Fears & Phobias
Overcome your fears for good
A phobia is an external symbolic representation of an inward anxiety. Or, in English, an internal and overwhelming emotion triggered by something (almost anything!) from outside of oneself.
Phobias are formed early in one's development when a traumatic, or highly stressful situation occurs that the psyche at that point is not able to deal with. Instead it reacts by repressing or bottling up the emotions and creates a phobia which is an intense, uncontrollable yet intangible (pathological) fear (as opposed to just a dislike), to warn you never to get into that situation, or similar one again.
Often the reaction is in the form of a panic attack, or sudden onset of intense anxiety often lasting several minutes (the feelings are so strong they are often mistaken for a heart attack as symptoms are similar and dramatic).
Most phobias are symbolically rather than directly linked to the cause of the bottled up emotions. For example, there are just as many sufferers of Ophidiophobia or Snake Phobia in Ireland (where there are NO native snakes) as is in Australia where there are 100+ native snakes. If you ask each of these snake phobics if they've ever been harmed by or even handled a snake the answer will 99.9% of the time be a resounding "NO!".
So, where has this pathological fear come from? The answer is from inside. Each phobic (no matter what the phobia) actually has a strong fear of being out of control and this has been symbolically projected onto unpredictable snakes and often anything associated with snakes.
Hypnotherapy and CBT are most commonly used to resolve fears and phobias.
Read our blog about Phobias and more here...
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