Archive for December, 2022

Phobias – What They Are And How You Can Get Rid Of Them Using Hypnosis

December 13th, 2022

A phobia is defined as an illogical fear that causes uncomfortable feelings of panic. People experience phobic attacks that are triggered by normal everyday activities and environments, and these panicky feelings greatly decrease their quality of life. Find out how anyone can go about eliminating the terrified feelings that are triggered by these irrational fears so it’s possible to lead a more fulfilling life.

DEFINITION AND SYMPTOMS OF PHOBIAS:

A phobia is defined as a fear not based in reality. When a person has a phobic attack,Guest Posting they get terrified feelings; their respiration and heart rates increase; they may experience feeling choked up like their heart is in their throat; their palms often get sweaty; they may experience a ringing in their ears; and they may find that they are unable to participate in an activity. These feelings push the individual to avoid the situations and environments that trigger them.

EXAMPLES OF COMMON PHOBIAS:

For example, if someone has an irrational fear of driving, they would exhibit these symptoms at the time they endeavor to drive, or probably even when they just think about driving. Or a panic attack might ensue just while driving in certain places like across railroad tracks.

The irrational fear of talking in front of a group of people also known as stage freight is a very widespread phobia. The phobic feelings appear when the individual begins to talk in front of a person that they are frightened by, or they might experience fearful feelings only in front of an assembly of other people. The number of people in the crowd will differ. This fear can be triggered by fears of inadequacy, or a lack of self-confidence.

Those who suffer from social phobias can get horrifically nervous just being around other people, even people that they recognize. It is a fear that they will be criticized or evaluated by others. This fear can be set off by any variety of social dealings. A person could be standing on line at a supermarket and get stressful feelings as they think about having to talk to the cashier as they checkout.

The fear of taking a test (which is frequently known as test anxiety) is quite a frequent phobia. Phobias to taking tests are rooted in comparing yourself to other people, and is deeply rooted in a fear of failing.

People have developed phobias to every kind of situation under the sun. For instance: High places; animals; small enclosed places; relationships; flying; bugs; snakes; and even the great outdoors.

Agoraphobia is generally defined as a fear of open spaces. However, this definition is extremely deceptive because Agoraphobics are really afraid of having a panic attack, wherever and whenever. This phobia is developed when a person begins to avoid places or situations they have associated with anxiety. For example, they could have a panic attack at home, church, or in a grocery store.

For many, once their panic attacks have begun, they begin to expect them to come about. And this anticipation in reality triggers them with increasing frequency. Other people experience fearful feelings on a continuous basis. These feelings cause an overall discomfort, rather than panic.

OBTAINABLE FORMS OF TREATMENT

DRUGS:

Some physicians care for patients using sedatives, which can make the phobia worse over prolonged usage. Sedatives do not work on the underlying cause of a phobia; they only camouflage some of the symptoms.

TALK THERAPY:

Some schools of therapy advocate “Talk Therapy.” Talk therapy is simply talking about what is bothering you. Unfortunately, talking about or even thinking about the situation or environment that triggers a panic attack can trigger a panic attack!

HYPNOTHERAPY CDS:

Traditional self hypnosis has been used to treat phobias, but with very little success. Traditional hypnotic therapy is accomplished when the hypnotist places the patient in a relaxed state of self-hypnosis and gives the patient post-hypnotic suggestions or commands. Since most people in this generation question and resist direct post-hypnotic suggestions, they also reject the belief that they will be more relaxed and at ease when they encounter the situation or environment that sets off their panic attacks.

SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION:

Systematic Desensitization is the practice of incrementally desensitizing a phobic person to the situation or environment that triggers a phobic attack. For example, if a person wants to dive from a high board but fears it, she is asked to first dive from a height that she feels confident about. She dives in and realizes that nothing bad happened and that she is secure.

The next thing she is asked is to dive from the bottom step of the ladder going up to the high board. Again, she dives in and realizes that nothing bad happened and that she is again safe and sound.

Over a period of time the person is asked to dive in from progressively higher steps on the ladder. Each time she dives in and realizes that nothing bad happened and that she is safe and secure, she is able to move up to the next rung of the ladder. If she experiences the sensation of fear, then she’s asked to step back down one rung on the ladder and dive from there until she feels complete comfort and security. Sooner or later she makes it to the top of the ladder and dives in from the high board.

SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION WHILE IN THE STATE OF HYPNOSIS:

Systematic Desensitization can be done literally while in a hypnotic state with as good as or better results. While in a relaxed hypnotized state, the woman would be asked to visualize herself diving in from each step on the ladder. She would be asked to visualize herself feeling confident and relaxed as she dives in. Since she is actually disassociated while picturing herself, she is unable to cause a panic attack.

Next she’s asked to associate, or imagine the camera inside of her head so she would be seeing what she would see through her own eyes if she was actually diving in from each rung of the ladder. She is asked to imagine feeling safe and relaxed as she dives in.

Just as in a live (in vivo) systematic desensitization, if she feels any terror she’s told to go back to the previous lower rung on the ladder and imagine diving in from that step.

The phobic might be trained to generate a kinesthetic (feeling or touch) “anchor” of feelings of security and safety. She could then activate that anchor while imagining that she’s diving, and the feelings of security and safety could be subjectively transferred to the act of diving.

Systematic Desensitization while in self-hypnosis can be especially useful and successful, but is can also be slow and take several hypnotic sessions to bring about a cure.

NLP V/K DISASSOCIATION:

Neuro-Linguistic Programming is basically the study and practice of how we create our reality. The V/K stands for visual / kinesthetic. The V/K Disassociation is a technique that enables a trained NLP Practitioner to guide a subject through specific visual imagery that quickly and in many cases instantly disconnects or disassociates the feelings of alarm from the irrational fear that causes them. The V/K Disassociation is known as the “One session phobia cure” in Neuro-Linguistic Programming circles, and with good reason.

CONCLUSION:

Irrational fears are common in our culture. They are fears that aren’t founded in reality. There are many techniques for treating phobias, but so far in my opinion, the best finest are Systematic Desensitization while in the state of self hypnosis, and the Neuro-Linguistic Programming V/K Disassociation technique.

Online Mindfulness Psychotherapy For Treating Phobias. Boulder, Colorado

December 13th, 2022

At the core of all phobias you will most likely find some form of intense imagery that encodes the emotional energy that results in intense fear reactions. Through Mindfulness Therapy, you can change this imagery. Change the imagery and you reduce the fear reaction.

A phobia,Guest Posting from the Greek phobos, meaning to fear, is a recurrent irrational emotional and physiological reaction to an object or situation. Phobias are actually one of the most common forms of anxiety disorder and the National Institute of Mental Health estimates that as many as 10% of Americans suffer from phobias. The most well known phobias are the Specific Phobias produced in reaction to animate objects, such as spiders, cats, dogs and moths or inanimate objects such as needles. This class also includes fear of enclosed spaces, high places, dark places, dirt, the fear of injury or activities such as driving a car. Some of these specific phobias may have had evolutionary origins as defence reactions against real threats, but most have no clear explanation. Another major group of phobias are the Social Phobias. Most of us feel a degree of fear if we are called on to give a presentation, but for a social phobic the fear reaction takes the form of panic, accompanied by an elevation in heart rate, rapid breathing, sweating and blurred vision and an uncontrollable urge to flee the situation. This class of phobias also includes fear of crowds, parties and social gatherings and is often accompanied by extreme self-consciousness and embarrassment. Agoraphobia is perhaps the most disabling phobia in which there is a generalized fear of a wide range of stimuli associated with being outside of a defined safe space such as home.

Phobias have a major impact on the quality of life and can cause a great deal of stress. They cause embarrassment and lead to all manner of conscious and unconscious avoidance reactions that limit choices and freedom. Phobias can have a major influence on self-esteem and self-confidence.

What causes phobias to arise is far from clear. However, it is well known that emotional trauma in which the individual is confronted with an overpowering sense of helplessness may manifest as a phobia long after the event and it is not unreasonable to assume that phobias contain a core of unresolved emotional conflict. The treatment options for phobias are varied, but the general consensus is that effective psychotherapy must involve some form of desensitization protocol coupled with controlled exposure to the phobic trigger. Clients are taught a relaxation response to use whenever they encounter the stimulus. They are gradually introduced to the stimulus, learn to monitor their stress response and respond with the relaxation technique. This is repeated many times until the client can encounter the object without having the phobic reaction.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming has attracted considerable attention as a treatment for phobias and claims many success stories. The central premise in NLP is that an emotional reaction is built around an internal mental representation. This Structural Theory of Emotions is a useful concept when working with intense emotional reactions such as phobias or past-traumatic stress reactions. Basically, the theory states that an emotional reaction has an internal structure built around sensory modalities. The principle modalities are visual, auditory and psychophysical sensations. Of these, the visual modality of inner imagery is usually dominant. In effect, when an arachnophobe encounters a spider, what he sees is not the actual animal, but an internal image, his internal representation of spiders. Most likely this will consist of a very large, very vivid in-your-face image that is in color and probably moves in a particular way. The emotional fear is encoded in these various sub-modalities of size, position, color and movement. This is the internal structure of the emotion and this structure encodes the feelings that form the emotional reaction. The external object seen through the eyes is simply a stimulus that evokes this internal representation and it is the internal representation generates the fear.

During MMT, the client learns how to establish a safe and non-reactive relationship, the Mindfulness Based Relationship, with the core internal representation of a phobia. There are a number of techniques that he can experiment with to create this safety, such as making the image very small and distant. He might imagine looking at the spider through a thick glass window. The therapist and client engage their creativity to find what works for the client. In MMT, the emphasis is always on helping the client form a non-reactive relationship with his or her inner representation of emotions and when working with a phobia much time is spent on establishing a mindful relationship. This is called the RELATIONSHIP PHASE of Mindfulness Meditation Therapy. This in itself can be highly transformative, because as the client learns not to react to his internal representation he will find that he will be les reactive when he encounters the actual object or situation.

The next phase of MMT is the TRANSFORMATIONAL PHASE. Now that you are able to relate to the inner imagery with mindfulness, continue to observe and investigate the imagery, to become more familiar with its structure and all the various feeling sensations associated with the color, size and other sub-modalities. There is no attempt to analyze or interpret, only to fully observe and know what is being experienced, like a scientist observing an experiment as it unfolds, or a fisherman observing the river for subtle features and changes that indicate where the fish are to be found. As this wealth of subtle details begins to unfold, you will simultaneously become aware of what needs to happen next. The psyche naturally looks for changes at the experiential level that reduce suffering and when you remain mindful and present with the unfolding experience of inner imagery, it will present changes to you. You may discover that placing the spider in a glass jar and putting the jar on a shelf is sufficient to completely neutralize the fear reaction or that changing its color from blood red to pale pink does the job. What is important is that you experiment for your self and find what works for you. But, rather than stopping there, you stay with the inner experience and continue to sense what needs to happen next. Perhaps you sense a need to take the spider jar and take it to a place where you can release the spider or you may discover some other thing that needs to happen. The important thing is to allow these solutions to arise experientially and that they feel right.

Next is the RE-EXPOSURE PHASE. You deliberately imagine seeing a spider in your home or other environment. Start with the least difficult encounter and progress to the most difficult encounter of all, such as imagining the spider crawling on your hand. Check the feeling response in each case and repeat the visualization many times. If the emotional reaction is still too intense, then return to the Relationship phase and continue working with the sub-modalities. If you can successfully manage all the different imaginary situations, then you are ready to try exposure to a real spider. Do this gradually, first observing the spider at a distance, then move closer and finally place the spider on your hand. If the reactions are too intense, then return to the visualization phase. It may take many repetitions of the process, from the relationship phase through to re-exposure, but you now have a strategy for working with your inner experience of a phobia at the experiential level and eventually this will lead to the desired results.