Is a Phobia Getting in the Way of your Life?
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10 of The Most Common Phobias
- Social Interaction – Social phobia
- Open public spaces – Agoraphobia
- Vomiting – Emetophobia
- Blushing – Erythrophobia
- Driving – Driving phobia
- Illness – Hypochondria
- Flying – Aerophobia
- Spiders – Arachnophobia
- Animals – Zoophobia
- Confined spaces – Claustrophobia
What is a Phobia?
It’s an intense and irrational fear towards an object, event or an animal that causes a negative psychological and physical reaction. The reactions can be activated when you think about, or are confronted with the object, event or animal in question.
The physical reactions are similar to those of a panic attack such as a racing heart, shaking and excessively sweating. Similarly, these can be accompanied by overwhelming thoughts and images which can be particularly frightening.
Due to the intense symptoms, it is not uncommon to go to great lengths to avoid coming into contact with the source of the issue which can put some real limitations on your life.
If the thought of public speaking fills you with terror it could prevent you from applying for promotions at work, you may avoid participating in clubs or events, and possibly even avoid family gathering for the fear of having to speak in front of others. Avoiding speaking in front of others can lead to social isolation, low-self esteem, or feeling like you are a failure. Find out how RTT can help you overcome the fears that are holding you back.
Why Have I Developed A Phobia
There are many different reasons for developing a phobia. If you have memories of a parent running away from a bee then there is a good chance that you are fearful of bees yourself. In this scenario the phobia would be a result of social learning.
However, if you have been painfully stung by a bee in the past, your body already knows a bee has caused you pain. Therefore, it’s expecting the same to happen again would be the result of learned behaviour.
There is some evidence that there are biological reasons behind some phobias as they are thought to have been a useful fear that protected our ancient ancestors. In the past small, fast-moving insects or animals may have been dangerous. The fear response would have been activated to help keep them safe. Certainly, this is an outdated fear as not many people are seriously injured by a bee sting in today’s modern world.
Are you Using 'Safety Behaviours'?
You may have employed ‘safety behaviours’ which are techniques that you have put in place to minimise the risk of you being confronted by the subject of your phobia. This could be putting motion water spray in the garden to spray cats, checking the bed at night for spiders, drinking alcohol before public speaking or anything else that you can think of that may keep you safe. These techniques don’t work, and in fact they can cause the problem to intensify over time.
How Can you Treat a Phobia?
An extremely effective way of fixing a phobia is using Rapid Transformational Therapy (RTT) combined with counselling. Through the power of hypnosis, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) you can access the subconscious mind, and unravel how the phobia came to being. When you understand how the intense fear manifested, any outdated beliefs can be replaced with new healthy beliefs. The specialist techniques of this therapy provides outstanding results which are fast and permanent.
Book a free 20 minute Discovery Call to discuss the Rapid Results Package which provides outstanding results.