IF you are like most people there is a least one thing that gives you the heebie-jeebies. Maybe it’s snakes or needles or heights or clowns but does it rise to the level of a phobia?
Psychologists consider phobias to be anxiety disorders. When someone fears a certain object or setting, they refer to it as a specific phobia. How do specific phobias differ from ordinary fears?
- They usually cause excessive distress. If you see a spider on your bathroom floor and call your partner to come and dispatch it, you probably don’t suffer from arachnophobia. People with arachnaphobia would struggle finishing this sentence. They might be afraid to touch a book that contains pics of spiders.
- People with specific phobias won’t quietly suffer when confronted with the source of their terror. A person with a simple fear of elevators will usually step into one and ride it to their floor perhaps while clinching their teeth and sweating but the person with a specific phobia of elevators and is forced to ride one, he/she will grow wild with panic.
- Disruption of day to day life. Specific phobias cause people to change their behaviors. In recent years some people have developed nomophobia which is the fear of being out of cell phone range. An example might be a student who fails his SAT because he had to leave his cellphone at the classroom door or couldn’t focus on the questions. These are examples of how true phobias disrupt everyday life.
In my next blog I will talk about how phobias form and some risk factors.
Hypnosis can be a useful tool in treating phobias. If you have any questions about whether or not you might have a phobia and how I might help, please call me at 361.442.9590 or email at [email protected].