Phobia

If you have a fear of some object or situation that is making your life a misery, or restricting it in some way, then you may have a phobia.

What is a phobia?

A phobia is an irrational fear, brought on by a particular object (e.g. a spider) or a situation (e.g. flying, going into water). The fear is massively out of proportion to the actual object/situation and although the person may well recognize this, they are unable to get their fear under control and view the situation in a calm, rational way as others do. Most people with a phobia deal with it by avoiding the phobic object/situation. Although this strategy of avoidance can work some of the time, many sufferers realise they are limiting their lives by doing so and recognize that in the long run, avoidance is not a totally satisfactory way of dealing with their phobia.

Why do people develop phobias?

There are several causes of a phobia.

1. Severe stress may manifest itself as a phobia. For example, imagine someone who works at the top of a high-rise office block and is experiencing severe stress at work (pressing deadlines, aggressive manager). They may develop a fear of heights or elevators - which means they cannot go to work. The phobia (called a displaced phobia) allows them to avoid the stressful situation. In reality of course, although development of the phobia provides a short-term gain in that they are 'escaping' from the stressful work situation, they now have to deal with the phobia. And the original stress-situation at work still remains unresolved.
2. Phobias may also develop as a result of a series of related anxiety-provoking / disturbing events.
   Consider the following example. A child goes horse-riding, falls off and breaks her collar-bone. Nine months later she is visiting the local swimming pool, slips on the wet floor and bruises her face. A few months later she is climbing a tree, falls and sprains her ankle. She may conclude (at an unconscious level) that the world outside is a dangerous place and that it's better (safer) to stay inside. And so a fear of going out develops.
3. A phobia can result from a single traumatic event. A young boy is stopping over at a friend's house. In the middle of the night, he wakes up. Half-asleep he sees a spider crawling across his pillow. Confused by the unfamiliar surroundings, he feels unsafe and vulnerable, and due to his child-like way of thinking, he believes the spider is poisonous and can harm him. He is struck with terror. Such a single traumatic event can result in a fear of spiders (arachnophobia).
4. Freud believed that all children develop primitive sexual desires for the parent of the opposite sex (the Oedipal complex). Fearing punishment from the same-sex parent, these desires are repressed (pushed out of awareness). Unresolved fear of the same-sex parent can then be displaced (see example 1.) onto other objects or situations and hence a phobia develops.
5. Another theory about the development of phobias states that they are actually learnt from others. Children copy parents and significant people in their lives - so why not copy their phobias too? Experiments with monkeys and groups of humans give some support to this theory.

Common phobias

Phobias can be broadly classified as follows:

• Agoraphobia - fear of open spaces
• Claustrophobia - fear of closed spaces
• Social phobia - a fear of social gatherings, eating in public and so on. Social phobia is a fairly common phobia, with onset generally taking place during adolescence, when it can interfere with the development of friendships. It can be confined to a specific social situation or it may be generalized to just about any social situation.
• Specific animal phobias - fear of spiders, birds, mice, snakes, worms etc
• Miscellaneous - fear of flying, heights, thunder, water and so on.

Treatment

Hypnosis is an effective treatment for phobias.

A full, detailed case history is taken and a hierarchy of feared situations is then constructed. Patient involvement is absolutely crucial in doing this. Having put the patient into trance, I carry out a desensitization procedure. This involves exposing the patient to each situation in turn, while he/she remains deeply relaxed in trance. As with all hypnotherapeutic work, the patient is in control at all times.

Two or three follow-up sessions are usually advisable / needed.

If you wish to book a free 30 minute no obligation session to discuss your situation then please phone

All calls are treated in confidence.

Back to the Top of the Page Go Back to the Previous Page

---