You may have acarophobia – a fear of itching – or zelotypophobia – a fear of jealousy. Irrational they may be, but for sufferers of phobias – described as anxiety disorders where you have a deep-rooted fear of something that generally speaking poses little or no threat – you face a debilitating life from which there appear to be no escape.
But there is an escape.
There remains a stigma attached to having a phobia and they are often looked at by others with a sense of derision and ridicule.
Ridiculous to some they may be, but to you, it can affect you to the point where you start organising your life around avoiding specific situations where you feel like you might be exposed to the very thing you’re scared of.
If you have a fear of flying, you simply don’t book flights but if your fear is more subtle, like dogs, loud noises or open spaces, it’s very hard to avoid them in your day-to-day life and as hard for most people to open up and speak to people about what they’re going through.
The secondary issue is that if you’re afraid to speak up, you won’t – or can’t – seek help.
According to www.time-to-change.org.uk, people with mental health problems say that the stigma and discrimination surrounding their mental health problem can be one of the hardest parts of their day-to-day experience. As a result of the stigma, we might shy away from supporting a friend, family member or colleague. And the consequences can be large. People with mental health problems can lose friendships, feel isolated, withdraw from the world and not get the help they need.
Phobias are, whether you agree or not, mental health issues and with all mental health issues, if they aren’t managed, they will only ever get worse. Don’t ever think that ignoring it will make it go away, because it won’t.
At Behavioural Freedom, I am a firm believer that you aren’t born with a predisposition to phobias, stress and anxiety. It’s learned and with anything that you learn to do in a particularly way, you can just as easily learn to do it another way.
By definition, fear is an inbuilt instinct and we all have the ability to feel it (evolution decided to leave it there because it can be a life saver – ‘fight or flight’) and on the surface, it seems perfectly natural to fear something like flying which we all now take for granted. We’re not birds, we fly at heights where we can’t breathe and at speeds that would kill us wrapped in 130 tons of metal and wires and seats but if you step back and consider the safety measures, redundancy after redundancy and the years of training, design and technology that goes into getting you to Lanzarote, you may start to feel slightly easier about getting into a plane.
Phobias come under the category of anxiety disorders which you can read more about here.
By combining hypnosis with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, I can free you from the unwanted behaviours that have prevented you from living your life how you want to. Contact me today to find out how.