A “simple phobia” is defined as a persistent, excessive and unrealistic fear of a specific object or activity (this is different to a “complex phobia” such as claustrophobia or social phobia). The range of things people have phobic responses to is vast: from the usual suspects of spiders, flying and the dentist, to the more unusual of cheese, clowns and bananas (all phobias I have treated as a hypnotherapist!).
For people lucky enough not to have a phobia, it can be baffling to see someone genuinely terrified by the presence of a tiny spider or the idea of getting on a plane. For people who do suffer from a phobia, it is common to experience overwhelming physical symptoms such as panic, shortness of breath, trembling and a rapid heart rate when encountering the object of their fear.
Part of the problem is that people tend to indulge the phobias of those they love: they remove the spider from the bathroom; they avoid parks popular with dogs; they sort out alternative transportation; and so on. But this “rescuing” behaviour which comes from a caring place can end up making a phobia worse. This is because by consistently and repeatedly avoiding the object of your fear, you confirm to your phobic-brain that it is indeed something dangerous.
The truth is that the problem faced is not the problem described. The problem is not spiders or flying or dogs but the distress experienced in response to phobic thoughts about those things. And distress, though unpleasant, isn’t the same as danger. These are only feelings. And feelings can’t actually stop you doing anything. It’s like sitting in a hot room, not like camping in a forest fire.
No-one is born with a phobia.
Remember: no-one is born with a phobia. They learn it. And it doesn’t actually matter much what the object of the phobia is because the faulty brain thinking is much the same: something happened which made your brain label the thing as dangerous in some way. Sometimes, we may have an underlying sensitivity which makes it particularly easy for us to develop a certain phobia (for example, if you have a parent who is scared of spiders, there’s a good chance you will be too after seeing them scream at the sight of them) or sometimes it can be a traumatic incident like a car accident which leaves you afraid of driving.
Your security guard brain
Your brain just wants to keep you safe. Think of it like a security guard scanning the world to alert you to possible dangers. When we develop a phobia, that security guard brain stays on high alert, overly sensitive to any possible encounter with the feared object, a reaction which is disproportionate and irrational.
Example: Sarah had a phobia of dogs. She said the fear started when she was strapped into her buggy as a toddler and a neighbour’s dog came running towards her and bit her on the cheek. From that moment, she would have a full panic attack if a dog came near her and was afraid to go to parks or friend’s houses where there might be dogs.
The dog bite made Sarah’s brain (understandably) label all dogs as dangerous. Her security guard brain stayed on high alert, constantly scanning for dogs, sending fear-warnings to Sarah to avoid parks and other places there might be a dog, overriding any rational thoughts Sarah might have about not all dogs being a danger. If Sarah had not found the courage to seek help, she would likely remain scared of dogs for the rest of her life.
However, the good news for Sarah, and anyone suffering with a phobia, is that if you can learn a phobia, you can also unlearn it.
How to un-learn a phobia: Exposure Therapy
The most common form of therapy for phobias is Exposure Therapy. In this type of therapy, a phobia-sufferer will be gradually exposed to the thing they fear in increasingly close encounters. The idea is that by familiarising your brain with the object of your phobia, you show that over-zealous security guard brain that there is nothing to fear and no need to be on constant high alert.
Back to our example: the first step for Sarah was looking at pictures of dogs, then a visit to a park starting by standing at the entrance gate, then moving to entering the park and experiencing dogs near her. She then moved onto visiting a trusted friend with a fairly docile dog, and so on.
However, for some people, their phobia is so intense that they cannot imagine exposing themselves to the object of their fear, especially knowing that the process would require them to have increasingly close contact with it.
Why Hypnosis is So Effective with Phobias
What everyone with a phobia (or any problem, for that matter) wants is a magic button which will immediately make them un-phobic. Everyone wants to feel better straight away. Using hypnosis to treat phobias is the closest thing we have to that magic button.
Phobias tend to be deep rooted in our unconscious mind (we don’t consciously have a phobic reaction, it just “happens” to us). Hypnosis accesses the unconscious mind and “rewires” the phobic response to replace it with a more rational one. It also treats the incident which created the phobia, reversing the phobic response and replacing it with a new calm reaction to that old fear.
Hypnosis induces a deep state of relaxation making it easier for people to confront and overcome their fear. Because the brain cannot tell the difference between the imagined and reality, visualising that gradual exposure to the feared object is a gentle but effective application of traditional “exposure therapy”. Just visualising yourself coming into contact with the object of your phobia will familiarise your brain with it, teaching your security guard brain that it can stand down. Just visualising yourself having a calm and rational response to that old phobia will act as a mental blueprint – like a mental rehearsal – for your brain and body to follow when you encounter it in real life.
What Next? Listen to our Phobia Downloads
The Neuro Fix offers several downloads for adults and children to treat phobias from spiders, driving and flying to dentists, wasps and vomit and many more. Let your mind do the hard work from the inside by listening to these every day for two weeks.
