Page Name
FEAR
AND PHOBIAS
You Can Set Yourself Free
Among
the primary reasons why people seek therapy is the need to deal with fear reactions. The range of such problems
is extensive - from simple, annoying “hang-ups”, to specific
(or non-specific) fears which affect the activities or enjoyment of
life, to full-blown phobias which may be a part of serious mental illness.
Under certain circumstances or in specific situations virtually all
people are subject to a variety of rational or irrational apprehensions.
May of these originate in childhood when undeveloped reasoning ability
creates in a young person a natural climate for developing fears of
the unknown. Fears ca, of course, develop in adulthood through traumatic
experience, but most prove to have originated in early, impressionable
years.
It is interesting to note that fears seldom travel alone. While one
may be dominant and apparent, investigation will usually reveal others
which are associated and inter-related.
Common Problems
The usual apprehensions that may exist in relative degrees of severity
include flying, high places, rejection, failure (or even success), pain,
exposure, poor performance (sports, scholastic, job, theatrical, sexual),
death, the unknown, contamination, blood, animals (including spiders,
sharks, etc.), water, impending danger, darkness, open spaces, closed
spaces, loss of control and many others.
Fears are not necessarily bad. They can be highly valuable
if they serve useful purposes, such as creating caution in driving,
locking doors, being prepared for emergencies. But when a fear causes
alteration of a normal lifestyle, creating intense and irrational behaviors,
becoming a threat to a person’s well-being, it merits attention.
Frequent occurrence is a strong warning signal that needs to be heeded.
A ‘hang-up’” becomes a fear when it becomes noticeable
disturbing and begins to affect behavior. A fear becomes a phobia when
it reaches the point of being triggered by factors which are irrational
and may be unknown, and when it is experienced so frequently that it
affects an individuals normal activities. Lack of understanding of the
repressed conflict which causes the reaction may result in uncontrollable
or unreasonable behavior.
Hypnotherapists specializing in such disorders have
claimed that the fear itself may not create the phobic reaction. It
may well be caused by what the fear represents as an unknown danger.
Fears originating in adulthood may sometimes be caused by chemical problems
(hypoglycemic reaction) or by physiological reactions (indigestion assumed
to be a heart attack). The duration of the reaction under the triggering
circumstances may indicate whether the cause is physiological or psychological.
A psychological reaction, since it anticipates the triggering episode,
tends to diminish once the situation is actually encountered. Physiological
reactions, caused by the event or activity itself, tend to increase
once the triggering situation begins.
A key point is that a phobic person is threatened by something that
does not in reality present a life threat. Yet the reaction is the same
as it would be in a situation of real danger. The fear generates more
fear, and the situation cannot be confronted in a calm state, so the
victim makes every effort to avoid it.
The Advantage of Hypnotherapy
Specific fears often emanate from apprehension of impending danger.
Feeling of anxiety and panic tend to manifest into forebodings of approaching
disaster the source of which is not understood. The fear of loss of
control is primitive and is likely to be a common element and basic
cause in all phobia cases. It is not uncommon in relationship break-ups.
The progressive development of fear and phobic reactions
often proceed through four phases:
1. Unrealistic self-statements create a state of alarm;
2. Fear of the fear itself develops;
3. Personal feeling and reason are rejected as the fear escalates;
4. Avoidance begins of any person, place, thing or situation which generates
feelings of arousal or anxiety.
In mild cases reprogramming through hypnotherapy can prove effective.
Hypnotic suggestion can replace catastrophic thoughts with truthful
statements explaining the nature of the symptoms and the realization
that the physical sensations can cause no harm. Hypnosis can slow the
heartbeat, achieve a sense of balance, generate relaxation through deep
breathing, free the throat to swallow, overcome sensations of temperature
change and promote clear-headedness.
In more severe cases, symptoms are usually apparent, but true causes
likely are unknown. The condition which created the fear is a threat
to the victim because it is unresolved. Exposing the cause can diminish
the anxiety associated with the fear by taking it out of the unknown
so that rational suggestion can be used to alleviate symptoms. Some
causes apparently producing present symptoms, however, may prove to
be of themselves symptoms of yet a deeper cause.
Age Regression can
be a highly effective technique for uncovering causes. It is one of
the most beneficial procedures available in therapeutic arsenals of
hypnotherapy and psychotherapy.
Once casual factors are revealed, the hypnotherapeutic technique of
circle therapy may be the treatment of choice. This is a well-recognized
desensitization procedure to bring the psyche back into balance, eliminating
the fears by hypnotic confrontation. The fears are met and faced through
the subconscious mind. Repeated confrontation causes deterioration of
the fear symptoms and increases the ability to face and deal with past
traumatic experiences without apprehension, which the conscious mind
then accepts.
