Phobia - What Causes Them And How You Can Get Rid Of Them Using Hypnosis

DEFINITION AND SYMPTOMS OF PHOBIAS: A phobia can be defined as a fear not based in reality. When a person experiences a panic attack, they get terrified feelings; their breathing and heart rates increase; they may experience feeling choked up like their heart is in their throat; the palms of their hands may get sweaty; they may experience the sound of ringing in their ears; and they may find that they are unable to partake in an activity. These feelings push the individual to avoid the activities and places that cause them.

SOME EXAMPLES OF PHOBIAS: For instance, if a person has a driving phobia, that individual would exhibit these symptoms whenever they endeavor to drive, or perhaps even when they just think about driving. Or a fright attack may happen simply when driving in specific places like over bridges. Stage freight is a fairly common phobia. The anxious feelings appear when the individual starts to talk in front of a person that they are intimidated by, or they may have panicky feelings only while in front of a group of people. The size of the crowd of people can differ. This phobia can be triggered by fears of inadequacy, or a lack of self-confidence.

Those who suffer from a social phobia can get horrifically jumpy just being around other folks, even folks they recognize. It's a fear that they will be criticized or evaluated by other people. This fear can be caused by any variety of social dealings. A person could be waiting on line at a supermarket and get panicky feelings as they think about having to talk to the checker while they checkout.

The fear of taking a test (which is commonly known as test anxiety) is a common phobia. A phobia to taking tests is rooted in comparing yourself to other folks, and is deeply rooted in a fear of failure. People have developed phobias to every sort of experience and environment under the sun. For example: Snakes; bugs; relationships; flying; small enclosed places; animals; high places; death; 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 church, at home, or at a gas station. For many phobics, once their panic attacks have begun to take place, they start to wait for them to come about. And this expectation actually triggers them with increasing frequency. Other folks experience fearful feelings on a continuous basis. These feelings cause an overall discomfort, rather than panic.

FORMS OF TREATMENT

OBTAINABLE DRUGS: Some physicians care for patients by means of sedatives, which can make the condition worse over protracted usage. Sedatives don't work on the core cause of a phobia; they only mask some of the symptoms.

TALK THERAPY: Some schools of therapy advocate "Talk Therapy." Talk therapy is only talking about what is bothering you. Unfortunately, talking about or even thinking about the situation or environment that causes a phobic attach can trigger one!

HYPNOSIS: Traditional self-hypnosis has been used to treat phobias, but with only meager success. Traditional hypnotic therapy is accomplished when the therapist places the client in a relaxed state of self hypnosis and then gives the patient post-hypnotic suggestions or commands. Since most people in this generation question and resist direct suggestions, they also reject the idea that they will be more relaxed and at ease when they encounter the environment or situation that sets off their panic attacks.

SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION: Systematic Desensitization is the practice of progressively desensitizing a person to the environment or circumstances that causes a panic attack. For instance, if a woman wanted 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 secure. The next thing she is asked is to dive from the bottom step of the ladder going up to the high diving board. Again, she dives in and realizes that she was not hurt and that she is again safe. Over a period of time the phobic is asked to dive in from progressively 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, she is able to move up to the next rung on the ladder. 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. Eventually she makes it to the top of the ladder and is able to dive in from the high board.

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 see herself feeling relaxed and confident as she watches herself dive in. Since she is in a disassociated state while visualizing herself, she is not able to trigger a panic attack. Next she's told to associate, in other words to imagine the camera inside of her head so she would see what she would see through her 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's asked to go back to the previous lower step on the ladder and visualize diving in from that step. She might be trained to generate a kinesthetic (feeling or touch) "anchor" of feelings of safety and security. She could then activate that anchor while picturing that she's diving, and the feelings of security and safety could be subjectively transferred to the act of diving. Systematic Desensitization while in hypnosis can be awfully effective 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: NLP 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 imagery that quickly and in many cases instantly disconnects or disassociates the feelings of panic from the irrational fear that causes them. The V/K Disassociation is known as the "One session phobia cure" in NLP circles, and with good cause.

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

Alan B. Densky, CH is a trained hypnotist and NLP Practitioner who's been in professional practice since 1978. He can be contacted through his Neuro-VISION Self Hypnosis ecommerce site where he offers hypnosis and NLP CDs for phobias. Visit his hypnosis article index, or download a free MP3.