Get the better of your phobia
DO you have an intense fear of an object, animal or situation?
Many of us suffer from irrational persistent terrors, ranging from the common arachnophobia – fear of spiders – to phobophobia, a fear of phobias themselves.
These rarely affect the daily lives of most sufferers. But at its most extreme a phobia can cause crippling anxiety, preventing people from seeking medical help or stopping them ever leaving their home.
We spoke to ITV This Morning’s phobia experts Eva and Nik Speakman to find out what are the most common ones – and to hear advice on how you can fight your fears for good.
The most common phobia in the UK is the fear of public speaking.
Nik says: “People’s phobias can be caused by an incident in childhood.
“Reading something out in the classroom and being laughed at by your peers can develop into a phobia of public speaking.”
Eva suffers from this fear of heights. She says: “This is another very common phobia that can often lead into other phobias including fear of flying or fear of fairground rides.”
Eva says: “The fear of vomit is common and its repercussions can be immense. Sufferers will avoid doctors, hospitals, certain foods, restaurants and pubs in case anyone around them is ill.
“A lot of them become housebound because they worry about germs. Or they won’t have children because they fear having attacks of morning sickness.”
The fear of open spaces can be a crippling phobia because it stops people leaving their home. Eva says: “This is people protecting themselves from the outside world because of something that happened to them.”
Nik says: “People can be terrified of hospitals, injections or GP surgeries. The danger is this can sometimes stop them seeking help when they need it.”
Eva says: “Spiders are a big one around this time of year because they come in from the cold. People feel invaded. Similarly over the summer, there is a spike in phobias of bees and wasps, while the fear of flying is heightened when people go on holiday.”
Think about what sparked your phobia. Was it a particular experience or something you inherited from childhood?
Most phobias are created in childhood, so understand that every time you have a phobic response you are actually asking the advice of your childhood self on how you should react to that kind of thing.
Instead, look at the problem from an adult perspective.
See it for what it is and not how it felt.
Look again at the spider and realise it is only a spider – separate it from the feeling of fear.
If you struggle to do that yourself, ask a friend how they would perceive the same situation. Don’t over-generalise. If you have a phobia based on one bad event – a flight with turbulence or one bad experience with an injection – don’t overgeneralise and blame ALL medical staff, ALL hospitals or ALL planes.
We over-generalise as children and this is something you need to recognise and reverse. Look for positive evidence. People who have phobias tend to look for reasons to support their phobia. You have to look for positive evidence as to why you should NOT have the phobia. Find positive evidence to downgrade it.
This Morning is on weekdays at 10.30am on ITV.