An exaggerated fear that often turns into a phobia is the fear of flying. We have all been told that we are much safer flying than driving our car to work and we can understand this consciously. We may go along for years feeling just fine until a situation occurs, where we felt out of control and logic goes out the window. This is especially difficult if it is a pilot that has flown for over 20 years, and within six months developed a flying phobia. My client had flown in every type of weather for years, loved to fly, and always had felt in control whenever flying. Then six months before seeing me he experienced a problem while flying, started to feel out of control which led to his first ever anxiety attack. Over a period of six months he started to dread flying. Even thinking about flying caused him anxiety and the fear grew in intensity until he almost gave up flying. In the last year he was also extremely stressed with other personal issues which he had very little control over and this feeling of being out of control compounded his flying fear. His personal emotional state just fed into his fears when flying, the feelings of being out of control! In my first session with him I added logic and reasoning to his previous flying problems, added re-framing, positive visualization and suggestions also about his personal life. He went flying the next day, feeling more relaxed, confident and self-assured than he had in months. The next week he was flying out of a national airport, excited and confident once more to be doing something he loved to do. As I’ve mentioned before hypnotherapy can be extremely quick and powerful in alleviating fears, anxieties and phobias. Don’t let fear control your life!
Archive for Phobias
HYPNOSIS AND PHOBIAS AND FEARS
All of us experience fear at some time in our life, and usually this fear is something that can actually threaten our well being. We are taught at an early age to be afraid of the hot burner, jumping off a roof, and things as simple as watching for cars crossing the street. Most fears do not interfere with our daily lives. But when a fear restricts and controls our actions during the day it has become a phobia. Many phobias come from childhood, when we were unable to add logic or reasoning to what was happening around us. Often times phobias are formed in adulthood after a very stressful situation in which the person felt out of control and not able to handle what was happening around them. Many times the phobia results from months or years of stress and then an incident happens that pulls the rug out and phobias are formed. Many of my clients that develop phobias in adulthood relate years or months of having to deal with high levels of stress, and feeling out of control in their life. The stress has to go somewhere, and many times it will present itself in illness, anxieties or phobias. It is not always important for the reason for the phobia to be identified for healing to occur. Although if the reason is known, logic, reasoning and re-framing is used in the hypnotherapy to change the way the experience is viewed. Anxiety and panic are almost always part of the phobia and the symptoms may manifest in many ways. We can have anxiety and panic attacks without phobias and I’ll talk about this later. If you have a phobia that is taking control over your life or interfering in things you want to accomplish, remember in many cases hypnotherapy can really help!
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HYPNOSIS FOR MEDICAL, SURGICAL AND DENTAL FEARS
Hypnosis is an effective and pleasant way to reduce the anxieties and fears that can affect you prior to medical, dental, and surgical procedures. Hypnosis has many benefits to lessen stress prior to the procedure, during the procedure, and speed up recovery time. Most of us become stressed just thinking about going to the doctor even for a routine physical. Our pulse rate goes up, blood pressure goes up, and we start breathing quicker, just by thinking about the exam. Then when we are in the office, all of these may even increase especially our blood pressure, also known as the white coat syndrome. All of our bodily functions are affected by our thoughts. Stress and anxiety can change these functions, even putting our immune system to sleep. When this occurs our body is no longer functioning at optimum levels to promote healing, to keep our vital signs normal, or to fight infection.
When hypnosis is used prior to surgery, dental or other procedures, clients enter into the procedure calm, relaxed, and comfortable. You see, what is in the mind is in the body. By changing the way we think about a procedure, we also change our physical and emotional responses to that event. Hypnosis decreases the amount of general and local anesthesia required, decreases bleeding, swelling, and pain after surgery. It decreases the frequency of nausea, and speeds up recovery. It keep all vital signs in a much more normal pattern throughout the entire experience. These remarkable benefits of hypnosis are instrumental in giving people the best opportunity for a positive surgical and recovery experience. Hypnotherapy prior to surgery makes every-one’s job easier and you the patient benefits the most.
HYPNOSIS FOR ANXIETY AND STRESS
Previously I talked about hypnosis being a normal and natural part of your mind and that you go into unintentional hypnosis hundreds of times a day. You can also go into hypnosis due to fear, stress, anxiety, even extreme happiness. Any strong emotion can put you into hypnosis. Stress can account for a high percentage of unintentional hypnosis. The greater the stress, the deeper the hypnosis. This can also be viewed as the flight or fight mode. When you are in this place of fear, anxiety, high stress, you have lost the ability to think clearly and logically. You see, the conscious mind isn’t able to cope with what is happening, and opts out. The subconscious mind then becomes the dominant mind. At this point you have lost the ability to take charge of the situation around you and make logical decisions. You are unable to stand your ground and take care of yourself both physically and emotionally. This is known as the flight mode. Some people are frequently in this type of unintentional hypnosis due to previous traumas, job stress, present situational conditions, and accumulated stresses over time. It’s not so much the event itself, it is how you perceive it and react to it that causes you to be unhappy, unhealthy and anxious. Each of you will react differently to any situation based on heredity and environment. How often does stress, fear or anxiety affect your life each day?
