I’ve seen something this morning that made me thinks about it so:
Let’s talk about phobias.
For you maybe is a different kind of subject here on my blog, but the fact is that I have been working with people with phobias for at least 15 years in my medical life, for either Homeopathy and chinese medicine or for a “talking session” as I call it.
What is a Phobia?
A phobia is a state of fear of places, animals, people, objects, situations, feelings…it get’s exaggerated if not treated, and can make people irrational and sometimes can develop to either rage or passiveness to a shocking distress.
That doesn’t mean we are mentally unstable or crazy… we are humans and our brain is a powerful thing.
It is BAD!
There are 3 choices:
- You either live with that phobia for life
- You either gather as much strength and decide you end that phobia
- you eat an ice cream… unless your phobia is eating ice cream… then you eat anything else. (just putting a little humour on this post…but i’ve met someone afraid of it).
For example, I have the following phobias:
- Afraid of spiders that I can see their eyes or leg hairs (but i want to surpass it seriously, and i think i am getting there) – Arachnophobia
- Afraid of sharks (I had an encounter with one of them when i was 7 years old… not fun) – Selachophobia
- afraid of swimming alone in a swimming pool (I am not the only one) or in deep dark water like rivers… and i am a good swimmer since I was in swimming competitions.
When I was more active in my clinics, i had several people with the same type of phobia, but the most normal ones were:
- Fear of Being Alone – Isolophobia
- Fear of Dying – thanatophobia
- Fear of getting out of the house, open spaces or crowded spaces – Agoraphobia
- Fear of heights – Acrophobia
- Fear of getting hurt/feeling pain – Agliophobia
Here is a list of the Phobias: http://phobialist.com/
Fear is something that makes you feel alive.
Some of the phobias that i’ve met on my patients were in fact, imposed to them by either society and their myths and scaring stories or by religions. I consider myself a women of the world and like to understand more about religions, but a religion shouldn’t give you scaring stories, but give you comfort and light… For many of the people they don’t do that, since is always more practical to impose fears than to sit down and hear what a person is afraid of… But that;s another conversation for another time and place.
Tv and movies won’t help either, making millions with our fears and messing up with our emotions.
Let’s not talk about social media and a lot of “fake news” (yes I went there… No I am not with him… i am soooo far away from him).
My major advice:
It takes a step from YOU. Not by others, not by suggestion, just YOU. You are the one with the phobia. people can help you, you can and should ask for help when you need it. It’s like an addiction. You either gather your thoughts and try to become it or otherwise it will never be surpassed. You have that strength. When you think you don’t have it…you can do amazing things.
Let me tell you 3 things it happen with me that made me realize I can do anything:
I was afraid of the dark, when I was little. I literally lived in a haunted house. But (another story to be told another time) but for my little sister I supperated that Dark phobia. Still today i have nightmares BUT even on the dreams I still fight it, and for my little sister i did it.
I was afraid of heights. Like hyper phobia. Till i decided to start climbing mountains and decided to surpass it on edges of cliffs. (do not do this alone…). Now I am super independent and my dream in the bucket list is have my airplane brevet license.
I was afraid of every type of spiders. Once I was driving my car in the high way with my mother on my side. it was too sunny and I decided to put the flap down because of the sun. A Major orange tarantula like, climbed of it literally in front of my eyes, I only had the time to see her hairy legs and it fell off my legs – I simply passed out while driving. BUT my subconscious in a matter of seconds thought my mum was near me and we could die… I regained conscious and calmed and stopped the car… Another time was with little RJ, he was 4 months old and had a huge spider crawling on my neck. I grabbed the spider (huge!) and without him looking or feeling I was distressed, send the spider to the floor (i heard the “thump” sound…now imagine) and went after it… Mother do amazing things don’t they?
I still have Arachnophobia but I am going to surpass it. A bunch of Zoo’s have an activity for that.
Such as Dudley Zoo, which I am planning, on my own time, but I want to: http://www.dudleyzoo.org.uk/product/meet-the-spiders-2/
Let me know about your phobia or if you have any question about it, leave me a comment or send me an email with your concerns.
