Phobias
What is a phobia ?
A phobia is learned in an instant - that brief fraction of a second when we associate something which may or may not be 'scary' can last a lifetime if not treated properly. Many of us are wary of some things, even a bit scared, but a phobia is classed as an irrational and persistent fear of a given object or 'thing'. It is the most common anxiety disorder listed in DSM-IV compiled by the APA (American Psychiatric Association). This becomes a problem when normal day to day functioning is impaired in some way. Phobia's may be related to something which is in some way understandable - for instance a snake phobia is more understandable than a paper phobia. It may be the case that these became rooted in behaviour at an early age if some kind of association- (which may itself be weak) was made.
Phobia symptoms
A person with a phobia has intense symptoms of anxiety,such as panic, fear,rapid heartbeat, they might be short of breath and have a strong desire to get away. But they only arise from time to time in the particular situations that frighten them. At other times they don't feel anxious, click for more information on anxiety. If you have a phobia of dogs, of course you will feel OK if there are no dogs around,but if you have agorophobia you may fell relatively safe in your house but the thought of going outside might actually terrify you.
This may lead the sufferer to avoid situations in which they might encounter the distressing object or thing, but this will actually make the problem 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 often 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. How common are they? 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. A Flying phobia is very common, as is arachnophobia, the list is endless.
Causes
 Some of us seem to be born with a tendency to be anxious - research suggests that it can be inherited through our genes this gives us a predisposition to phobias. However, even people who are not naturally anxious can become anxious if they are put under enough pressure. Studies such as Seligman (1995) have shown that a phobia can be relatively easily created, which just goes to show how easily we can learn maladaptive behaviour.They can be looked at as a reaction to the fight or flight instinct we all have- passed on from our ancestors when we were more like animals than humans. In this scenario, something may scare us at some time in our lives, and we may experience the symptoms of the fight or flight repsonse, even though whatever is scaring us does not affect our survival- it is more the fact that we become scared out of all proportion to a given stimulus i.e normal household spiders are too small to cause us real harm.
Sometimes we may think we have a phobia when what we have instead is PTSD ( Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). This can occur when we witness devastating or extremely upsetting events on TV, not everyone would agree with this description but I have seen such instances myself. The twin towers diasasters can easily contribute to a fear of flying to such a point that it becomes more like PTSD than a regular phobia. You do not have to directly experience a trauma to suffer PTSD, if we see things on TV enough, we can still feel a real sense of horror and terror without having to be there ourselves. If you are not sure if you have a regular phobia or not ask your doctor or contact me on 07980 739817.
Hypnosis For Phobia's
Hypnotherapy can help you be free from your phobia quickly and effectively. You may have had this fear for as long as you can remember but in just 1 or 2 sessions of hypnosis most people can be free from it for the rest of their lives. Try it and see how it can help you. Call 0800 411 8650 or e mail
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Phobia's
