Many of us have a very specific fear that most of the time we go about our daily lives not thinking about at all... until we find ourselves in a certain place, situation or faced with the thing we fear.  Then suddenly our heart rate spikes, we've got sweaty palms, we might feel breathless and we certainly want to get away from the source of our fear as fast as we can by any means we can.  Even when we know our fear may be irrational, we still feel it and it's still real. This is a phobia.

When our phobia relates to something we rarely, or never, encounter, that can be fine - It's not a problem - but if it starts to impact our daily lives or sends us into a panic more regularly it becomes a problem and it's time to do something about it.

My own phobia was a classic example, irrational and laughable to others (and to me too, when not in the grip of it) but when triggered my chest would tighten, I'd feel clammy and sick and my whole body would tense up. So what was this phobic trigger that so terrorised me...?

Butterflies and moths.

Really!?! These beautiful, harmless little creatures?

Yep!

There was just something about these dopey little things that always seemed a bit out of control when flying, it was like they were always coming at me. And the thought of them landing on me, well, enough said!

I did say it was a phobia; an irrational fear, didn't I?

Ever since I was a child I'd been freaked out by moths at first, then butterflies too. I don't recall a specific event that triggered that fear but it developed just the same. That's the thing with phobias; sometimes there is a specific trigger and sometimes there isn't and the phobia is created by an innocuous, run of the mill event that might go unnoticed but probably happened when you were anxious or stressed by something else causing it to lodge in your mind and pop out later as a fear trigger.

As an adult I was always on the lookout for them when I was outside and always had to have the windows closed before the lights went on in the evening for fear of them coming in. It came to head one summer when we were at the Durrell Zoo in Jersey (a wonderful place). I really wanted to see the giant tortoises but they were in the butterfly house. Deciding to be all grown up and rational about this I was determined to go in, even if I was already short of breath by the time we reached the outer door and I hadn't even seen a butterfly yet! I made it into the butterfly house (pretty good, for me) but stopped after a single step. Clouds of butterflies everywhere! Little ones, huge ones, lovely bright colours, all flitting about and landing on the people ambling so contentedly through the exhibit. I just couldn't do it and bolted out of the door, the wrong way around the one-way system. Worse still, my panic made my son panic too and he retreated with me rather than continuing on with his dad.

Not long after we returned home I had the misfortune to be bitten by a dog. When recounting this experience to a colleague he asked me what would be worse; to be bitten by the dog again or a cupboard of butterflies. Without hesitation, I replied "the butterflies". My irrational fear outweighed the much more rational one.

Oh dear, time to do something about it!

As a hypnotherapist, I knew what the answer was and am lucky enough to be acquainted with quite a few other hypnotherapists so had no difficulty finding someone who could help. Four lovely sessions later and not only was the fear template that triggered by phobia gone, it had been replaced by something much more rational that was how I wanted to feel and react when I encountered these little insects.

My first-hand experience of this process always reminds me of how powerful and effective hypnotherapy is in the treatment of specific fears and phobias. The feeling of being free of a fear that I had lived with for decades is, quite simply incredible. Being able to do something as simple as relax in the garden or leave the windows open for longer is great. I don't even think about it anymore.

There are so many phobias out there: spiders, snakes, flying, heights to name but a few of the more common ones, but there are so many others. So, if you have a phobia and it's time to do something to address it, why not give me a call and let hypnotherapy free you from it.