Understanding / Overcoming Fears, Phobias and Anxiety

However, this process can become over-sensitive if triggered by some kind of traumatic event. This causes it to repeatedly cause symptoms of anxiety, even when their is no actual danger present. It becomes much like a type of mental 'program' running on our internal software.

While its true that it's your mind which actually triggers these symptoms, the fact is that physically you are experiencing a very real level of anxiety - in a place where support is generally not available.

Part of the problem is that those dont experience these fears or phobias,, often have no empathy or understanding of people who are afflicted by it, and their indifference often only heightens the anxiety that the sufferer is experiencing.

Because fears and phobias are involuntary, no matter how much you consciously try to prevent it occurring, your 'default settings' do not allow it.

In fact, often the harder we try, the worse the fear response can become - simply because it is beyond your conscious control.

It basically becomes an auto-pilot, automatic response which sends out warning signals every time you encounter that particular situation which triggers the fear.

Many people around the world suffer from a wide range of physical and mental symptoms from these - which can include difficulty breathing, shaking, heart palpitations, perspiring, dizziness, dry mouth, extreme worrying, impaired thinking, and many others.

The most common and effective treatment for symptoms of fear is by dealing with the issue right at the very source - the subconscious mind - the place where all fears reside within the mind. 

Relaxation and hypnosis are most effective of dealing with issues within the subconscious,as they help to 're-program' our mind and continually reduce the mental and physical symptoms, until they reduce greatly or disappear completely.

Otherwise, here are some additional things that can be of help:

Mental Techniques for Fears / Phobias:

1. Mantra

- taking your attention away from the stressor, and replacing fearful thoughts by repeating a few words or short phrase over and over again - about 100-200 times, silently in your mind.

This is often called a mantra, and prevents the mind from thinking anything else, and blocks negative thoughts. The words could be anything that you choose to repeat, but a positive phrase would probably be better - eg. Calm and relaxed.

2. Relaxation

- as fear is a reaction caused by negative and fearful thoughts, you can shut down all the negative chatter by closing your eyes, taking two deep breaths, in and out, then either:

a) Calm Place / Sanctuary

- go to a calm place in your mind, where you feel safe and protected, no matter whether the place is real, or imagined.

b) Inner Cave - imagine taking yourself to a protective inner cave, with a warm crackling fire, lying down on a soft bed, and imagine you are talking to a wise soul who is calming you with their sage advice (eg. Yoda etc).

c) Focus on Your Breath

- focus your attention upon your breath, and then count each outbreath - 1..2..3..4..and then go back to 1 and start again - and keep going until you feel relaxed and in control.

3. Distractions

- can be of help to focus your mind's attention on something else other than the stressor.    eg. reading a book, doing a crossword, or fixing your gaze onto a tiny spot on a wall, and don’t take your focus off it, even for a second. Just keep staring at that spot, and it will calm your mind down quickly (it’s a meditation technique).

4. Sensory Deprivation

- in some cases, some sensory deprivation can calm yourself down further, while using any of these techniques. eg. on a plane - using eye mask and ear plugs.

5.

Hypnosis

- has been shown to have excellent results with fears and phobias.

While mantras, relaxation and distraction can help ease anxiety symptoms, hypnosis helps address the fears deep at the core subconscious level, and allows you to change and improve automatic responses, and often remove the fear altogether. 

This was my own experience, as before I became a hypnotherapist, I had first-hand experience of fear of flying, which I experienced during taking off, and landing, of flights. However once I addressed the fear with hypnotherapy (using the reinforcement of my own customized hypnosis recordings), the issue never returned.

While nothing can be regarded as a sure thing when it comes to addressing fears, the most reliable means has always been to tackle the issue at the very source.

As the source of fears and phobias is located at the subconscious level, this is why trying to overcome these issues at the 'conscious' level is generally doomed to failure - as the issues simply continue to return until they are properly attended to at their root cause.

List of Common Fears / Phobias

(Technical name, followed by brief description of the phobia).

Acrophobia - heights

Agoraphobia - open or crowded spaces

Arachnophobia - spiders

Aquaphobia - water

Aviophobia - flying

Achluophobia - darkness

Aichmophobia - sharp objects

Algophobia - pain

Atelophobia - imperfection or not being good enough

Automatonophobia - human-like figures, such as mannequins or robots

Balloons - balloons

Batrachophobia - amphibians

Bibliophobia - books or reading

Chiroptophobia - bats

Claustrophobia - enclosed spaces

Chromophobia - colors

Chronophobia - time or the passing of time

Coprophobia - feces

Coulrophobia - clowns

Cryophobia - cold or cold things

Cynophobia - dogs

Decidophobia - making decisions

Dendrophobia - trees

Domatophobia - houses or being inside a house

Dystychiphobia - accidents or being in accidents

Dentophobia - dentists

Emetophobia - vomiting

Ecophobia - the environment or natural disasters

Entomophobia - insects

Ephebiphobia - teenagers or young people

Equinophobia - horses

Eremophobia - being alone or being isolated

Erythrophobia - blushing or the color red

Gamophobia - marriage or commitment

Genuphobia - knees

Gerascophobia - aging

Glossophobia - public speaking

Hemophobia - blood

Haphephobia - being touched

Hemophobia - blood

Herpetophobia - reptiles

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia - long words

Histiophobia - history

Hydrophobia - water

Iatrophobia - doctors or medical procedures

Ichthyophobia - fish

Insectophobia - insects

Katsaridaphobia - cockroaches

Keraunophobia - thunder and lightning

Kinemortophobia - zombies

Koinoniphobia - rooms filled with people

Kolpophobia - genitals or sexual intercourse

Koumpounophobia - buttons

Lachanophobia - vegetables

Leukophobia - the color white

Lilapsophobia - tornadoes and hurricanes

Limnophobia - lakes or large bodies of water

Logophobia - words or speaking

Macrophobia - long waits

Melanophobia - the color black

Meningitophobia - meningitis

Microphobia - small things

Misophobia - germs or dirt

Monophobia - being alone or isolated

Musophobia - mice

Myrmecophobia - ants

Mysophobia - germs or dirt

Necrophobia - death or dead things

Necrophobia - death or dead things

Neophobia - new things or change

Nomophobia - being without a mobile phone

Nosocomephobia - hospitals

Nyctophobia - darkness

Nosophobia - contracting a disease

Nucleomituphobia - nuclear weapons

Nyctophobia - the dark

Ochlophobia - crowds

Oikophobia - one's own home or household objects

Ombrophobia - rain

Ophidiophobia - snakes

Onomatophobia - certain words or names

Ophidiophobia - snakes

Optophobia - opening one's eyes

 

Ornithophobia - birds

Panphobia - everything

Papyrophobia - paper

Pedophobia - children

Pediophobia - dolls

Peladophobia - bald people

Peniaphobia - poverty

Penteraphobia - mother-in-law

Phagophobia - swallowing or eating

Phasmophobia - ghosts

Pharmacophobia - taking medicine

Phengophobia - daylight or sunlight

Philophobia - love or falling in love

Phonophobia - loud noises

Photophobia - light

Phronemophobia - thinking

Pnigophobia - choking

Podophobia - feet or walking

Porphyrophobia - the color purple

Potamophobia - rivers or running water

Pteromerhanophobia - flying Pyrophobia - fire

Radiophobia - radiation or X-rays

Rhytiphobia - getting wrinkles

Samhainophobia - Halloween

Sanguivoriphobia - vampires

Scolionophobia - school

Sciophobia - shadows

Scopophobia - being looked at or stared at

Selachophobia - sharks

Seplophobia - decaying matter

Siderodromophobia - trains

Sinistrophobia - things on the left side of the body

Sitophobia - food or eating

Social anxiety disorder - social situations and being judged by others

Sociophobia - social situations or people

Somniphobia - sleep

Sophophobia - learning or knowledge

Spectrophobia - ghosts or mirrors

Spheksophobia - wasps

Stasibasiphobia - standing or walking

Stenophobia - narrow spaces

Stereophobia - stereotypes

Stigmatophobia - being criticized

Stygiophobia - hell

Syngenesophobia - relatives

Tachophobia - speed

Taphephobia - being buried alive

Technophobia - technology

Trypanophobia - injections or needles

Telephonophobia - telephones

Teratophobia - deformed people or monsters

Tetraphobia - the number four

Thalassophobia - the ocean or sea

Thanatophobia - death

Theophobia - God or religion

Thermophobia - heat

Tocophobia - pregnancy or childbirth

Tomophobia - surgical operations

Topophobia - certain places or situations

Toxophobia - poison

Traumatophobia - injury or wounds

Triskaidekaphobia - the number 13

Trypanophobia - needles or injections

Tuberculophobia - tuberculosis

Turophobia - cheese

Uranophobia - heaven

Urophobia - Fear

Vaccinophobia - vaccines

Venustraphobia - beautiful women

Verminophobia - vermin, such as rats or cockroaches

Vestiphobia - clothing

Virophobia - viruses

Vitricophobia - stepfathers

Wiccaphobia - witchcraft or witches

Xenoglossophobia - foreign languages

Xenophobia - strangers or foreigners

Xerophobia - dryness

Xylophobia - forests

Zoophobia - animals

Zelophobia - jealousy

Zenophobia - feeling homesick

Zephyrophobia - wind

Zeusophobia - God or gods

Zelotypophobia - jealousy

Zoanthophobia - animals

Zoonophobia - animals

Zoophobia - animals

Zophophobia - animals

Zuclopenthixol - antipsychotic medication

Zymmophobia - fermenting or fermentation