What is a phobia?
When someone is afraid of something, it is call ¡®fear¡¯. It is perfectly acceptable to be afraid of, say a tiger. We are afraid of tigers because they will hurt us. It will become a phobia (fo-bee-uh) when the fear of something interfere with one¡¯s everyday life or daily routine. The most important feature to diagnose a phobia from fear is that the person will expeirence fear excessively and disproportionately to the situation to the extent that it affects their everyday life or daily routing. Phobia may even keep you away from work or sleep or to do the things you wish to do, then it becomes totally irrational.
The Types of Phobia.
There are many types of phobia, known by many names. Basically, there are two types of phobias. The first is collectively known as direct phobia whereby someone has experienced the emotion of being frightened but prefers to forget about it and tries to overcome the emotion of fear. This does not subdue the fear. When the experiences is relived, fears in the form of tears, nervousness and violent catharsis surfaces.
On the other hand, indirect phobia is caused when one has been anxious on several occasions over a long period of time such as the long suffering of a very closed relative who is dying.
Why do People Get Phobias?
There is no conclusive reason as to why people have phobias. Some scientists think that a person¡¯s genes are partly responsible for it. But other factors like a bad experience in an elevator or the death of someone can cause a phobia.
How Do Phobias Get Its Name?
It comes from the Greek word ?¨¹a?¨° (pronounced as phobos) which means ¡®fear¡¯. All other words of different types of phobias are therefore named with this suffix ¨C phobia.
What to do if I have a phobia?
The first thing you should do in dealing with a phobia is to recognize that you have a phobia. Then you should decide whether you want help or therapy. Then look for a someone professional to help you. A hypnotherapist is someone you should look to for help.
In less serious cases like going into the lift, one should start by stepping into the life with the doors open. When you are more comfortable, get mommy to hold your hand and ride the lift up with you. Inside the life, take deep breaths and focus on something pleasant, like that of ice cream you are going to have when you get home!
How is a session of hypnotherapy like? Is this therapy scary!
A good hypnotheapist will put you to ease with the sessions you would have in therapy. You will be able to experience various relaxation techniques and very helpful methods to help you out of your phobia. It is not at all scary. In fact, after each session, you would feel better and may even want to return for more.
Will I have to come face to face with my phobia to get over it?
It is very important for those who experience phobia to know that it is very useful to describe the feelings with your therapist. Talking about it helps you overcome your experience. Your therapist is trained to help you overcome this challenge. You will find that the entire therapy session is very positive.
Have kids with phobias come to you and you were able to help them get over their phobias?
Most of our cases have been with children with phobias of sleeping in the dark, taking and or failing their examinations, flying, swimming or being left alone in the house. There was also another example of one who was even phobic of injection needles. Most of these children were able to live their normal lives after approximately six sessions of hypnotherapy.
Will it be painful during the session with the Hypnotherapist?
There will be no pain because we do not use injections, medicine or anything that a doctor would use. A hypnotherapist uses suggestions and relaxation exercises to help you overcome your phobic experiences.
What are the more common phobias that you have treated?
We have helped children (and adults too) overcome the fear of confined spaces (claustrophobia), heights (acrophobia), water or swimming (hydrophobia), crowds or with lots of people (agoraphobia), fear of dark or of night (nyctophobia), spiders (arachnophobia) and even the most unusual fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth (arachibutyrophobia).