We are born with two fears. The fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. Everything else is learnt.
Phobias are the most common types of anxiety disorders in the United States. A significant percentage (7%-12.5%) of adults in the USA suffers from a phobia of one type or another. For some people it can be mildly distressing but manageable however for others it can be seriously debilitating.
How does a phobia start?
As humans we have a part of our brain called the Amygdala, it’s the primitive part of our being. It runs our freeze, flight or fight response. It keeps us safe. Every piece of information that comes in through our senses goes through the Amygdala before the prefrontal cortex makes a decision about whether it is dangerous or not. Every experience you’ve ever had is stored in your Subconscious mind and when a piece of information comes past it is looking through the Subconscious mind, it is pattern matching.
If you’re a child and you touch a hot iron, you don’t have to touch it five times to realise it hurts. The moment you touch it and you feel the pain the Amygdala will take a snapshot of the iron and for the rest of your life, it will be scanning the environment for anything that looks like that so that you don’t touch it again.
That is an amazing protective mechanism, but it can sometimes be overzealous as in the case of phobias.
A phobia is an irrational fear of a particular stimulus. This stimulus can be a situation, a thing or an activity. People with phobias will either go to great lengths to avoid whatever it is they fear, or they will tolerate it with considerable anxiety.
For some people, a phobia can trigger panic attacks. In severe cases, the phobia can end up literally controlling a person’s life.
Some common phobias are:
- Fear of open spaces or crowds – Agoraphobia
- Fear of confined spaces – Claustrophobia
- Fear of heights – Acrophobia
- Fear of flying – Pteromerhanophobia
- Fear of insects – Entomophobia
- Fear of snakes – Ophidiophobia
- Fear of spiders – Arachnophobia
How can Hypnosis help to cure a phobia?
The hypnosis technique that I use enables you to detach or reduce an emotional response from a memory, event or stimulus.
One theory about why this can help is that the traumatic memory is re-processed by the prefrontal cortex (decision making part of the brain) enabling the emergency pattern to be released by the amygdala (the primitive part of the brain) and the memory to be reclassified as non-threatening. Thus, the pattern-match that was causing the anxiety and panic no longer occurs.
The old thought simply will not result in the old feeling, the old feeling is simply not re-lived. It cannot be re-lived. It is GONE!
If you are finally ready to get rid of that Phobia from your life, contact me for a FREE discovery call and we can book your session in.
http://bit.ly/callwithMarcelle
Medical Disclaimer: This article is for information purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. For medical advice always consult your physician. The information provided in this blog is based on the best knowledge of the author at the time of writing and we do not assume liability for the information within this blog, be it direct or indirect, consequential, special, exemplary or other damages