A phobia is an irrational fear of a particular thing or situation which can have devastating and debilitating consequences for the person involved. The physical reactions vary from mild to intense and include sweaty palms, erratic heartbeat, nausea, increased muscle tension, shortness of breath, blurred vision and fainting. Fears and phobias may be the product of past traumas, accumulated stresses or a series of negative experiences.
Some phobias are Simple Phobias and others are considered to be Complex Phobias. Simple phobias are usually isolated and tend to be specific e.g. fear of flying. These phobias are often fully resolved very quickly with hypnotherapy.
In the case of complex phobias, often the presenting phobia is not the real concern, its the underlying unresolved issues that must be addressed. The interesting thing about phobias is that the relationship of the phobia and the cause may not seem logical. For example, who would think that if a brother locked a sister in a cuppord that he she would grow up and present with fear of flying. The cause of the phobia is usually unconscious, therefore only an intervention which operates at an unconscious level can solve it i.e. therapy that is conducted hypnosis.
Top 10 Phobias
Here are a list of the top 10 most frequently experienced phobias listed on the ABC Newspage.
- Social phobias: excessive fear of social situations
- Agoraphobia: fear of open spaces
- Acrophobia: fear of heights
- Pteromerhanophobia: fear of flying
- Claustrophobia: fear of enclosed spaces
- Entomophobia: fear of insects
- Ophidiophobia: fear of snakes
- Cynophobia: fear of dogs
- Astraphobia: fear of storms
- Trypanophobia: fear of needles
The most commonly treated phobias in my therapy room are social phobia, fear of flying, fear of enclosed spaces and fear of needles, Although not listed on the top ten I have treated people with driving phobia. Thankfully fear of snakes is not a problem here in Ireland, however I have treated excessive fears and phobias of spiders, mice and birds.
Regardless of what phobia affects your life, there is no need to suffer. Hypno-psychotherapy is highly successful in treating irrational fears and phobias. If you want to find out more, please contact me today.
