Phobias - What They Are And How You Can Eliminate Them Using NLP

DEFINITION AND SYMPTOMS OF PHOBIAS:
A phobia can be defined as an irrational fear or dread. When a person experiences a panic attack, they get terrified feelings; their respiration and heart rates increase; they may feel choked up like their heart is in their throat; their palms may get sweaty; they may hear a ringing in their ears; and they quite often find that they are unable to participate in an activity. These feelings motivate the individual to avoid the activities and environments that trigger them.

SPECIFIC EXAMPLES OF COMMON PHOBIAS:
For instance, if a person has an irrational fear of driving, that individual would exhibit these symptoms whenever they attempt to drive their car, or probably even when they just think about driving. Or a freight attack may perhaps take place simply while driving in specific places like across railroad tracks.

Stage freight is a fairly common phobia. The panicky feelings appear when the sufferer attempts to talk in front of a person that they are afraid of, or they might well experience fearful feelings only in front of an assembly of other people. The size of the assembly of people will differ. This irrational fear can be triggered by fears of inadequacy, or a lack of self-confidence.

Those who suffer from social phobias can get extremely panicky just being around other people, even folks that they are familiar with. It's a fear of being criticized or evaluated by other people. This fear can be caused by almost any type of social interaction. A person could be standing on line at a variety store and get stressful feelings as they think about having to talk to the cashier while they checkout.

The fear of taking a test (commonly known as test anxiety) is quite a very common phobia. Phobias to taking tests are rooted in comparing yourself to other people, and is deeply rooted in a fear of failure.

People have developed phobias to every sort of experience and environment under the sun. For example: Snakes; bugs; relationships; flying; small enclosed places; animals; high places; death; and even the great outdoors.

Agoraphobia is generally thought to be a fear of open spaces. However, this definition is quite confusing 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 church, at home, or at a gas station.

For many phobia sufferers, once the panic attacks have started to occur, they begin to anticipate them to come about. And this anticipation in reality causes them to occur with increasing frequency. Other people experience fearful feelings on a continuous basis. These feelings cause an overall discomfort, rather than panic.

FORMS OF TREATMENT THAT ARE AVAILABLE

DRUGS:
Some doctors treat their patients using sedatives, which can make the condition worse over extended treatment. Sedatives don't take care of the underlying root of a phobia; they only disguise some of the symptoms.

TALK THERAPY:
Some counselors advocate "Talk Therapy." Talk therapy is simply talking about what is bothering you. Unfortunately, thinking about or talking about a situation or environment that triggers a panic attack can trigger one!

HYPNOTHERAPY CDS:
Traditional hypnotherapy has been used to treat phobias, but with severely limited success. Traditional hypnotherapy is accomplished when the hypnotist places the client in a relaxed state of self-hypnosis and then gives the client post-hypnotic commands or suggestions. Since most people of our 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 environment or situation that triggers their panic attacks.

SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION:
Systematic Desensitization is the process of slowly desensitizing a phobic person to the environment or situation that triggers a panic attack. For instance, if a woman wants to dive from a high diving board but she fears it, she is asked to first dive from a height that she feels safe with. She dives in and realizes that she didn't get hurt and that she is safe.

The next thing she is asked is to dive from the bottom step of the ladder going up to the diving board. Again, she dives in and realizes that she was not hurt and that she is again safe and secure.

Over a period of time the woman is asked to dive in from progressively higher and higher steps on the ladder going up to the board. Each time she dives in and realizes that she was not hurt and that she is safe, she is able to move up to the next rung on the ladder. If she experiences fear, then she is told to step back down one rung on the ladder and dive from there until she feels complete comfort and security. Ultimately she makes it to the top of the ladder and is able to dive in from the high board itself.

SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION WHILE IN THE STATE OF HYPNOSIS:
Systematic Desensitization can be done virtually while in a hypnotic state with as good as or even better results. While in a relaxed hypnotized state, the woman would be told to envision herself diving in from each rung of the ladder. She would be told to picture herself feeling confident and relaxed as she dives in. Since she is in a disassociated state while picturing herself, she is not able to experience a panic attack.

Next she is told to associate, in other words to put 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 step of the ladder. She is told to imagine feeling safe and relaxed as she dives in.

Just as in a live (in vivo) systematic desensitization, if she feels any anxiety she is asked to go back to the previous lower step on the ladder and imagine diving in from there. The woman might be trained to create a kinesthetic (feeling or touch) "anchor" of feelings of security and safety. She could then trigger that anchor while imagining that she is 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 quite useful and totally successful, but is can also be slow and take several hypnotic sessions to bring about a cure.

NEURO-LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING V/K DISASSOCIATION:
NLP is the study of how we create our reality. The V/K stands for visual / kinesthetic. The V/K Disassociation is a technique that allows 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 fear from the phobia that causes them. The V/K Disassociation is known as the "One session phobia cure" in NLP circles, and with good cause.

CONCLUSION:
Irrational fears are common in our culture. They are fears that aren't founded in reality. There are many treatments for phobias, but thus far in my view, the best finest are Systematic Desensitization while in the state of self hypnosis, and the NLP V/K Disassociation technique.