Furness-Smith A Practical Guide to Overcoming Phobias

Stand Up to Your Fears
1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-1-84831-690-4
Verlag: Icon Books
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 224 Seiten

Reihe: Practical Guide Series

Whether you suffer from panic attacks or feelings of crippling dread, Introducing Overcoming Phobias offers proven techniques to help you break down your fears into manageable parts. Psychologist Patricia Furness-Smith teaches the reader to understand their phobias and remove the anxiety surrounding them. STAND UP TO FEAR and increase your self-confidence. UNDERSTAND PANIC ATTACKS so that the symptoms no longer frighten you. CONTROL THE FIGHT OR FLIGHT RESPONSE and free yourself from avoidance behaviours.

Patricia Furness-Smith is a psychologist and accredited practitioner with over twenty years' experience in her field. Her work with people suffering with phobias has led her to travel around the world helping people to overcome the various fears which have blighted their lives.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Furness-Smith, Patricia

Leseproben

Introduction

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than a snake.

Edgar Wallace

A phobia is an intense fear of ‘something’, such as an object or situation, which would not normally worry others. The person with the phobia knows that they are being irrational and that their response is entirely out of proportion to the threat, but feels powerless and unable to control their negative thoughts and bodily sensations.

A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder, which causes people to adjust their lives in order to avoid encountering the feared ‘something’. Phobias range from mild to strong but all are annoying, limiting and frustrating, and some are downright exhausting, debilitating and overwhelmingly terrifying.

Welcome reader to the land of phobias. This terrain is populated with the most diverse range of characters in the mental health field. Phobias are very common in the western world and affect many millions of people. The Royal College of Psychiatrists tells us that as many as one in ten people will suffer from a phobia at some point in their lives.

The actual figure is believed to be significantly higher than this with some sources suggesting that as many as 16 million people suffer from phobias in the UK alone. The reason why we have such a huge discrepancy in these figures is because mental health issues in general are victims of under-reporting, due to the perceived stigma which they attract.

Added to this, phobias by their very nature are irrational fears, therefore frequently cause the sufferer acute shame and embarrassment as well as anxiety and distress. For this reason many people with a phobia do not seek medical help.

Worryingly, evidence shows that the vast majority of people who do eventually seek help for their phobia have endured symptoms for over ten years. Sadly, some sufferers do not even disclose their problems to close family or friends out of fear of being ridiculed or teased, thus rendering them isolated from all avenues of support. The examples below illustrate this point.

Coulrophobia

Imagine how you would feel if your wife informed you that your young daughter had chosen a visit to the circus, with several of her friends, for her seventh birthday treat. How easy would it be to come clean and tell your family that you can’t accompany them because you have a terror of clowns?

The chances are that you would probably come up with some elaborate excuse to save you from the embarrassment. But as the saying goes ‘liars have to have good memories’ so this ‘white lie’ not only has an energy cost but will also make you feel uncomfortable for not being straight with your loved ones.

Being incongruent, that is, projecting an image which does not tally with how we really feel, becomes an ongoing stressor in our life and inevitably leads to greater anxiety.

Eremikophobia

Your fiancé meets you in the restaurant and presents you with some airline tickets and hotel reservations. He excitedly informs you that he has booked a luxury two-week holiday in the Maldives for your honeymoon in six weeks’ time.

In the flush of romance you ‘omitted’ to mention that you have a phobia of sand! Now what are you going to do? You will have to confront the problem since I am sure that you of all people will not resort to ‘burying your head in the sand’!

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Phobias are not always taken seriously by others

Many of us are familiar with people having a fear of spiders, heights or enclosed spaces. But how many people have you met who have a fear of uneven seams or a fear of swallowing? In my work I have met these people, whose lives have not only been blighted by such fears but have also encountered contempt, dismissal or disbelief when they have confided in others about their difficulties.

Those of us with physical illnesses are offered understanding and sympathy, but sadly there is still a long distance to be travelled before mental health problems are afforded the same level of comprehension and compassion. In this book I hope to address this imbalance.

Having a phobia is not your fault and it doesn’t mean you are weak; however, being prepared to challenge your phobia and reclaim your autonomy does mean that you are courageous.

People do not go out and freely acquire a phobia any more than we would expect them to willingly become afflicted with heart problems, skin complaints and other physical illnesses. In this book you won’t find any trite dismissive phrases like ‘it’s just a case of mind over matter’, ‘you’ll be okay’, ‘pull yourself together’, and so forth as a response to how to deal with your phobia.

Who will benefit from reading this book?

You may have picked this book up out of pure curiosity or because you are a general practitioner or therapist and wish to know what treatments are available, in order to help your patients or clients. There is a strong possibility that you yourself may have a phobia or know someone close who is suffering from one. Whoever you are, I am both delighted and excited at the prospect of accompanying you on your journey through this little book.

It is my hope that, by sharing my enthusiasm and experience, you will be empowered to help liberate yourself or others from the stranglehold of phobias. If this book provides you with the information and motivation to decide to address your fears, then I will be hugely gratified.

It should be noted that for some people this book alone might provide sufficient guidance for them to be able to address their phobia and free themselves from its grip. For others it may be advisable to seek the help of a professional to support you through your treatment, in the same way that you would turn to a doctor for help with a physical ailment.

There is no doubt whatsoever that phobias take a great toll on your happiness and limit what you can comfortably do in life but also, and even more damagingly, they can rob you of self-confidence and self-respect. My message to anyone with a phobia is that it must always be challenged. This not only emancipates you from its limitations but more importantly it promotes a sense of autonomy and personal agency which is essential for healthy living.

For many years I have specialized in phobias and without hesitation I can own to the fact that it is my favourite line of work within my practice. This is for two reasons. Firstly, the sheer diversity of phobias makes them a compelling and fascinating subject for study. But by far and away, the main reason why I love this field of mental health is because of the amazing job satisfaction I derive from working with clients who successfully defeat their phobias.

Phobias are very responsive to treatment

Unlike many other mental health problems, phobias can be brought under manageable control or even totally destroyed, sometimes within hours. This is a far cry from some of the medium- to long-term work which is required for other mental health issues. So the good news is that phobias are relatively easy to deal with, providing you have the correct knowledge, support and treatment plan, along with a determined and proactive attitude.

In life there are many REAL problems, which we all have to contend with, so my view is that we should conserve our energy to tackle those by ridding ourselves of the UNREAL threats, which are the hallmarks of a phobia.

Conquering a phobia not only stems the senseless drain on personal resources but will also create a tremendous confidence boost, by you having faced your fear and emerging triumphant.

Introducing the gremlin

Throughout this book I will be referring to your phobia as the gremlin, which is an imaginary mischievous creature. It seems to be a suitable nickname, since the threat, which causes your phobia, is imaginary too.

Pity the person who acquiesces to domination by the gremlin – is the dog wagging the tail or the tail wagging the dog? I urge you to take the risk to ensure that it is the former and not the latter.

Taking the RISK to change the status quo involves mobilizing the following:

Resilience – be determined and don’t give up until you get there

Initiative – be prepared to try something new

Skills – develop the skills needed to take back control

Knowledge – acquisition of the theory to defeat your anxiety

I am on a mission to purge the population of phobias, as they are cruel fraudsters and imposters that cripple our lives and curtail our freedom to live in accordance with our choices.

What we will cover in the book

In , I will be covering how a phobia is diagnosed and classified, along with the history of phobias, their causes and why some people are more susceptible to developing and maintaining them. We will then explore fear, anxiety, panic attacks and stress, which are all key components of a phobia.

In , I will discuss the various available treatments...