Debilitating Phobias Can Be Cured

Like every other human, I am sure there are certain activities that you enjoy more than others. Perhaps you prefer a day of pulling weeds in your garden to spending that time shopping for new shoes at the mall. Maybe you are a world traveler who is willing to hop on an airplane at a moment’s notice for a grand adventure while your best friend would rather stay close to home and enjoy the local environment. We would be a pretty boring group if we all enjoyed the same pastimes and found ourselves drawn to the same people and objects. However, there are instances in which our preferences are the result of strong aversions known as phobias. If you are limiting yourself and the potential for a fulfilling life because you are simply terrified of something specific you might encounter, you owe it to yourself to conquer that fear. What are you afraid of? Does this phobia affect your life? If you answered “yes” to the second question, let today be the day you start to change this pattern.

If you have a phobia, you certainly are not alone. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, ten percent of all adults experience a phobia of some kind. The five most popular phobias are as follows:

1. Arachnophobia – the fear of spiders; up to fifty percent of all women admit to this phobia
2. Ophidiophobia – the fear of snakes
3. Acrophobia – the fear of heights
4. Agoraphobia – the fear of not being able to escape; both crowded and wide open spaces trigger fear in those who have such a phobia
5. Cynophobia – the fear of dogs

Do any of these sound familiar? If not, maybe it’s the fear of flying, needles, social situations, germs, or a whole variety of other possibilities that is affecting your everyday life.

Quite often, phobias develop out of a personal experience that you may have had decades ago. If a neighbor’s dog attacked you while you were outside playing in your yard, your mind will establish a trigger related to every dog that you encounter. If you grew up in a home that was abusive or perhaps simply not supportive, you may still feel like you cannot escape from a difficult situation. The key to alleviating phobias is to find this root cause and then detach the connection from the object or situation that now engenders such fear.

Clinical hypnotherapy is a safe and wonderful way to address your phobias and remove their impact from your life. With the assistance of a trained professional, you can learn relaxation techniques and thought exercises that will release the unconscious mind in which so much of our personal history is stored. Once the connection from a certain event to your current phobia is discovered, your mind can be retrained to look at the situation through an entirely new lens. Why deny yourself that week-long trip to Italy, the company of good friends, or the joy of viewing the countryside from the highest vantage point a mountain will allow? Find the freedom that comes from a phobia-free life!