‘EMOTIONS DON’T WORK ON logic...’
Phobias expert Christopher Paul Jones on some of our biggest fears — including Halloween... By Keeley Ryan
Aleading phobia expert has opened up about some of the most common Halloween phobias — including Samhainophobia, the fear of the celebration itself. Christopher Paul Jones, who is the leading Harley Street phobia expert, also opened up about the differences between a fear and a phobia.
“The simple difference is a fear is something that’s like a dislike, if you like — that’s maybe another way of saying it,” Christopher told Chic.
“Some people say,‘i have a fear of ying’ but they’ll still get on a plane. But people will also say,‘i have a fear of ying’when they mean a phobia of ying and they won’t go near a plane.
“The difference is one is a, ‘oh, I don’t like that’. One is an instant emotional reaction when you see that thing — we call it ght, ight or freeze.your brain goes ‘danger’ and you have to run away; you have to ght it or you have to hide from it.
“It’s an instinctive reaction, which is hard to talk your way out of it logically. Emotions don’t work on logic. Trying to tackle them by going, ‘I know it’s safe, I know I’m not in any danger — I know it’s just a costume, a rubber spider or whatever’, but none of those things make a difference to our emotional mind, generally.”
From snakes and spiders to“more obscure”phobias, Christopher also told us all about the most common phobias triggered in people ahead of spooky season.
“There’s obviously things like fear of masks — certainly in younger children, that’s a very common one. Same as a fear of clowns.
“Then there’s obviously just the general eeriness of things, you know, like the cobwebs and the atmosphere — even though it’s done in good fun.
He continued,“fear of the dark, fear of thunder and lightning and loud noises and that; spiders and snakes are the most common.
“And bats, as well. Anything kind of associated with creepy crawlies.”
While Halloween isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, Christopher told of his own love for the celebration — and how one of the the reasons he reckoned he loved it was “because I’m a bit of a rebel”and his mum, who was“quite religious”, hated it.
The phobia expert continued,“some people, if you were brought up going, ‘ooh, don’t mess with that; it’s witchcraft’ — sometimes, people’s religious beliefs can make people phobic of the whole thing itself and not necessarily a speci c part of it.”
Christopher added that for the“majority of people, it’s the elements that make up Halloween that people are scared of”.
Christopher also recalled how he used to have “a few”phobias and fears of his own — including some insects, public speaking and ying — but“sort of set on a quest to try and solve some of these”.
He told how ying was the rst one that he took on, and then public speaking — and how there are“solutions out there where you can just get straight to the trigger and turn off that Pavlovian bell and change how you feel.”
While he wasn’t aware o f that before his mission to overcome his own phobias, he turned what he learned into a way to help others.
He said,“at rst it was just for my bene t, to help me. And then I started helping other people.
“And then I sort of perfected my own amalgamation of different tools. And now I’m here today doing this.”
Christopher told how“taste, smell and sights trigger us all the time”— and shared one of the mistakes that people make when they’re trying to take on their own phobias.
He said,“i mean, the old fashioned ‘suck it up and power through’ probably isn’t very helpful. Even the sort of standard NHS advice, which is to expose yourself gradually to it — what that means is if you’re scared of spiders, you start with a small spider, then a bigger spider and then a real spider.
“It’s not bad, because you do have to get used to it. But the problem with exposure alone is that it can be quite scary. If someone has a fear, you can challenge your fear — if it’s a phobia, where you see and then react, exposing yourself to It isn’t the best way to deal with it.
“It’s learning to turn off the symptoms and desensitise yourself.
“With Pavlov and his dogs — you ring a bell, feed the dog. Ring a bell, feed the dog. Eventually the dog salivates, like it’s going to be fed.
“Human beings do the same thing.you hear a piece of music while you’re kissing the love of your life and you hear the tune two, three, ten years later and you’re back there, feeling all those feelings.
“Conversely, the love of your life is breaking up with you and you hear a piece of music — two, three, ten years later and you could be back there crying.
“Taste, smell, sights trigger us all the time. With a phobia, at some point in your past, your brain has gone, ‘this thing equals danger’.
“With spiders, you watched your mum react; jump up on a chair when she saw a spider. So, you create that fear.
“Or one made you jump or there was a horror movie or whatever else. Something’s gone in deep and created that fear.
“Some of the best ways to solve a fear is to actually learn how to desensitise; to take off that signal that’s making you associate physical danger to something that isn’t statistically dangerous.”
The author added that when it comes to trying to take on phobias, his advice would be to keep in mind“that a phobia is not xed”.
He continued,“you think it is — especially if you created it really young, you think it’s almost your identity.
“All it is is your brain has associated danger to something that doesn’t require it. There’s tools out there where you can desensitise that and re-educate your subconscious mind or emotional mind on how to deal with them differently.”
TASTE, SMELL, SIGHTS TRIGGER US ALL THE TIME.”