Some phobias, such as fear of heights, claustrophobia, fear of insects and snakes, are more common than others. Fortunately, phobias can be unlearned or treated effectively: slowly - using small steps, or on the contrary - jumping into the deep water.

Anxiety statesare, along with depression, one of the most widespread psychological problems. Phobias have plagued people since the dawn of civilization. It has also been proven that in recent years the number of phobias, as well as people suffering from various fears, has increased significantly. Fortunately, effective methods of dealing with them have been developed today.

Althoughphobiasare a product of learning, evolution has "prepared" people to feel them. Some phobias are especially easy to learn. If cavemen did not feel fear, they would expose themselves to dangers without hesitation. It was "profitable" for cavemen to fear (even excessively) spiders, snakes, chasms (heights), rooms with no way out (traps), dirt, darkness, storms, wind, insects, cuts, etc., because they are all dangerous. Those who did not feel such fears did not avoid dangerous situations and had less chance of survival and keeping their offspring. That is why certain phobias occur more often than others, e.g. fear of the dark, insects, snakes, storms, dirt, aliens, chasms, etc. And so we are heirs of the genes of those people who were afraid.

Methods of taming phobias

One of such methods is the so-called desensitization. Most often it is based on the fact that a person gradually gets used to what arouses fear in him. For example, if you are afraid of dogs, you should first pet a tiny, blind puppy (or a toy). Then she touches a nice little doggie. When she is no longer afraid of this dog, she gets a bigger dog to stroke her. Gradually, he can get used to even a very scary looking animal and then the fear disappears.

The whole procedure can be performed only in the imagination (it is the so-called desensitization in the imagination), provided that a person can create plastic images or learns it during therapy (Milton Erickson, a hypnotherapist, was a master of using such techniques). Anothertreatment for phobiasis implosive therapy - throwing into deep water. This therapyit is based on the prolonged and intense impact of stimuli that cause anxiety. It is a therapy of choice - e.g. a person who is afraid of dirt is encouraged to take mud baths. In this situation, your initial anxiety is strongest, but it gets weaker as time goes on. Ultimately, a person learns that despite contact with a "threatening" stimulus, there is nothing to be afraid of, and then the fear disappears.

Important

A phobia can be a symptom of other disorders (e.g. depression), it can also be associated with the construction of personality and internal conflicts, when a person wants something and at the same time believes that it is something wrong. In such cases, psychotherapy works better.

Overcoming phobias

What is a person afraid of heights to do if they have to go up with the whole trip by chairlift? Or someone with arachnophobia who spots a spider in a hotel room and thinks there are more of them? How can a student who is afraid of speaking but has to read a paper cope?

Every 10th person experiences a phobia. Immediately after depression, it is one of the most common mental ailments.

Therapy is not always necessary, but it is definitely worth undergoing it, even if the anxiety is not particularly bothersome. This is because freeing yourself from phobias makes your whole psyche function better, but there are several therapeutic methods that you can use on your own. The general recommendation is this: don't avoid what you fear. The more you avoid it, the longer your phobia lasts. For example, if a person with claustrophobia (fear of confined spaces) does not get into the elevator, their fear persists. If she decided to go to the 10th floor, she would leave the elevator cured to some extent. Twenty such trips will significantly reduce your phobia, and if you drive 100 times, the phobia will disappear!

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How to deal with a phobia yourself?

To decide on such treatments, however, you need a lot of determination and a "strong ego". Sometimes there is simply no time for training. Then what? You can try other treatments.

  • Phobias weaken when we are with a loved one, someone we trust and with whom we feel safe. If you have to ride the chairlift despite your acrophobia - arrange the company of a loved one who will make you feel more confident .
  • It's good to learn how to relax. Psychologists have found that it is impossible to experience fear when a person is relaxed and relaxed. People who can induce a state of relaxation can also do thisprevent phobias from starting. This is what a person in a hotel room where a spider frightened can handle - when he lies down on the bed and puts him in a state of relaxation, his anxiety will weaken .
  • An interesting, though controversial, therapy of unpleasant emotions was developed by Francine Shapiro. The method is called EDMR ("Eye Movement Desensitization") and consists of briskly moving the eyes up and down and diagonally. In many people, this method reduces unpleasant emotions, although there is no reliable scientific research that would unambiguously confirm its effectiveness.
  • Sometimes distraction helps. A person who is afraid of heights may feel anxious when looking out the window. However, if she sits with her back to that window, her fear disappears. People with social anxiety disorder who need to make a public appearance are advised not to look at the audience at all (eye contact increases the drug) or to imagine the audience naked. Distracting attention from anxiety-generating stimuli reduces the experience of anxiety.
  • The anxiety associated with a phobia also reduces seeing people who are not afraid. If, for example, a person is afraid of dirt (mizophobia), and has a chance to observe, for example, the work of a plumber or people splashing in the mud, their anxiety will become weaker - just as a phobia can be learned through observation, it can also be reduced through observation.

The phobia can be treated pharmaceutically

In some cases, phobias are treated with medications. This is because the brain works differently when it is experiencing intense anxiety states. Certain areas of it (e.g. the limbic system or the amygdala) become too active, while the activity of others is suppressed. Therefore, restoring the biochemical balance in the brain with medication improves the condition of people who suffer from phobias.

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The phobia can be learned

When we look at a man who is afraid of getting into the elevator (claustrophobia) or going out to the balcony (fear of heights - acrophobia) or panicking seeing a cat (aylurophobia), we think there must be something wrong with him. After all, there is no rational reason to be afraid. Meanwhile, tons of experiments have shown that phobias can be learned! Imagine, for example, that you see a huge, strong bear that crouches at the sight of a spider, tries to escape, and shows all possible symptoms of anxiety. Wouldn't we conclude that the bear has gone mad? However, it is enough for us to make the animal associate the spider with some danger, and arachnophobia may appear. For example, if we put an electric collar on a bear and showed him a spider before each electrocution, the animal would learn that the spider isharbinger of a painful shock, and one would start to fear it - arachnophobia would appear in a large, strong bear! It is worth noting that from the bear's point of view, the fear of a spider is reasonable. It really signifies the coming of danger. However, if someone does not know what experience the animal has, they will treat it like a crazy bear. It is also worth noting that a bear, just like a human, does not have to "be aware" of where his phobia came from - he does not have to remember or understand his experiences with the collar. Humans, as well as animals, can learn phobias also when they observe that something bad is happening to someone (this type of learning is called surrogate conditioning). This is how Katarzyna learned to be afraid of spiders - she observed that her mother panicked when the spider was crawling around her neck.

Don't scare your child or they'll develop a phobia

We already know that you can learn phobias - a child who is locked in a wardrobe as a punishment will be afraid of closed rooms (claustrophobia), if he has been painfully bitten by wasps, he will be afraid of a buzzing fly or other insects (insectophobia). ). This learning mechanism is called reactive conditioning in psychology. Psychologists have discovered, however, that it is also possible to protect a person from phobias with something like a vaccine. For example, if a child has a dog at home that they like, and they happen to be bitten by some other dog, the phobia is unlikely to arise. However, if you have never de alt with nice dogs, and in addition saw a movie in which someone was bitten by a dog, or an adult threatened them with a dog (e.g. will definitely learn a phobia. This means that frightening children, making them afraid (also by punishing or shouting) may increase the readiness to learn phobias. As people learn phobias, they can get worse over time and "infect" more and more areas. For example, Katarzyna, who is afraid of spiders, does not like a hedge made of conifers - "because there are spiders in it". A child who is afraid of the storm may begin to fear the wind, dark clouds, and heavy rain as well. This is because everything that we associate with danger begins to be dangerous for us.

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