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Phobias - What Causes Them And How You Can Get Over Them With Hypnosis

By: Moisha Israel

DEFINITION AND SYMPTOMS OF PHOBIAS:
A phobia can be defined as an irrational fear. When a person experiences a phobic attack, they get worried feelings; their breathing and heart rates increase; they may feel choked up like their heart is in their throat; their palms very often get sweaty; they may experience a sound of 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 situations and environments that cause them.

SPECIFIC EXAMPLES OF COMMON PHOBIAS:
For instance, if an individual has a driving phobia, they would display these symptoms at the time they endeavor to drive their car, or possibly even when they think about driving. Or a panic attack might come about only while driving in specific places like across railroad tracks.

Stage freight is a very widespread phobia. The anxious feelings appear when the sufferer begins to talk in front of a person that they are intimidated by, or they might well have phobic feelings only in front of a group of other people. The number of people in the assembly can vary. This phobia can be triggered by fears of inadequacy, or a lack of self-confidence.

Those who suffer from social anxiety disorder can get awfully anxious just being around other people, even folks that they know. It's a fear of being criticized or evaluated by other people. This fear can be set off by almost any kind of social dealings. A person could be waiting on line at a supermarket and get panicky feelings as they imagine having to talk to the cashier while they checkout.

The fear of taking tests (frequently known as test anxiety) is a common phobia. A phobia to taking tests is rooted in comparing yourself to other people, and is deeply rooted in a fear of failing.

People have experienced irrational fears to every category of situation under the sun. For instance: High places; animals; small enclosed places; relationships; flying; bugs; snakes; and even the great outdoors.

Agoraphobia is generally thought 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 are. 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 people who suffer with phobias, once the panic attacks have started to occur, they start to anticipate 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 doctors treat their patients with sedatives, which can make the phobia worse over extended usage. Sedatives do not treat the core root of a phobia; they only camouflage some of the symptoms.

TALK THERAPY:
Some therapists prescribe "Talk Therapy." Talk therapy is only talking about what is bothering you. Unfortunately, thinking about or talking about a situation or environment that sets off a phobia can trigger a panic attack!

HYPNOSIS:
Traditional self hypnosis has been used to treat phobias, but with very little success. Traditional hypnosis is accomplished when the hypnotist places the client in a relaxed state of hypnosis and then gives him post-hypnotic commands or suggestions. Since most people of our generation question and resist direct post-hypnotic suggestions, they also reject the concept that they will be more relaxed and at ease when they encounter the environment or situation that triggers their panic attacks.

SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION:
Systematic Desensitization is the process of progressively desensitizing a phobic person to the environment or circumstances that sets off a phobic attack. For instance, if a woman wants to dive from a high board but she fears it, she is asked to first dive from a height that she feels confident about. She dives in and realizes that nothing bad happened and that she is safe.

The next thing she is asked is to dive in from the bottom step of the ladder going up to the high board. Again, she dives in and realizes that nothing bad happened and that she is safe.

Over a period of time the subject is asked to dive in from increasingly higher and higher steps on the ladder. Each time she dives in and realizes that nothing bad happened to her and that she is safe and sound, she is able to move up to the next rung. If she experiences the sensation of fear, then she is 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 virtually while in the state of hypnosis with as good as or better results. While in a relaxed hypnotized state, the woman would be told to picture herself diving in from each rung of the ladder. She would be told to see herself feeling relaxed and confident as she dives in. Since she is in fact disassociated while seeing herself, she is not able to cause a panic attack.

Next she is told to associate, in other words to imagine the camera inside of her head so she would see 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 anxiety she is asked to go back to the previous lower step on the ladder and visualize diving in from there.

She might be trained to generate a kinesthetic (feeling or touch) "anchor" for feelings of security and safety. She could then activate that anchor while imagining that she is 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 especially powerful and totally successful, but is can also be slow and take several hypnotic sessions to bring about a cure.

NEURO-LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING V/K DISASSOCIATION:
Neuro-Linguistic Programming is fundamentally the study 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 alarm from the trigger or phobia that causes them. The V/K Disassociation is known as the "One session phobia cure" in Neuro-Linguistic Programming circles, and with good reason.

CONCLUSION:
Irrational fears are very common in our society. They are fears that are not founded in reality. There are many techniques for treating phobias, but thus far in my belief, the best finest are Systematic Desensitization while a hypnotic state, and the Neuro-Linguistic Programming V/K Disassociation technique.