DEFINITION AND SYMPTOMS OF PHOBIAS:
A phobia is defined as a fear not based in reality. When a person has a panic attack, they get panicky feelings; their respiration and heart rates raise; they may experience feeling choked up like their heart is in their throat; their palms often get sweaty; they may experience the sound of ringing in their ears; and they very often find that they are unable to participate in an activity. These feelings push the individual to avoid the situations and environments that cause them.
EXAMPLES OF PHOBIAS:
For example, if a person has an irrational fear of driving, they would show evidence of these symptoms when they attempt to drive a car, or probably even when they just think about driving. Or a terror attack might come about simply when driving in specific places like in heavy traffic.
The irrational fear of talking in front of a group of people is a very widespread phobia. The phobic feelings appear when the sufferer tries to talk in front of a person that they are frightened by, or they might perhaps have phobic feelings only when in front of an assembly of people. The size of the crowd will vary. This irrational fear can be triggered by fears of inadequacy, or a lack of self-esteem.
Those who suffer from social anxiety disorder can get horrifically nervous just being around other people, even folks they are acquainted with. It is a fear of being criticized or evaluated by others. This fear can be caused by almost any variety of social interaction. A person could be waiting on line at a checkout and get stressful feelings as they imagine having to talk to the cashier during checkout.
The fear of taking tests (which is commonly known as test anxiety) is a very common phobia. Testing phobias are rooted in comparing yourself to other people, and is deeply rooted in a fear of failing.
People have developed phobias to every sort of experience under the sun. For instance: Snakes; bugs; relationships; flying; small enclosed places; animals; high places; death; and even the great outdoors.
Agoraphobia is generally considered to be a fear of open spaces. However, this definition is very deceptive 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 supermarket.
For many phobia sufferers, once their panic attacks have started, they start to wait for them to take place. And this anticipation actually triggers them with increasing frequency. Other people experience fearful feelings on a continuous basis. These feelings cause an overall sense of discomfort, rather than panic.
AVAILABLE FORMS OF TREATMENT
DRUGS:
Some physicians care for their patients using sedatives, which can make the phobia worse over extended treatment. Sedatives don't take care of the core cause of a phobia; they only mask some of the symptoms.
TALK THERAPY:
Some counselors advocate "Talk Therapy." Talk therapy is merely talking about what is bothering you. Unfortunately, thinking about or talking about a situation or environment that causes a phobia can trigger a phobic attack!
HYPNOSIS:
Traditional hypnosis has been used to treat phobias, but with very little success. Traditional hypnotic therapy is accomplished when the therapist places the client in a relaxed state of self hypnosis and gives the client post-hypnotic suggestions or commands. Since most people in this generation question and resist direct suggestions, they also reject the notion that they will be more relaxed and at ease when they encounter the situation or environment that causes their panic attacks.
SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION:
Systematic Desensitization is the process of progressively desensitizing a phobic person to the environment or situation that causes a panic attack. For example, if a woman wants to dive from a high diving board but she fears it, she is asked to first dive from a height that she feels safe with. She dives in and realizes that nothing bad happened and that she is safe.
Next she is asked to dive in from the first step of the ladder going up to the diving board. Again, she dives in and realizes that she wasn't hurt and that she is again safe.
Over a period of time the woman is asked to dive in from progressively higher and higher steps on the ladder going up to the board. Each time she dives in and realizes that she did not get hurt and that she is safe and secure, she is able to move up to the next rung. If she experiences 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. Sooner or later 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 the state of hypnosis with as good as or even better results. While in a relaxed state of self-hypnosis, the woman would be told to envision herself diving in from each rung of the ladder. She would be told to visualize herself feeling relaxed and confident as she dives in. Since she is in fact disassociated while picturing herself, she is not able to cause a phobic 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 step 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 step on the ladder and imagine diving in from that rung.
She might be trained to create a kinesthetic (feeling or touch) "anchor" of feelings of safety and security. She could then trigger that anchor while imagining 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 effective and totally successful, but is can also be slow and take several hypnotic sessions to bring about a cure.
NLP V/K DISASSOCIATION:
Neuro-Linguistic Programming is basically the study and practice of how we create our reality. The V/K stands for visual / kinesthetic. The V/K Disassociation is a technique 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 panic from the phobia that causes them. The V/K Disassociation is known as the "One session phobia cure" in Neuro-Linguistic Programming circles, and with good cause.
CONCLUSION:
Phobias are very common in our civilization. They are fears that aren't based in reality. There are many ways of treating phobias, but thus far in my opinion, the best finest available are Systematic Desensitization while in the hypnotic state, and the Neuro-Linguistic Programming V/K Disassociation technique.
Source: http://www.ArticlePros.com/author.php?Alan B. Densky, CH
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