DEFINITION AND SYMPTOMS OF PHOBIAS: A phobia is defined as an illogical fear or dread. When a person experiences a phobic attack, they get worried feelings; their breathing and heart rates raise; they may experience feeling choked up like their heart is in their throat; their palms very often get sweaty; they may hear a ringing in their ears; and they quite often find that they are unable to participate in an activity. These feelings push the individual to avoid the activities and environments that trigger them.
SPECIFIC EXAMPLES OF PHOBIAS: For example, if someone has a driving phobia, they would show evidence of these symptoms when they attempt to drive, or maybe even when they think about driving. Or a phobic attack could come about only while driving in specific places like in heavy traffic.
The irrational fear of talking in front of a group of people is a comparatively common phobia. The frightened feelings appear when the sufferer attempts to talk in front of a person that they are frightened by, or they may have fearful feelings only in front of a group of people. The size of the crowd of people will vary. This fear can be set off by fears of inadequacy, or a lack of self-esteem.
Those who suffer from social anxiety disorder can get extremely tense just being around other folks, even folks that they are acquainted with. It’s a fear that they will be criticized or evaluated by other people. This fear can be triggered in any kind of social dealings. A person could be standing on line at a supermarket and get phobic feelings as they think about having to talk to the checker while they checkout.
The fear of test taking (which is regularly known as test anxiety) is quite a frequent phobia. Phobias to taking tests are rooted in comparing yourself to other folks, and is deeply rooted in a fear of failure.
People have experienced irrational fears to every sort of experience and environment under the sun. For example: High places; animals; small enclosed places; relationships; flying; bugs; snakes; and even the great outdoors.
Agoraphobia is generally considered to be a fear of open spaces. However, this definition is quite confusing because Agoraphobics are really afraid of having a panic attack, wherever they may happen to be. Agoraphobia develops when a person begins to avoid places or situations they have associated with anxiety. For example, they could have a panic attack at home, church, or in a gas station.
For many, once the panic attacks have started to take place, they begin to wait for them to occur. And this anticipation actually causes them to occur with increasing frequency. Other folks experience fearful feelings on a continuous basis. These feelings cause an overall sense of discomfort, rather than panic.
OBTAINABLE FORMS OF TREATMENT
DRUGS: Some doctors treat their patients using sedatives, which can make the phobia worse over protracted treatment. Sedatives don’t take care of the underlying cause of a phobia; they only disguise some of the symptoms.
TALK THERAPY: Some therapists advocate “Talk Therapy.” Talk therapy is merely talking about what is bothering you. Unfortunately, talking about or even thinking about a situation or environment that triggers a phobia can trigger one!
HYPNOTHERAPY CDS: Traditional hypnosis has been used to treat phobias, but with very little success. Traditional hypnotherapy is accomplished when the therapist places the client in a relaxed state of hypnosis and then gives the subject post-hypnotic commands or suggestions. Since most people of our generation question and resist direct suggestions, they also reject the notion that they will be more relaxed and at ease when they encounter the environment or situation that causes their panic attacks.
SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION: Systematic Desensitization is the practice of incrementally desensitizing a phobic person to the condition or environment that triggers a phobic attack. For example, if a person wanted to dive from a high board but fears it, she is asked to first dive from a height that she feels confident about. She dives in and realizes that she didn’t get hurt and that she is secure.
Next she is asked to dive in from the lowest step of the ladder going up to the high board. Again, she dives in and realizes that nothing bad happened and that she is again safe.
Over a period of time the phobic is asked to dive in from incrementally higher steps on the ladder. Each time she dives in and realizes that nothing bad happened to her and that she is safe, she is able to move up to the next rung on the ladder. If she experiences the sensation of fear, then she’s told to move back down one rung on the ladder and dive from there until she feels complete comfort and security. In the end she makes it to the top of the ladder and dives in from the high board itself.
SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION WHILE IN THE STATE OF HYPNOSIS: Systematic Desensitization can be done literally while in a hypnotic state with as good as or even better results. While in a relaxed state of self hypnosis, the woman would be told to visualize herself diving in from each step on the ladder. She would be told to picture herself feeling confident as she dives in. Since she is in a disassociated state while visualizing herself, she is not able to experience a panic attack.
Next she’s told to associate, or put the camera inside of her head so she would be seeing what she would see through her own eyes if she was actually diving in from each rung of the ladder. She is told to imagine feeling safe and relaxed as she dives in.
Just as in a live (in vivo) systematic desensitization, if she feels any terror she’s told to go back to the previous lower rung on the ladder and imagine diving in from that step. The phobic might be taught to create a kinesthetic (feeling or touch) “anchor” of feelings of safety and security. She could then activate that anchor while picturing that she’s diving, and the feelings of safety and security could be subjectively transferred to the act of diving.
Systematic Desensitization while in self hypnosis can be incredibly powerful and successful, but is can also be slow and take several hypnotic sessions to bring about a cure.
NEURO-LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING V/K DISASSOCIATION: NLP is the study of how we create our reality. The V/K stands for visual / kinesthetic. The V/K Disassociation is a method that enables a trained NLP Practitioner to guide a subject through specific visual imagery that quickly and in many cases instantly disconnects or disassociates the feelings of terror from the irrational fear that causes them. The V/K Disassociation is known as the “One session phobia cure” in NLP circles, and with good cause.
CONCLUSION: Phobias are very common in our society. They are fears that are not based in reality. There are many ways of treating phobias, but so far in my belief, the best finest available are Systematic Desensitization while in the state of hypnosis, and the NLP V/K Disassociation technique.
Alan B. Densky, CH is a trained hypnotherapist and NLP Practitioner who’s been in practice since 1978. He can be contacted through his Neuro-VISION Self Hypnosis website which offers NLP CDs for phobias. Visit his hypnosis repository, or download a free MP3.
- Alan B. Densky, CH
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