In contrast with a rational fear, a phobia is an unreasonable exaggerated fear of an object or situation. ‘Simple phobias’ refer to the fear of specific things, for example, spider phobia (arachnophobia). A simple/monophobia which is very common is agoraphobia - the fear of being out of your home or other place where you feel safe, and feeling stuck or trapped in an environment which is unfamiliar. Suffers of agoraphobia will commonly experience feelings of panic and may have actual panic attacks as a result of being in a crowd, in a supermarket, on a bus or any public or open space.
When the phobic person encounters, or even anticipates being in the presence of the feared object or situation, the usually experience immediate intense anxiety. Anxiety of this kind can bring about physical feelings such as those listed below. The phobic person when faced with their fear may experience an intense fear of losing control, and may be worried about embarrassing themselves or fainting.
fast breathing (hyperventilation)
Tight Chest
Breathlessness
Fast heart beat (palpitations)
a choking sensation
flushing feeling hot
sweating
feeling faint
numbness or‘pins and needles’
tension headache
Weak feeling in the body legs feel ‘like jelly’
dizziness
"churning" feeling in the stomach
diarrhoea
The origin of the phobia is something that a Hypnotherapist may or may not try to uncover. There are differing theories on whether re-visiting potentially difficult or upsetting memories has a therapeutic effect or not. Phobias very often start in childhood and may be the result of a quite innocuous event. Some phobias have developed as a result of a genuine traumatic event in the persons past, and sometimes the phobia may have developed it is learned from a parent or relative where they have seen their response to a given stimuli and learned the same exaggerated fear, thus developing the same phobia. What may have begun in childhood as a simple fear can, over the years develop and become worse as the sufferer goes to lengths to avoid the stimulus. This avoidance tends to make the problem worse over time. Additionally the fear is developed further still and the phobic response deepened as the sufferer reminds themselves and other people of their fear or phobia, reinforcing it as part of their personality. Depending of the particular phobia it is easier to avoid some rather than others, agoraphobia and social phobia sufferers may find their lives severely affected when they try to avoid the negative stimuli for their panic symptoms.
Many people who suffer from phobias and eventually seek help are quite surprised when they discover their phobias are often extremely common. Phobias respond to treatment where re-learning the response to the situation or object is the primary objective of the therapy. In both CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy) and Hypnotherapy this process is referred to as “Gradual Desensitisation”, it is undertaken gradually, cautiously and at a pace the client is happy and comfortable with. This process involves establishing a hierarchy of personally tailored threatening situations and confronting the least feared situation first before moving on to the more threatening ones The success of treatment depends very much of how determined the sufferer is to overcome their fear.
The approach of “Gradual Desensitisation is very gentle and most people will make progress with this technique. However, there is some effort required, the sufferer will be required to face their fear. In hypnotherapy this is quite easy as the subject is required to visualise themselves in various situations whilst under hypnosis, the scenarios having been agreed between the therapist and client beforehand. The client can signal to the Hypnotherapist at any time if they feel uncomfortable. Gradually over a few sessions all of the imagined situations can be experienced easily and with no anxiety symptoms. Once this point is reached, the subject may gradually put themselves in situations in their everyday life (if appropriate) which would previously have been difficult for them. The work done under hypnosis will result in them feeling calm and relaxed in those situations where previously they would have had strong anxiety symptoms or even panic attacks. It is important to note however, that if undergoing hypnotherapy the client must not abort the course before it is completed and should be patient for results.
Any phobia treatment ultimately requires that the sufferer must stop avoiding the feared situation- the extreme anxiety having been obliterated with the treatment.
When to seek help
If your phobia is making it difficult for you to lead a normal life. If the phobia seems to be getting worse, if it stops you doing normal things and interferes with your enjoyment of life it is probably time to talk to someone about it. If you experience high levels of stress or anxiety on a regular basis as a result of this phobia or suffer with panic attack because of your phobia then it is time to seek help to improve your quality of life.
Fear or phobia?
If you suffer from a phobia, you probably know that your fear is out of proportion to the real danger or threat of the situation, in fact you have probably used that fact to attempt to talk yourself out of your phobic reaction many times before, but you find you cannot control it.
The way to get over a phobia is to expose yourself to the feared object or situation and manage the anxiety levels, decreasing them to a manageable level. It is possible to do this on your own, you do not ‘need’ therapy, but it is necessary to have a plan, to work through gradually from easy situations to hard ones through the hierarchy of ‘gradual desensitisation’ and to take it at a steady pace.
There are self help books which may be useful. If self-help techniques are not for you, you may wish to see your GP for advice. They may refer you to a CBT specialist, medicines are rarely used unless the sufferer has depression. Antidepressants are sometimes used to treat agoraphobia especially if panic attacks are a problem. There are other therapies such as hypnotherapy which you may want to consider.
Fear is a ‘normal’ form of anxiety if in a situation that is a real threat or great concern, they key is that the fear is in proportion to the danger or severity of the situation. With a phobia the fear is out of proportion to the level of danger - the fear is inappropriate because of an unrealistic, inflated or exaggerated perception of the harmfulness of the situation.
Click here to see the Newspaper article Rachael was featured in on 24 October 2008:
