Skip to main content

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

 Please share or comment
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ten Top Tips for a Better Night's Sleep

Do you want to have a better night's sleep? The following helpful hints may help you to sleep more comfortably. 1.Try not to eat too late in the evening preferably before 7pm is best. This gives your digestion system the opportunity to function properly. 2. If you are hungry later in the evening have a hot milky drink or eat a couple of plain biscuits or a slice of toast. Nothing too heavy, greasy or spicy so no kebabs or curries. 3 Watching the News (featuring bombings or stabbings) or reading scary novels or murder mystery books is filling your mind with unpleasant images and your mind has to process this information as you are trying to drift off to sleep. 4. Likewise a lot of people do Sudoko or crossword puzzles if they cannot get off to sleep, this is keeping your mind alert and not allowing you to relax. 5. Try not to work too late into the evening either by bringing work home from school/college or the office, or surfing the net. A lot of people turn off t...
Post a Comment
Read more

What is Counselling?

As a qualified counsellor quite often I am asked to explain what is counselling? usually when seeing a client for the first time. Some people think that counselling is just talking about what is going on in your life or having someone there to listen to you, and in some ways that is what it is. However, it is more than this. Talking about our thoughts and feelings is a way to see things more clearly as sometimes we are part of the problem because we are so often involved in the situation. We are too involved or we have got into a pattern of thinking a particular way or acting in a certain manner.  Talking things through with another person, such as a counsellor can help you to see things more clearly such as from a different perspective, rather like an outsider looking in on the situation. Counselling can also help you to find coping mechanisms or strategies to deal with the situation. For example, if you change how you think or feel then this means that the other...
Post a Comment
Read more

Learning to Like Yourself

If you don’t love (like) yourself how can somebody else like or even love you? Maybe you struggle with low self-esteem or lack confidence, or not feel attractive or have had bad experiences dating as your reasons or excuses for remaining single. Or having had a bad relationship or marriage or difficult divorce or been cheated upon. Your radar needs to be clear if you are to attract what you want. What we think is what we become, so connect to your deep desire and not your fear. It is about learning to like yourself and appreciate yourself and become your own best friend and not about blaming or complaining. You aren’t going to meet someone if you stay in every weekend, so find places to go or try different things to do. Do some small thing every day to move you towards your goal of meeting somone. If on-line dating, take time to write your own profile and certainly not get someone else to do that for you. Be clear about what it is you are looking for. Be honest in your pro...
Read more