Overcome Your Fears and Phobias

Fears and phobias are two things that are linked with each other. They are also two things that are frequently mistaken for being the same thing, despite actually being different. A fear is defined as an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain, or harm, and a phobia is defined as an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something. So, to put it simply, fears and phobias differ in that one is more severe than the other, not so easy to control, and in some cases uncontrollable.

One question I am sometimes asked and one question that I always ask my clients, is where do fears and phobias come from? No one person is born with a fear or phobia built into them. Some people pick them up over time without even realising it and there are some people who have their fears and phobias built into them by parents, carers, or indeed any person who has an influence in their life. For example, a woman may have a phobia of spiders and scream every time she sees one. That could be witnessed by her young son and the phobia projected onto him. He will see his mother having an irrational response to a spider and think that is the way all people should react to them. So, then the son has the phobia of spiders which stays with him and is eventually passed on to his own children. It can and does happen, and that is a real life situation from one of my cases.

Now, what are the different types of phobias? It is generally accepted that there are several different types of phobias. They are:

Simple phobias: These are phobias of a single stimulus such as heights, ladders, enclosed spaces, etc.

Complex phobias: These are phobias of a number of stimuli. For example, a phobia of going on boats, maybe a phobia of drowning, losing control, crashing, being lost, or open spaces.

Social phobias: These are phobias of what may happen in the company of others. This can be being scared of blushing, losing self control, or trembling.

Panic attacks: Characterised by the presense of panic attacks (obviously). A number of things can trigger these off and they can sometimes be quite complex.

Agoraphobia: Literally a phobia of the open marketplace. Some years ago it was used to refer to people who have a fear of open spaces but it is now applied to people who experience nervousness the further they travel from home. In severe cases, people may not go out at all.

The last two categories can be put into the social phobia category but thay are special cases in their own right and I prefer to put them in their own categories.

So, how might someone with a fear or phobia overcome the problem they have? Hypnotherapy is a valuable tool in assisting people in overcoming their fear or phobia. Systems can be put in place that can help people control whatever it is they are frightened of. The first thing that I do with my clients is to ask them how much money it would take for them to meet their phobia, whatever it may be. It is a good way to gauge how severe the person's phobia is because somebody who has a true and severe phobia will always say that no amount of money will get them to meet whatever it is they are scared of. From that I then know how to plan my sessions and approach the therapy. It is then important to try to find out where the person's fear or phobia came from. Many people can recall a traumatic or upsetting event involving what it is that they are scared of but may not have made the link between what is called the initial sensitising event and how they feel at the present moment. Then there are some people who genuinely do not know why they have their fear or phobia. This may be because they have suppressed the memory or it has been repressed. In these cases it is probably necessary to do some form of regression with the person to take them back to the intial sensitising event and recover that memory. When the cause of the fear or phobia has been discovered the work on 'fixing' the problem can be done.

It can take time for people to overcome their fear/phobia and the work on overcoming it can continue long after therapy has ended. However, hypnotherapy plants the seeds and systems in the person's mind that enables them to then overcome their fear or phobia.

I know from personal experience in my own practice, and from what I have witnessed too, that fears and phobias really can be overcome with the assistance of hypnotherapy, but as with all therapy, the client has to want it to work too. But with hard work, willpower, and determination from both sides, your fears and phobias can be beaten.