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Halloween

Halloween is becoming more and more popular each year with nearly ever organisation wanting to take part, whether it is the local optician dressing their window or restaurants offering spicy pumpkin soup on the menu. However, it is not always a ‘trick or treat’ fun night for everyone. For those who have a serious phobia of spiders, real or plastic (they can seem life like enough) they have to endure this anxiety every year.

So what is a phobia?
It is an irrational fear triggered when faced with the feared object and as a result the person may sweat, shake, experience dizziness or palpitations as a physical response. Or they may try to avoid the trigger all together which can sometimes be difficult to do. I walked into my local charity shop and there was a plastic spider on the counter as part of their Halloween display. So not as easy as it may seem, and every time the trigger is avoided it actually reinforces the phobia.

Why can’t phobias be rationalised by use of simple logic? 
The reason is because it is a learned behaviour and an emotional response. Recognising these emotions and developing a more rational response is a way to begin to deal with the phobia. If you ‘sit’ in the emotion it can feel as if you are drowning, whereas if you ride it like a wave it will pass and the intensity will lessen. Each time that this is done the emotional response becomes less and less until it is more manageable and extinguished.

Phobias are one of the easiest problems to treat and I developed an interest in hypnotherapy when I visited a hypnotherapist to overcome a phobia that I had of flying. If you are open to hypnotherapy and really want to make changes in your life, then you can replace old, unwanted habits with new behaviours and overcome your phobia.

 Margaret Cook  M Ed  Dip Hypn  MBACP
http://www.allin-the-mind.com

About the author: Margaret is a qualified counsellor and hypnotherapist and has been in private practice for 22 years

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