Success Curing a Phobia

[Psyzygy]

It's worked a couple times now so I just wanted to share.

I used to have intense phobic reaction to needles-- panicking, out of control in my body even when my mind was supposed to be fine.
Not anymore! I trained with EMG's "Blank" recording and now I can stop the reactions before they start.

It's so nice! I'm working more with this, but I feel like this was a big step.

Thanks EMG!

[cardigan]

Congratulations! Curing a phobia is a big thing! Good for you!

Did you know that the fact you can CREATE a phobia is also a pretty good sign that you are easily hypnotizeable? You see: you sort of hypnotized yourself to always respond with fear under certain circumstances. You actually made yourself a trigger!

So this is a message to all those out there with one or more phobias. You can remove these quite easily with hypnosis - even through giving yourself waking suggestions.

Example: I used to be very afraid of shots. And I had no one to hypnotize me at that time. But I sort of hypnotized myself briefly before having to give that blood sample or take that shot. I closed my eyes and told myself, that I'd feel nothing when I was given the shot - as long as I just relax, don't look at what they are doing to me and think of something else. And so far it's worked for several years. I'm always first in line when we have our flu vaccination at work now.

If you need a file to help cure a specific phobia, then give me a shout. I can help.

Cardigan

[brainslug]

Congratulations! Curing a phobia is a big thing! Good for you!

Did you know that the fact you can CREATE a phobia is also a pretty good sign that you are easily hypnotizeable? You see: you sort of hypnotized yourself to always respond with fear under certain circumstances. You actually made yourself a trigger!

So this is a message to all those out there with one or more phobias. You can remove these quite easily with hypnosis - even through giving yourself waking suggestions.

Example: I used to be very afraid of shots. And I had no one to hypnotize me at that time. But I sort of hypnotized myself briefly before having to give that blood sample or take that shot. I closed my eyes and told myself, that I'd feel nothing when I was given the shot - as long as I just relax, don't look at what they are doing to me and think of something else. And so far it's worked for several years. I'm always first in line when we have our flu vaccination at work now.

If you need a file to help cure a specific phobia, then give me a shout. I can help.

Cardigan

well, maybe this will Restore my faith in transformation hypnosis. I never really tried it because I read that it only worked on super suggestable people.

I have 2 REALLY strong phobias, one of spiders and bugs and one of losing sight. When I see a spider or bug near me, my mind deserts all logical processes of thought and I scream and sometimes nearly puke of the insect is particularly hidious. I would have never thought that I could be glad of having a phobia :)

[Psyzygy]

Cardigan--That's the idea that worked for me!

I'm still afraid of needles (working on that by trying to condition myself to like them) but I no longer have a near panic attack when I need a shot. I freaked out the tech who took my blood last. He remembered me from before :) and I was so different.

I read that you may trance when you drive, so I remembered what that felt like and what being actually under felt like and convinced myself I was a fighter pilot. Guess it worked.

Refinements, etc. welcome! I want to be able to help others who look for this. :)

[DKaiser]

Also, if you're experienced with going into trance, then you can generally make do without actually installing any suggestions to that idea. Use that extreme focus you've learned, and in the words of so many hypnotists: "Pick a spot on the wall or ceiling, and just concentrate on that spot". It works rather well, as generally the scary part to your mind is seeing the needle, and thus when the pain isn't all that bad, your mind can just keep focusing.

Just a trick I learned, when I was getting an IV in an obnoxious place(on top of the wrist, as they wanted to be able to monitor it during surgery). Consider such things practical self-hypnosis, along with the classic "Count to 10 when you feel angry" or "Clear your mind before trying a difficult task".

[Jeshi]

Reading this topic I think people are misusing the term phobia. If you're afraid of something you have a fear of it, not necessarily a phobia. A phobia is strong irrational fear of something.

I have a friend with Ophidiophobia. It's actually a diagnosed condition. If she sees any snakes of even photographs of snakes she immediately goes into spasms and has a nervous breakdown. Even though she's knows it's just a photograph and that there is no way the snake can even touch her she still has the reaction, it's an irrational fear. She can handle pictures of snakes and even CGI renditions of snakes, but the sight of an actual snake whether it's in person or in a photograph causes the reactions.

On the other hand, I once had a strong fear of escalators. I couldn't get myself on them because I always thought I'd step between the steps while they were raising and lose my balance. And anytime I tried to get on an escalator I could see myself in my mind losing balance and falling either down the down escalator or falling backwards on the up escalator. I eventually overcame this fear because somebody pushed me onto the escalator when I wasn't prepared. My feet ending up between two steps and it raised and I didn't lose my balance or fall because I was holding the railings so tightly. And I overcame the fear because I realized it was irrational and was able to overcome it.

The difference between a phobia and a fear is that a phobia is irrational. You know you have nothing to fear and that it makes no sense to be afraid. You know the photograph of a snake can't bite you and really it's not even the prospect of being bitten that scares you, just for some reason the sight of the snake causing an emotional breakdown as you suddenly feel a horrible sense of terror and run away.


Hypnosis might help with overcoming phobias but it would have to be accompanied by lots of extra therapy on the outside as well. I think what people are talking about in this topic haven't been overcoming phobias with hypnosis but overcoming fears. Overcoming a strong fear with hypnosis would be very simple. There are many ways and it would be easy. But a phobia is rooted much deeper and is much more complex. Because the patient already knows there is nothing to fear yet they have the reaction anyways. [/i]

[cardigan]

Jeshi.

You are perfectly right in your definition of af phobia. It's natural to be wary of snakes, because they CAN be deadly. But as soon as the fear is completely out of proportion to any real danger, or if the mere mention of the triggering thing or a picture can bring on a sort of hysterical reaction, we are certainly dealing with a phobia.

That being said - hypnosis can remove both phobias and can help somebody who just needs a "push" - like you did with escalators. And this is great, because sometimes the difference between a clinical phobia and just being overly anxious about something can be a thin line indeed. Often it's in the eyes of the beholder.

But with hypnotherapy we isolate the problem and don't give a damn about the "diagnosis" - and fix it. :-)

Cardigan