The Town Herald

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Overcoming Phobias

Written by [Flisky]



A phobia. An irrational fear, sometimes triggered by a logical worry that is driven out of control. Then, while avoiding the trigger, the fear grows to include something similar but unrelated. Overcoming this paralyzing fear is difficult for most everybody who has a phobia. However, it is not impossible. A popular method of ridding someone of a phobia is called progressive exposure.

The point of progressive exposure is to gradually introduce anxiety causing situations until the fear is manageable. By introducing items that only mildly provoke anxiety and working up to bigger items, the person can learn to handle the fear.

Case #1: The hydrophobe

A girl who was a severe hydrophobe, scared of bodies of water, wanted to travel to a place that was unreachable except by boat. Starting in a small, three foot deep pool, she taught herself to swim. Once that was completed and she was no longer afraid of that body of water, she moved onto a bigger, four foot pool. Here, she did laps until she would no longer panic at the sight of the water. While large bodies of water such as lakes still made her nervous, she could be near them without suffering from extreme fear. Still a hydrophobe, she now enjoys the occasional boat cruise without the paralyzing fear.

Case #2: The Agoraphobic

A woman found herself locked in her home because she suffered from agoraphobia, a fear of open spaces. However, in order to do some things, she had to leave her house. With help from some friends, and a blindfold, she would travel to places that were gradually more open, such as large gyms, grocery stores, until they finally worked her up to a stadium. She got more used to it until she could finally travel to places such as the doctor's office and the store when she could not before. While still petrified of large, open areas, she could travel without much problem.

Case #3: The Nyctophobic

Every child's nightmare, a dark, empty room where they are stuck until morning. Nyctophobics are born from children who never overcome this fear. A young man was heading off to college and needed to learn to overcome this fear. Every night he would gradually lessen the amount of light he had in his room, going from the lamp he usually had lit, to a small plug in nightlight in the span of a month. By the time he made it to college, he could sleep in a dark room with just the small light plugged in on his wall. This eased the fear he still held while not being so bright as to keep his roommate awake.

With all of these cases, a simple matter of gradual introduction to fear inducing triggers helped them to overcome the more debilitating affects of the phobia. By removing the natural avoidance most phobics have to any triggers, they are less afraid and more adept at handling the fear.




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