Phobias

It is impossible to list every phobia because they can develop around any object or situation: from fear of spoons to a fear of vomiting. In practice they can be roughly categorised into two groups specific (simple) phobias & complex phobias.

Specific (simple) phobias
These are phobias about one thing; for example, spiders or flying. They often develop in childhood or adolescence, and for many people they will lessen as they get older. It is difficult to group specific phobias into categories; this list shows some of the more common ones, but there are many more:

– animal phobias, e.g. cats, dogs, insects, snakes, rodents
– natural environment, e.g. heights, water, darkness
– situational, e.g. flying, going to the dentist, tunnels
– body-based phobias, e.g. blood, vomit, injections

If you have a specific phobia about something which you do not come into contact with in everyday life then it might be easier to cope with than a phobia about something which you have to face often. However, this is not always the case. If you have a very severe phobia it can cause fear and anxiety even when the object or situation is not present.

Complex phobias
Complex phobias tend to be more disruptive and disabling than specific phobias and often develop after adolescence. Two of the most common complex phobias are social phobia and agoraphobia.

If you have social phobia (sometimes called social anxiety) then you will feel very anxious when you have to be around people. You might worry that they are going to be critical of you, and that you will do something embarrassing. For some people, social phobia can be connected to one specific activity, such as public speaking, but it can be much more severe. It can become incredibly debilitating and a seemingly impossible challenge to engage in everyday activities, like shopping, eating out or meeting friends.

Social phobia is the constant fear that other people will look at you and judge you: you will be criticised for how you speak, dress, or act; or they will find something else wrong about you. The underlying problem is usually that at some time in the past you actually did come to the attention of someone, or some group, and were criticised for something you did. That criticism was experienced as a real pain, and it made you feel hurt, rejected, isolated, ashamed. And you never, never want to feel that way again.

Social phobia is a fear of having to experience that original pain again, and your mind will do anything to avoid it. Anything. No matter what form your phobia takes, it is the result of your unconscious mind trying to protect you from ever having to be in a situation again where you might be criticised and might have to go through that feeling again.

Over time the initial fear experience gets magnified and magnified again. It grows in importance until the dread of it becomes the governing factor in your life. In almost every case the original incident is forgotten, and the person has no idea why they have an irrational fear of normal situations.

Social phobia can be treated, and in most cases, eliminated entirely.

The symptoms associated with Social Phobia are actually fear reactions: feeling sick, feeling weak, shaking, heart racing, dry mouth, stammering and stuttering, sweaty palms, loose bowels, urge to run away. Social phobia or social anxiety does not always to apply to every part of life. Many people only experience social phobia in particular situations, e.g. Public speaking. 

Fear is different from anxiety. Anxiety is a worry about the future, fear is concerned with right now. However, the constant worry about being embarrassed in public can cause long term anxiety, and can lead to panic attacks.

Agoraphobia is widely thought to be a fear of open spaces, but it is more complex than this. The essential feature of agoraphobia is that you will feel anxious about being in places or situations from which escape might be difficult, embarrassing, or in which help may not be available in the event of having a panic attack. This anxiety will then result in you avoiding of a variety of situations that may include: being alone, inside or outside the home; being in a crowd of people; travelling by car, bus or plane; or being on a bridge or in a lift.

You may find that if you experience agoraphobia you also dislike being alone (monophobia), and may also become anxious in small confined spaces (claustrophobia).

There doesn’t seem to be one particular cause of phobias, but there are several factors that might play a role.

For some people the phobia can be linked to a particular incident or trauma; for example, a child who experiences a lot of turbulence on a plane might develop a phobia about flying.
Phobias can be learned responses, picked up in early life – you might develop the same specific phobia as a parent or older sibling. It has also been shown that factors in the family environment, such as parents who are very worried or anxious, can have an effect on the way you cope with anxiety in later life.

There does seem to be some evidence that genetics can play a role – some people appear to be born with a tendency to be more anxious than others.

You might find that it is helpful to try and work out a specific cause for your own phobia, but you might equally feel that there is not a simple explanation; either way, avoiding the object or situation that is making you phobic, will make your fear worse.

Phobias are common and you may feel that yours is upsetting, but not severe enough to affect your everyday life. However, if avoidance of the object, activity, or situation that triggers your phobia does interfere with your everyday life, or keeps you from doing things you would otherwise enjoy, it’s time to seek help.

Consider getting treatment for your phobia if:

– it causes intense and disabling fear, anxiety, and panic
– you recognise that your fear is excessive and unreasonable
– you avoid certain situations and places because of your phobia
– your avoidance interferes with your normal routine or causes significant distress
– you’ve had the phobia for at least six months.

One of the most common reasons for people to seek hypnotherapy is for help overcoming a phobia. The most common phobias are those such as fear of spiders and fear of flying, which can be easily cured using cognitive hypnotherapy techniques to help learn new behaviour patterns i.e. a calm reaction rather than a panic reaction.

Sometimes, if a phobia is deeper and more disruptive as can be the case with severe agoraphobia or social phobia, then it may be necessary to look at some of the issues surrounding the onset of the phobia and work to resolve them and teaching relaxation and visualisation techniques for systematic desensitisation.

Hypnotherapy can also help you to learn new habits such as being more relaxed and calm. Although it may seem obvious, these habits exist on the same unconscious level as the original phobia and hypnosis will help to create them quickly.

Coming to an internal understanding and acceptance of how the phobia may once have served a useful purpose but has now become an unnecessary behaviour pattern. This issue can resolve itself under a conscious level of awareness. For evidence of this, look at the way children eventually learn to not be scared of monsters even though they never actually sit down and consciously make the decision. Hypnosis simply accelerates the internal ability we have to get over irrational fears.

Here is an article on the National council for hypnotherapy’s website around Phobias and how hypotherapy can help.