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Common Problems

The usual fears that may exist in relative degrees of severity include:

Fears are not necessarily bad. They can be highly valuable if they serve useful purposes, such as creating caution in driving, locking doors, being prepared for emergencies. But when fear causes alteration of a normal lifestyle, creating intense and irrational behaviours, becoming a threat to a person’s well-being, it merits attention. Frequent occurrence is a strong warning signal that needs to be heeded.

A “hang-up” becomes a fear when it becomes noticeably disturbing and begins to affect behaviour. A fear becomes a phobia when it reaches the point of being triggered by factors which are irrational and may be unknown, and when it is experienced so frequently that it affects an individual’s normal activities. Lack of understanding of the repressed conflict which causes the reaction may result in uncontrollable or unreasonable behaviour.

A key point is that a phobic person is threatened by something that does not in reality present a life threat. Yet the reaction is the same as it would be in a situation of real danger. The fear generates more fear, and the situation cannot be confronted in a calm state, so the victim makes every effort to avoid it.

Unlocking the Fear

A fear may have established such a firm hold on your life that it seems impossible to unlock, or even understand. However, regardless of the specific stimulus that produces the fear - whether it be flying, spiders, snakes, dogs, thunderstorms - the majority of fears are generated from one of the following five causes:

1. Your fear may be the product of severe stress. Stress can be repressed for such a long time or to such a degree that it surfaces in another form, that of irrational fear. You may be experiencing a great amount of stress in relation to a specific thing, place, or situation, but that stress may materialise as a fear about some other thing, place, or situation. Transferred stress from one area of life to another, which resulted in what could be called “displaced” fear. Often in this type of stress-based fear the person selects something that can be easily avoided as the object of the fear.
    
2. Your fear may be the product of a series of experiences occurring over a period of years, which have been built up into an excessive anxiety. Many fears related to your own performances or to being in certain social situations can cause you to build up a fear of phobic proportions. You may think of this cause as an accumulation of distressing events that perpetuate and increase a state of dread.
   
   Fear of failure, ridicule, or criticism that forms a part of a persons history and compounded through a series of negative experiences can culminate in a fear that may transfer or radiate to other areas of life.
    
3. Your fear may be the product of a fear of fear. “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” If you have a fear of panic, of fear itself, it is a very real fear. Your fear can be associated with anything and everything because you believe that as you go over a certain threshold of stress in the presence of a certain stimulus, you will panic. By anticipating panic, you raise your stress level and the fear turns into a destructive cycle. You avoid so many situations in your effort not to be afraid that your life becomes very limited. You may be afraid to go to town, afraid of travelling, afraid of giving a presentation etc.
   
   Nothing is exempt from your fear and your activities become increasingly restricted as the fear radiates into all facets of your life.
    
4. Your fear may have been transmitted to you by another person. This cause of fears is probably the easiest to understand, because it is imposed on you by an outside force. For example, if you continually see your father or mother react with horror to thunderstorms, or spiders, you are likely to react the same way. In this case, you have “caught” the fear from someone who serves as a role model or an authority figure for you.
    
5. Your fear may be the result of a severe past trauma. A painful emotional experience from the past can produce an unreasonable fear of that same situation, object, person, or place that originally caused the fear. The trauma can be either conscious or subconscious: that is, you may be aware of the original cause of the fear, or you may have successfully buried the trauma and have no conscious recollection of it. In many cases, the trauma that caused the fear is repressed.

Getting rid of your fear - The Advantage of Hypnotherapy.

Specific fears often emanate from apprehension of impending danger. Feelings of anxiety and panic tend to manifest into forebodings of approaching disaster the source of which is not understood. The fear of loss of control is primitive and is likely to be a common element and basic cause in all fear cases. It is not uncommon in relationship breakups.

The progressive development of fear and phobic reactions often proceed through four phases:

• Unrealistic statements create a state of alarm.
• Fear of the fear itself develops.
• Personal feelings and reason are rejected as the fear escalates.
• Avoidance begins of any person, place, thing or situation which generates feelings or arousal or anxiety.
• Regardless of your type of fear, there are two methods for overcoming fears.

The first method is called the Progressive Approach.

This procedure involves desensitization or letting go of fear so that it no longer remains functional or has an influence on you. Once your subconscious mind has been freed of the hold your fear had on you, positive ideas and concepts are then presented to your subconscious mind to create new, automatic responses to persons, places, objects or situations.

In mild cases re-education through hypnotherapy can prove effective. Hypnotic suggestions can replace catastrophic thoughts with truthful statements explaining the nature of the symptoms and the realization that the physical sensations can cause no harm. Hypnosis can slow the heartbeat, achieve a sense of balance, generate relaxation through deep breathing, free the throat to swallow, overcome sensations of temperature change and promote clear-headedness.

The second method used is called Analytical Hypnotherapy.

Most people successfully respond to the progressive approach. However, in more severe cases, symptoms are usually apparent, but true causes likely are unknown. The condition which created the fear is a threat to the victim because it is unresolved. Exposing the cause can diminish the anxiety associated with the fear by taking it out of the unknown so that rational suggestions can be used to alleviate symptoms. Some causes apparently producing present symptoms may prove to be of themselves symptoms of yet a deeper cause. In these cases if there are issues that continue to inhibit a person from letting go of their fear, then it is important to uncover and identify the specific event/s that caused the fear in order to sever emotional ties to it.

Age regression can be a highly effective technique for uncovering causes. It is one of the most beneficial procedures available in hypnotherapy. The procedure involves probing the subconscious by asking specific questions while in hypnosis. These questions are designed to determine the real reason for the fear and the reluctance to let go and become free.