too frightened to leave the house and as such can lead to a very restricted life. A bad experience in one place can lead to an avoidance of that place and this experience can multiply to the point where leaving the house is a very traumatic thought. Many times these fears revolve around public embarrassment and fear of panicking, fainting or drawing attention to themselves in a negative way and is often thought of as a fear of fears.
Social Phobia
Social Phobia is a fear of situations where a person may feel they are being scrutinized by others or that they may act in way that is unacceptable or embarrassing. Often it is when a person feels extreme anxiety in social situations and this may result in great difficult in eating or drinking in the presence of others. This phobia can also cause anxiety when having to speak or perform in public – a level of nervousness is quite normal in these situations, however, severe anxiety and distress is not.
Often beginning in childhood or late adolescence, a central theme of social phobia is the fear that others are looking at them to judge and find out if they are stupid or incapable, which maybe the person’s own inaccurate view of themselves.
As well as the fears of social interaction, dating, going to parties, eating out etc, other symptoms of social phobia can be increased heartbeat, self defeating behaviour, blushing, inaccurate thoughts, stomach ache and the person’s ‘mind going blank’.
If you would like any more information on how Personal Empowerment can help you without any obligation to book an appointment, please do not hesitate to make contact.