Phobias and Holidays

I have just been watching today’s edition of ‘Doctors’ (BBC1 2.05). It was called ‘Wings and Needles’. Part of the synopsis = “two newlyweds suffer from secret phobias.” The newlyweds were going to visit the family of the wife. They live in India. Therefore they will fly and also need injections. However she is phobic of flying and he of needles. Both these are very common. The twist to the story is that nether have told the other of this problem.

How does the story pan out? Well the wife is having hypnotherapy for the phobia. And for once the process was reasonably accurate. (Thank you Tim Sanders (the writer)) The hypnotherapist used systematic desensitisation (SD) when she was in a gentle level trance. It was not instant; there was no swinging watches; and she didn’t go around after clucking like a chicken.

On the other hand the husband goes to have the injection. He tries to get out of it in every way he can; he is rude and aggressive; when he sees the needle he faints. All this is very common in a person suffering from a phobia. The practice nurse tries to use a phobia cure on him but he runs, again a very common behaviour. She claim 100% success rate with patients and needle phobia, this may well be true.

Anyway after some confusion and embarrassment, both wife and husband are cured and all turns out loving and lovely.

So - what about real life? Here I need to say a few things about phobias:

1 - Fear is the bodies’ preparation for you to ether put up a fight or run; it is called fight / flight. It is the base of all strong emotions. We learn most of what we are frightened of, little is genetic. This is why you have to put a fire guard around a fire and socket covers over electric plugs when children are around. They haven yet learnt to be frightened of them.

2 – We learn most fears. Sometimes we mis-learn and therefore something which is completely harmless gets linked to a fight/flight reaction. This is why some people get phobic to that which others cannot understand. Sometimes even telling the person to “just pull yourself together!” This is as useless a helping tool as a chocolate teapot. For the person suffering the reaction is every bit as powerful as if someone was holding a gun to their head. The fact that the reaction is out of proportion to the objects threat does not come into it. The learning of the fear is as deep as the learning that if you press a handle on a door down or turn it – the door opens.

3 – Being frightened of something that can harm you is not a phobia.
I was assisting Paul McKenna in one of his phobia workshops. A guy who had had all his phobias extinguished the day before remarked that there was still a problem. Paul asked what this was. The guy replied that the night before, at 11 o’clock at night, he had to walk to his hotel which was the other side of Hide Park and he was frightened.

Paul remarked that that’s not a phobia, it was his body telling him its dangerous and so it was preparing him for that possibility.

4 – A dislike in not a phobia.
Some people say to me that “Ooh I just don’t like the way spiders move.” My question to that is; “do you get very anxious or even panic?” if the answer is “No!” then its not a phobia is a dislike. This can also be cured. If however you get a fear reaction in the form of anxiety or panic then it is likely to be a phobia.

5 – Many people suffering from a phobia feel that it is incurable.
The most important point of this entry is – ALL PHOBIAS ARE CURABLE. By the very nature of a phobia being irrational in the sense of the object being non-harmful, using the right techniques, any and all phobias will go. Most hypnotherapist and NLP practitioners deal with phobias with ease. Most are based on the simple but effective technique of gradual exposure to the object whilst very relaxed or hypnotized. However NLP had at least seven fast phobia cures which work very well without direct exposure. This is particularly useful in some cases where the client cannot even bare to think of the object. Another, powerful technique is TFT. This is like acupuncture without the needles.

I have used all the above successfully with many clients. It is true now – no one need suffer with a phobia any more.

If you have a phobia please read more on my web site. Help is at hand and if you are in the Milton Keynes area, call me 01908 674 062, otherwise the two societies (SSM) (Hypnotherapy Association) will be pleased to guild you to a well trained and experienced therapist who will be please to help.