OCD Treatment Cardiff
OCD Treatment Cardiff
OCD Treatment Cardiff: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a mental health condition that is characterised by having uncontrollable obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are unwanted, persistent and sometimes intrusive thoughts, images or impulses that cause emotional distress. Obsessions can cause the individual to act out certain repetitive behaviours or additional mental acts (called compulsions) in order to immediately reduce the distress of the obsession.OCD Treatment Cardiff: OCD in everyday language and OCD in reality
There are many medical terms that cross-over into everyday language. Being “addicted”, “paranoid” or “agoraphobic” are common labels that can be used respectively to describe how a person can exaggerate the enjoyment of something, fear that something terrible is going to happen or have a lack of enthusiasm for social events. But the real conditions are far more distressing than those applied in everyday language. Similarly, being “obsessed” or “obsessing” are common terms used to give casual reference to say, being preoccupied with a person, a new hobby or with a specific goal. Used in this context, your “obsession” will absorb your time and attention in some momentary way, particularly if the event is recent. You may listen to a new song repetitively and keep singing it when you are doing something routine. Or you may persistently think about a new love interest so intensely that it can distract some moments of your concentration, but it will be placed in the context of your other responsibilities that will help your day to function. Undoubtedly, the nature of the “obsession” can be related to negative situations like illness or death, but the preoccupation lessens when the situation has ended or when it gradually fades with the passing of time. Generally, you will still get to work at the time required, eat meals regularly, attend social events and ensure that you have a reasonable night’s sleep. With OCD, the obsessions and compulsions have more permanence. The time spent (usually more than one hour per day) replaying thoughts or perfecting rituals will interfere with the other important parts of your life such as your health, your relationships and your occupation. There is extensive loss of control over your repetitive thoughts or behaviours. Additionally, there is little or no satisfaction when carrying out your compulsions; any relief from the anxiety is usually brief.OCD Treatment Cardiff: Types of OCD
Your obsessive compulsive disorder can attach onto any specific issue depending on your belief system, history of traumas and reactions to those traumas. There are some common categories of obsessions and compulsions however. Categories of obsessions can include contamination fears, orderliness and symmetry, fear of danger (and harm), and taboo thoughts. Categories of compulsions can include rituals of decontamination, rearranging, checking, and reassurance-seeking. You can access more information here on the common types of obsessive compulsive disorder.OCD Treatment Cardiff: What causes OCD?
OCD Treatment Cardiff: Signs and symptoms of OCD
The severity of your mental or behavioural rituals is the major factor in determining whether you have OCD. In the early stages, you may live inside the condition and not realise its development. For some people, it may take a partner or close relative to point out that your rituals are excessive. When OCD is suspected, it’s important to have the condition formally diagnosed by your doctor. What are some of the common signs and symptoms? Checking – Checking rituals are used to prevent harm, danger and avoid feelings of irresponsibility. It becomes more troublesome when the checking rituals cause you to miss deadlines (e.g. being late for work) and when the rituals have a fixed numerical routine that cannot be compromised e.g. you must check it five times or you have to start the ritual over again. Hand-washing – Hand-washing becomes an OCD problem when you are in possession of elaborate hand-washing routines that focus more on the comfort of the ritual than the cleanliness of your hands. Hand-washing can also be problematic when you still feel anxious about contamination even after you have thoroughly washed your hands. Cleaning – Cleaning rituals can become an OCD problem when you experience no relief from your contamination fears, despite you having spent an extensive amount of time on cleaning. Ruminating on relationships – It’s common to obsess when a relationship has broken down; it’s part of the grieving process. With non-intimate partners, obsessing over the intricacies of what was meant by someone or whether your comment was likely to offend someone can mean more than just issues of social anxiety. It could be a sign of OCD when those conversations keep replaying in your mind and you struggle to turn them off. Counting – Counting becomes problematic when the ritual of repetitive counting distracts you from being able to function in important situations. Or it could be a sign of OCD when you assign excessive superstitious value on to your behaviour e.g. will only take action with “lucky” numbers, and will avoid participation with “unlucky” numbers. Despising your looks – Disliking some physical features of your appearance is common. Extensively avoiding social situations or spending hours in front of the mirror fixating on a body part that you perceive as abnormal can be linked to body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). OCD is indicated when you place too much importance to your physical features.OCD Treatment Cardiff: Common Treatment Methods
Accepting that you have OCD is an early common obstacle because most sufferers can feel embarrassed and ashamed of the condition. This denial can cause more avoidance and negative, suppressive coping strategies. Like with so many mental health conditions, you will have done your best to prevent the development of your condition. But once the condition is in full swing, it can be very challenging to treat it without external help. Depending on the severity of your condition, your GP will offer some of the following methods to treat OCD: Medication – You may be prescribed SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) antidepressant medication from your doctor. CBT – Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is a talking therapy that explores how your thoughts, beliefs and emotions are influencing your behaviour. ERP – Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is similar to systematic desensitisation where you are gradually exposed to situations whilst changing how you react to them. With ERP, you are assisted by your therapist to confront the situations that cause you anxiety. Instead of carrying out the compulsion, you are encouraged to tolerate the anxiety and resist your compulsive urge.OCD Treatment Cardiff: How Can Hypnotherapy Treat Your OCD?
The research for treating OCD with hypnotherapy may not be as comprehensive as treating it with CBT and medication, but there are smaller isolated studies that demonstrate its effectiveness. For example, hypnotherapy has been used when treating two OCD patients with contamination fears, with another OCD patient who had an AIDS-related contamination fear and again as an OCD dissociative tool. How can you benefit from hypnotherapy? Hypnotic states of awareness are similar to OCD states of awareness Hypnosis can be an effective tool for treating OCD because the two states of awareness are so alike. In both hypnosis and OCD, your attention is highly concentrated; your mind will “zone out” and become inwardly absorbed into the intense “reality” of what you are imagining.OCD Treatment Cardiff: For more information on how hypnotherapy can treat your OCD contact Richard J D’Souza Hypnotherapy Cardiff
Types Of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Types Of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
After defining obsessive compulsive disorder, this article will explore the various types of obsessive compulsive disorder. Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a type of anxiety disorder. The condition can be firstly characterised by having an obsession in which you have repetitive, unwanted, uncontrollable or intrusive thoughts, images or urges that cause emotional distress. The obsession may then drive the need to perform certain compulsions which form the second part of the condition. Compulsions are repetitive behaviours, rituals or acts that you perform in order to alleviate the emotional distress caused by the obsession. The benefit is usually temporary however.Common Types Of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Common obsessions include (1) fear of contamination; (2) arranging; (3) fear of harm; and (4) forbidden thoughts. Common compulsions include (1) decontamination; (2) rearranging and repeating; (3) checking; and (4) cleansing and reassuring. Whilst there is a common connected compulsion that alleviates the distress of a specific obsession, an individual suffering with OCD may incorporate several different compulsions to alleviate the emotional distress depending on your specific history. Obsessive thoughts can originate from (or be reinforced by) strong emotional experiences or traumas. Common emotions can include disgust, guilt, fear, blame and shame learned from authority figures in childhood or generated by the individual. These emotions can be connected to the following types of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder:-
Obsession: Fear of contamination
Connected compulsion: Decontamination
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Obsession: Arranging, organising and sequencing
Connected compulsion: Rearranging, reorganising and repeating
Doubting that the arrangement is “just right” drives the compulsion to rearrange and repeat the ritual as many times as it is needed to achieve a deeper feeling of comfort. The process can be time-consuming, often with nocturnal hours being spent on the ritual. The result is usually mental and physical exhaustion. It is not uncommon to arrive late or miss deadlines for appointments as doubts creep in with “just not right”-thoughts. Without getting it right, it would disturb the next situation like being able to concentrate on an important meeting. Or it can cause high anxiety with fear of failure if say an academic assignment has been submitted with errors.-
Obsession: Fear of harm or damage
Connected compulsion: Checking
Being in fear of harm or damage by losing control pushes your compulsion to ritually check and recheck that all is safe. You may also seek constant reassurance from other people by continuously asking them, texting them or by thoroughly researching if your danger fears are true. Other reassuring compulsions including hiding objects that could harm people or avoiding situations in which you consider you could lose control and then act on your obsessions.-
Obsession: Forbidden or taboo thoughts
Connected compulsion: Cleansing, reassuring, purifying and undoing
Compulsions related to having forbidden or taboo obsessions aim to alleviate the emotional distress of your intrusive thoughts. Your compulsive acts can include many of the other types of obsessive compulsive disorder behaviours. Objects that could be used to inflict harm on someone may be ritually hidden and then repeatedly checked that the object has stayed in its safe place. Avoidance of the associated situations, people or objects is another common short-term strategy. Reassurance that you are not the bad character that you define yourself to be will be sought from various sources. Those people that you trust, or consider an authority, and are likely to maintain confidentiality over your sensitive issues will be constantly approached like close family members, doctors or clergy members. Due to the sensitivity of the obsessions, you rarely feel confident enough to talk to other people about your taboo thoughts in case they misunderstand your condition and label you as malicious or as a potential criminal. This suppression maintains the internal suffering of these disturbing thoughts and your desperate need to alleviate your distress. Reassurance may also be repeatedly sought from online sources by checking the content of relevant topics.Other Types Of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Compulsive hoarding Compulsive hoarding has been previously listed as one of the types of obsessive compulsive disorder. It has been re-classified as a condition in its own right because many hoarders refuse to accept that they have a problem. In some cases however, the individual’s hoarding issues can be related to OCD. Hoarding disorder is the excessive retention and collection of objects. Your (and other people’s) living space is swamped by these objects causing potential burdens on your day-to-day functioning, your health, finances, work spaces and social ability. Common living and mobility around the home is obstructed and becomes hazardous or potentially hazardous. Compulsive hoarding is connected to many issues including the exaggerated importance and emotional attachment of material possessions. Hoarders feel guilty and wasteful about throwing items away and so will retain it in case it has a future use. You continue to make excessive purchases of these treasured items in an attempt to increase the collection, often sacrificing other functional spaces like shower cubicles or ovens. These collectable items can have connections with one’s history and identity and thus you would feel grief if these items were interfered with or thrown away. Items can also develop personalities and can act as replacements for anticipated memory loss; “I’ll keep hold of this just in case I forget...” is the common response. Hoarders may have lived in poverty during childhood, experienced trauma following a major lifestyle change like a bereavement or house move. There may be other mental health issues too. Hoarders are also known to suffer with perfectionism and behavioural avoidance. You can have problems with decision-making, organisational skills and procrastination. Rumination Rumination is the repetitive and excessive thinking about the same event. It can involve reflecting on issues which is more analytical in nature. Another type of rumination is brooding which is more negative, repetitive and continual. Hours can be spent being self absorbed in deep thought on topics of morality that may not have satisfactory conclusions or on depressive issues in which the individual is unable to create closure. Trichotillomania (hair pulling) Sufferers of Trichotillomania have strong urges to pull hair from any part of the body. It is considered an impulse-control problem often in response to certain (often unconscious) emotional cues such as stress, anxiety, boredom, loneliness and worthlessness. Body dysmorphia Body dysmorphic disorder is the excessive preoccupation with a perceived defect in one’s appearance. The sufferer is usually convinced about the defect’s negative qualities. The condition can relate to issues of low self esteem, anxiety and perfectionism. It can involve numerous repetitive behaviours like, checking in mirrors, skin picking and reassurance seeking. Other specific obsessions Other obsessions may not fit precisely into the above types of obsessive compulsive disorder but can still be classified as OCD. Obsessions can include specific superstitious fears like not walking on the cracks on pavement, luck or bad luck related obsessions, inquisitive obsessions (needing to know all the details of something), speech-related obsessions (speaking perfectly) and fears of losing things. Some obsessions can focus on the hyperawareness of bodily functions like blinking or swallowing. Other specific compulsions Other compulsions can be specific to each individual and may not fit the common types of obsessive compulsive disorder listed above. They can include list-making in which the sufferer believes that they will forget something important and this will then lead to a catastrophe. People who fear making mistakes can have the compulsive urge to tell people absolutely everything but in doing so can make a minor issue into a bigger problem e.g. telling your partner every time you notice someone else who is attractive, or feeling the need to elaborate on or confess every detail of a specific issue. Other compulsions can include, skin picking (excoriation), nail-biting, ritualised eating patterns, superstitious behaviours, blinking or staring rituals, and specific touch-related compulsions.Summary of types of obsessive compulsive disorder
OCD is a serious medical condition that can cause significant dysfunction and emotional distress. With any type of therapy treatment, the therapist will initially explore the make-up of your obsessions and compulsions. They can then devise a treatment plan to help to address the specific features of your condition. Self help coping with OCD methods will also complement your therapy.Types of obsessive compulsive disorder: for more details on treatment for OCD please contact Richard J D’Souza Hypnotherapy Cardiff
Claustrophobia Treatment Cardiff
Claustrophobia Treatment Cardiff
Claustrophobia is known as the fear of confined spaces. It is categorised as a type of anxiety disorder and as a specific (rather than a complex) phobia. The term is derived from the Latin word claustrum which translates as a “closed space" and from the Greek word phobos meaning "fear".Claustrophobia Statistics
Claustrophobia is an extremely common phobia. It is estimated that around 10% of the population in UK are affected by the condition in their lifetime.Types of claustrophobia
Claustrophobic sufferers fear being trapped, fear being restricted and/or fear being breathless. The history of your personal traumas will influence your perception and ability to cope with either of these situations listed below.Fear of confined spaces
You fear the relative closeness of the walls/objects that constrain you and/or obscure your view. Without seeing “space” immediately around you, you fear entrapment. You struggle to place trust in what operates (controls) the constraint e.g. an electronic door. The sound or visible operation of the exit is a strong trigger for your panic reaction. Your fear of these situations can be generalised or specific to one situation. They can include:- Mechanical situations – lifts (elevators); public transport including airplanes, trains, coaches, ships; yachts and submarines; the underground and subway trains, particularly those that enter extended tunnels; carwashes; MRI or CT scans; fairground rides with limited visibility; small cars or taxis that are centrally locked.
- Structural situations – Toilet cubicles; wardrobes and closets; cellars and basements; store dressing rooms with lockable doors; any confined spaces or rooms that are dark; tight stairwells; mazes or labyrinths; mines or underground sites; tombs and coffins; shower cubicles; trailers.
- Natural situations – tunnels; caves or caverns.
Fear of being immobile
Claustrophobic sufferers also trigger anxiety when you perceive that your movement is restricted. In these scenarios, you can appreciate that there is there is significant space in the distance, but you, the situation or other people inhibit or control your movement, or demand that you “stay put”. Feeling obstructed (as you would in a physically confined space), your panic prepares your limbs for “flight” mode, in readiness to run away to safety. Without actually using up this anxious energy, this can be felt as muscular tremors in your legs (feeling “jelly-like”). Being around people and displaying your panic symptoms (tremors or desperation to leave) can then cause you to feel embarrassed, further adding to your fear cycle. The fear of mobility situations can include those listed above (in fear of confined spaces) and the following:- Mechanical situations – traffic jams, driving on motorways or roads with high surrounds e.g. high bushes or trees; sitting in the back seat of a two door car or taxi; using an escalator; a ride at the fairground/amusement park; revolving doors.
- Structural situations - hotels with sealed windows; being in the higher levels of a high rise building.
- Treatment situations – having a injection; needing a hospital medical procedure; being treated at the dentist/optician, or hairdresser/barber/beautician.
- Social situations – as a young child, losing sight of your family particularly amongst crowds; being in the middle of large crowds; bars and nightclubs; public speaking situations; work meetings; interviews; some social situations, some performance anxiety situations e.g. driving test; supermarket queue/line; other situations where you need to line up.
- Venue situations – inner/centre seating position (not close to aisles or windows) or crowd potential at cinemas, theatres, concert and sports venues; prisons.
- Natural situations – forests.
Fear of suffocation
The panic response which triggers breathlessness influences the claustrophobe to fear suffocation. You become hypersensitive to anything constrictive or partially constrictive touching your body, particularly over your head and respiratory organs. Environmental conditions where breathing is strained (because of heat or humidity) can also trigger anxiety with the urgent need to remove clothing to cool down and catch your breath. Since feeling hot, sweaty and itchy are common anxiety symptoms, this fear of constriction can extend to other parts of the body when they are also constricted in some way e.g. a cast around a limb. It’s as if the immobilised limb is being “choked” of air when it senses increased temperature changes and cannot move. The reflexive need to “evacuate” your whole body from the situation causes general anxiety which can only be eased when you have “ripped off” the constriction at the source. Fear of suffocation situations can include any of those listed above in close proximity to your body and the following:- Clothing situations - Wearing tight-necked or tight fitting clothing over your body e.g. ties, polo neck sweaters, girdles etc.; fancy dress suits and masks.
- Apparatus/equipment situations – wearing apparatus over your face or head e.g. crash helmets, masks, breathing apparatus, medical apparatus; immobilising casts over your body; sleeping with your head under the bed clothing.
- Environmental situations – swimming under water with or without breathing equipment; hot and humid climates, being at high altitude.
What causes claustrophobia?
A combination of childhood direct traumas and indirect traumas from your authority figures (usually your parents) will have the most impact on the development your claustrophobia. Some of the most traumatising childhood experiences include being accidentally (or purposefully as a game or as a punishment) locked in a box, cupboard or small room; being trapped in darkness; getting lost in a relatively confined space e.g. a series of tunnels; being separated and losing your parents in a crowd of people; being left for a period of time or abandoned in a confined space (e.g. the car) by your parents; near drowning in deep water; getting your body, particularly your head stuck or trapped somewhere. Your biology can also be connected to your claustrophobic fears. Previous childhood bullying involving near-suffocation (being strangled) can also contribute to adult claustrophobia. Spatial distortion is often identified as a cause of claustrophobia where you underestimate the horizontal distances of objects. However, it is unknown whether this distorted spatial perception is biologically linked at birth or is over-developed through trauma. Someone with a spider phobia is similarly likely to give an exaggerated account of their last spider trauma and the apparent size of the arachnid. Has this size distortion come from birth or learned from traumatic experiences? Most people can recall where they were and give precise details of their location at the time of an emotional experience. These experiences can be good or bad. Some people are extremely location-sensitive; usually those who are visually or spatially-oriented learners. With this learning style you can prioritise making an intense association with the physical features of your location (e.g. the size of the room) and your emotional experience, over what you were doing in the situation. With a visual learning style you may be more vulnerable to developing spatially-oriented fear, typical of the beliefs held with claustrophobia. Click this link for detailed information on the general causes of a phobia.Major Common Symptoms
There are numerous claustrophobic symptoms that vary in severity including:- Breathlessness, strained & rapid breathing (hyperventilation). A history of asthma attacks may complicate this symptom.
- Choking sensations.
- Body tremors, particularly in the legs. The legs feeling “restless”.
- Increased heart rate.
- Changes in temperature in the form of sweating, hot flashes or chills.
- “Butterflies” in the abdomen.
- Feeling light-headed or faint.
- Confusion.
- Nausea or vomiting.
- Nervous diarrhoea.
- Numbness and tingling.
Living with claustrophobia
As a child, regardless of how you have acquired your claustrophobia, you will continue to avoid these confined spaces to alleviate your anxiety. If your family understand your condition and treat it sensitively, it will limit the frequency of your panic attacks.Treatment
Phobias are not usually formally diagnosed by your doctor. Observations by close family and friends may be met with a period of denial before fully accepting the condition and how it continues to affect you. Self-help – Where possible, constructive avoidance is the most common self help treatment method. But avoidance is usually a short-term fix without developing any skills and techniques to overcome the phobia. When you are ready to confront it, effective self-help methods however can include the use of breathing techniques to manage the general anxiety symptoms, particularly the fear of suffocation. Progressive self-help methods will consider your subjective criteria that exacerbate the fear, combined with repetitive, graduated exposure to those confined situations. Using this method, breathing techniques are used to keep the anxiety at moderate levels before gradually increasing the confinement of the physical environment. This will prevent high levels of anxiety or “flooding” which can have an adverse effect on overcoming the phobia. Choose criteria in which you feel comfortable first, and then add to the intensity in gradual stages. The criteria can include:- Defining each situation as one where you can choose to calmly vacate (where possible).
- Assessing the relative physical confinement of the room or situation. Evaluating the notable design features and their position e.g. opening windows to “give air” and to permit a view, and sitting towards the aisle etc. (For many claustrophobic sufferers, how far you can see out into the distance is a significant feature of your anxiety management. You may be physically confined in the similar dimensions of a situation e.g. in an airplane or glass lift, but just because you can see out of a window, it will make a huge difference to your anxiety and drastically reduce your fear.)
- Establishing the number and proximity of the exits.
- Gradually extending the duration of the confinement. Aim for the anxiety to subside before changing the confinement of the situation or leaving the situation if possible.
- Aiming to access personal control of the exits if possible, rather than mechanical control or indirect control by another person.
- Establishing how many people are present in the situation and your relationship with them. Are they sensitive to your anxiety?
- If you are having a professional treatment, learning more about the treatment process and what you are likely to experience.
- Assessing how much you trust the professional directing the situation. Is there any benefit by admitting your fear to them? Can this trust be developed before the treatment situation?
- Identifying a helpful purpose for yourself in the confined situation e.g. practising breathing techniques, meditation, or mindfulness, cooperating with the treatment process, managing your time with activities if there is extended periods of boredom, learning presentation skills if giving a presentation etc.
- Practising using any “suffocating” or confining apparatus/equipment outside of “real” situation e.g. learning to spend time with a face mask on, relaxing in your own company or with someone you trust who can give you assistance if your anxiety is excessive.
How can hypnotherapy help you overcome your condition?
People with phobias are considered highly responsive to hypnosis. This hypnosis test will help you assess your level of suggestibility. Your hypnotherapy treatment will use a combined approach to help you overcome your claustrophobia including regression techniques to remove the cause of your phobia, controlled exposure (systematic desensitisation) and panic control methods. Visualisation techniques, similar to those used with virtual reality computer simulations will be integrated into your treatment to realign your spatial distortion. There is more information in this link on how hypnotherapy can treat your phobia.For more information on treatment for your claustrophobia in Cardiff, contact Richard J D’Souza Hypnotherapy Cardiff
Online Therapy During Coronavirus Pandemic
Online Therapy During The Coronavirus Pandemic
Online Therapy: As the coronavirus outbreak restrictions grip the nation, its effect is undoubtedly having an impact on the way we live, work and spend our leisure time. It is important to follow the government guidelines to minimise the spread of infection. Wash your hands, keep surfaces clean and cover your sneezes and coughs. Self-isolation and social distancing has been advised to contain the coronavirus.Online Therapy: Pre-existing health conditions
Anxiety
Coupled with anxiety is the inability to manage uncertainty. Your mind will dwell on catastrophic outcomes, anticipating the worst case scenarios if you (or someone you know) has underlying medical conditions. If you have pre-existing health anxiety, you may be convinced that minor benign symptoms are a sign that you are infected. If a medical test proves negative, you might dismiss it and fear that any new symptoms will need a retest. During calmer moments of rationality, you will feel guilty that you are wasting the very limited resources available at your GP surgery during the pandemic. Panic disorder, characterised by random panic attacks, will also be more distressing with the current level of communal fear.OCD
Obsessive compulsive disorder is another pre-existing condition that can be intensified during the coronavirus outbreak. OCD can include a number of repetitive thoughts and behaviours such as counting, checking, arranging items in a specific order and hand washing. With a fear of contamination, compulsive hand washing can be excessive. You are convinced that your hand washing is not thorough enough. You then start the hand washing routine over again until you feel comforted. Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, some OCD sufferers may have self-isolated as a “safety” behaviour, unconvinced that in normal conditions there was sufficient protection against infection from others. With the government advising self-isolation, the OCD sufferer will be “proven right” to be in fear and may become near-agoraphobic even after the coronavirus pandemic is over.Phobias
There are similarities with OCD hand washing and certain phobias, such as a mysophobia (fear of germs). With both conditions, you spend an excessive amount of time washing hands but rather than being a comforting ritual, mysophobia stems from a fear of contamination. A fear of contamination sufferer can have both conditions. Other phobias will generate more anxiety during the coronavirus crisis including monophobia (fear of being alone), thanatophobia (fear of death), xenophobia (fear of the unknown) and nosocomephobia (fear of hospitals). Those with social phobia (fear of embarrassment) and agoraphobia (fear of open spaces) may ironically experience a reduction in anxiety with the current self-isolation and social distancing advice, compared to your gregarious and extrovert counterparts.Online Therapy: Lifestyle changes
With the major change in your lifestyle during the coronavirus pandemic, the need to self-isolate and social distance throws the usual demands, routines and ways to relax into chaos. For example:- For some people, work can normally act like a distraction giving you something to focus on when there is anxiety.
- People will feel loneliness without the comfort of face to face human contact.
- Stress will be higher with the closure of many resources. Families with small children may find it difficult to entertain their children for what could be months (?), especially with their usual physical activity outlets closed e.g. parks. Bad weather will also deter peoples from wanting to go outside.
- An absence of goals and increased boredom can heighten feelings of depression.
- Increased anxiety can affect sleep
- Family home life can be more stressful particularly for teenagers with their usual social venues closed (e.g. pubs, nightclubs, wine bars etc.)
- Normal eating patterns can be affected without an established routine. Snacking can become an activity to fill time causing people to gain weight.
- Boredom and isolation can be a trigger for intensifying negative habits and addictions.
- With boredom, people can self-medicate more than usual, drinking more alcohol at home and smoking more cigarettes.
- People who are socially motivated to exercise may find it difficult to motivate themselves to exercise during the coronavirus pandemic.
Online Therapy: Finding a way through
It can take time to settle into positive lifestyle patterns and accept the emotional impact of the coronavirus pandemic. But there can be effective ways to cope:- Wash your hands but... – If you have contamination OCD or health anxiety, it’s likely that your rituals will be excessive. Keep to the advised guidelines of 20 seconds. Consider if you are washing hands as a ritual for it to feel comforting or for the purpose minimising the spread of infection.
- Work and study from home – Working from home where it is possible will minimise exposure to the coronavirus. Check on government websites if you are entitled to any financial assistance (benefits or loans). As with home studying for many pupils and students now completing their study courses, working from home demands self motivation to assign quality time to your work/studies.
- Limit media exposure – Look at reputable media sources no more than once or twice a day. Ignore social media gossip as these often unreliable sources are likely to increase your fear about the coronavirus; they usually lack evidence to back up their claims. Appreciate that just because you think or read about something on social media, it doesn’t make it right or always mean that it will always come true.
- Plan ahead for routine medication – With many medical services feeling the strain, ensuring that that you request repeat prescriptions early will minimise the fear that you may be without important medication.
Online communication can help feelings of isolation - Use phone/video calls to communicate – Where you have access to electronic forms of communication, devote some part of your day to social interaction, keeping in touch with close family and friends.
- Other ways to exercise – Find other ways to exercise safely to reduce stress and physical tension. Uninterrupted walking is a good form of exercise. If you have no medical conditions, running or circuit-based activities on YouTube can motivate you to exercise a variety of different muscle groups. Just getting some fresh air by stepping outside your door and connecting with nature (if it is in easy reach of your home) can help clear your mind.
- Devise an effective home routine – Working from home with small children can be challenging. How and where you each spend your time in each part of the house will need a discussion to accommodate everyone’s needs. Spend time with your children helping them to understand the facts about the coronavirus pandemic and how it has changed your lifestyle. Consider any hobbies that you can (re) start, especially the ones that you keep saying “if only I had more time...”
- Learn to relax – There are various forms of relaxation techniques. Self hypnosis could be your chosen activity and try simple breathing techniques to reduce anxiety and feelings of panic.
- Allocate some time to worry – Using some of the relaxation techniques above, devoting some “active worrying time” can help you appreciate the difference between the present and being in fear of the future. It’s ok to feel anxious during a pandemic, but the feelings need to be placed into perspective with hopeful feelings too. By acknowledging worries as wasteful thoughts you can work on disposing them during your “mindful” exercises. This will also help you to...
- Focus on what you can control – Focusing on what you can influence in your life will help you feel like you have more control over it. This approach is very different to focusing on concerns which tends to be worry-based and has very little impact on outcomes.
- Take care of your lifestyle issues – Set home based goals that are realistic under the present conditions, take moderate exercise, eat healthily, learn how to sleep well, quit destructive habits like smoking and reduce your alcohol intake. By taking care of your health and wellbeing, it may prepare you to fight the coronavirus should you become infected.
- Help your community – Where it’s safe to do so, helping others will lift your mood. Even small acts of altruism, like taking an elderly neighbour’s rubbish can make you feel virtuous.
- Grieving during the crisis – Whether you (and your family) are grieving the death of someone caused by the coronavirus or due to other circumstances, it may be a useful time to seek professional online help with social distancing measures in place and the ability to hold large funerals is restricted.
- Pace your days, weeks and months – Long term goals need to be placed to one side until the coronavirus pandemic is over. By focusing your energy on short to mid-term goals, it help to you feel that you are achieving something tangible. Your normal life experience will be different for some time to come.
Seeking Online Therapy: Coronavirus anxiety and related disorders
During the coronavirus pandemic you may feel an overwhelming sense of worry due to health anxiety and related disorders. With the current uncertainty about when it will end, some people can lapse into feelings of depression and anxiety. Persistent anxiety can trigger the release of stress hormones that keep you in “high alert” also known as the “fight of flight” survival state. Being stuck in this mode for long periods can lower your immune response and cause persistent panic attacks. This continuous state can have a negative impact on your personal wellbeing, ability to work or study, maintain close relationships and your ability to take care of others. If you tend to struggle with anxiety, online therapy could be a great solution to help you cope during the coronavirus crisis. With online hypnotherapy you will access the same level of professional care that would receive with face to face therapy. Online therapy ensures that you can access help in the safety and comfort of your own home without any of the health risks to you or your hypnotherapist. How suggestible are you to hypnosis? Try this hypnosis test to assess your level of suggestibility.The benefits of online hypnotherapy
- Deep relaxation to alter the affects of continuous anxiety.
- Suggestions designed to accelerate the achievement of your specific goals.
- Regression therapy to treat the “cause” of your condition.
- Immune system-directed suggestions which could improve its efficiency.
- Treating lifestyle issues that are also being affected by stress, anxiety and depression.
For more information about online therapy during the coronavirus pandemic, contact Richard J D’Souza Hypnotherapy Cardiff
Restrictive Eating Behaviour
Restrictive Eating Behaviour
Restrictive eating behaviour goes beyond what is commonly termed “fussy eating” or “being picky” with food. Restrictive eating can start in young childhood as displaying a preference for a limited diet. As the child grows up, the repertoire of food choices remain small and may even become narrower in response to a various individual and social experiences.Do you have restrictive eating problems?
With restrictive eating habits, there is usually a sensory aversion to the unwanted food. The appearance of the food, the colour, the presentation, the taste, the texture, the temperature and/or the smell of the food causes disgust or an anxiety response (panic attack). Seeing the food nearby or talking about the food is enough to provoke the negative response. Generalised avoidance patterns can usually be identified e.g. the fibrous, crunchy or varying textures found in raw fruit, vegetables or meat; the smooth or lumpy textures found in sauces, or the acidic or spicy tastes found in certain fruits or Asian foods. But the restrictive eater can also have specific and random aversion issues too, usually caused by an individual direct or indirect bad experience. The bad experience is often forgotten, but it continues to direct the aversion. The problem food appearance, flavour or sensation is then difficult to rationalise; it just looks, tastes or smells horrible, feels unpleasant in the mouth, or is difficult to chew or swallow. Apathy towards food and mealtimes is a natural consequence of these negative reactions. Pressure to eat can trigger anxiety responses which can then become the focus of the aversion.Can restrictive eating be connected to other eating disorders and phobias?
Parents of children with restrictive eating patterns may become concerned about their potential anorexia, bulimia or binge eating behaviour. However, a child with restrictive eating disorder does not have the same weight and body image issues connected with these other eating disorders. Instead, the lack of nutrition becomes the concern, threatening to affect the physical development of the growing child, and the future health implications for the adult. Restrictive eating behaviour, however, can be part of a general neophobia (or fear of anything new) and even connected to OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). Those with a neophobia feel insecure about trying new things and tend to rigidly stick to their already-formed habits or routines. Avoiding the risk of new food with unknown flavours and textures can be just one aspect of a general neophobia. The term food phobia is sometimes used to describe restrictive eating behaviour since there are common avoidance patterns and the similar negative emotional responses of fear and disgust. But a food phobic person tends to be preoccupied with contamination and hygiene issues. They worry about the hygienic contents of the food, the way the food is prepared, how it is stored or if it is still safe enough (within its use-by date) to be consumed. They believe that if they eat the food, it will cause a bacteria-related illness or food poisoning (sickness and diarrhoea etc.) If an illness has been associated with a problem food, the food type will then be temporarily or permanently avoided in case of further contamination. Over-generalisations are common with traumatic experiences. When you connect a “cause” to an illness with symptoms of say, diarrhoea, you can be forgiven for wanting to avoid that “cause” ever again to prevent another bout of diarrhoea. If it’s chicken that did the damage, chicken only needs to be “off” once to be convinced that it will always be “off” in the future.Restrictive eating and social anxiety
Without parental and family pressure, a young child with restrictive eating behaviour will focus on their own food choices and accept their own boundaries until they are ready to change. But the growing child will inevitably make comparisons with themselves and how others eat. At around the time of teenagehood, the value system typically shifts towards social standards of acceptance. “Fitting in” during social eating occasions has increasing importance and peer judgement gradually leaks into what you should and shouldn’t eat. Just having “different” eating habits might draw attention and embarrassment, which a teenager with restrictive eating behaviour and social anxiety will want to avoid. It could be a high risk situation adversely reacting to new food with everybody watching you. With social anxiety, it’s as if you are constantly on show, but without wanting to give a performance. School dinners, the increasing number of friend’s parties and formal dining events become a continuous source of anxiety. There is pressure to eat what everyone else is eating in case you stand out. But the anticipation can start days before the event, not knowing what is on the menu, not liking what is on the menu, being in fear of offending the host if you don’t eat everything served on your plate, or feeling guilty about wasting the money of the person buying the set menu food at a fancy restaurant. It would seem logical and helpful to communicate your restrictive dietary needs, but the inability to assertively communicate your needs is often part of the (social anxiety) dilemma. Just mentioning the issue is likely to bring you attention. It doesn’t matter if you have praise, encouragement or criticism; you just don’t want to be the focus of any attention. These internal conflicts in being able to handle the situation will build up your anxiety. Your appetite is usually lost by the time the event arrives. Cancelling with notice or not showing up at all increases the guilt of letting people down and losing friends, and acts as a deeper trauma likely to cause the avoidance of all future social dining experiences. For those who feel under pressure to attend and try new food that you dislike, a panic attack is likely to trigger the digestive muscular spasm symptoms (gagging, choking etc.) described above. It’s distressing enough being at home and provoking these tension-related symptoms. For the socially anxious person who fears embarrassment, displaying these tension-related symptoms at a formal dining occasion like a family wedding, would cause complete humiliation. Social anxiety then adds another problematic layer to the restrictive eating behaviour. Having a social trauma with that food (or a different food that has similar properties) will associate a deeper avoidance of future social dining experiences.What causes restrictive eating behaviour?
The causes of restrictive eating behaviour can be linked to physical, emotional/psychological and socio-cultural factors most influential during childhood. Some developmental disorders and temperamental traits can be inherited from your parents, predisposing you to develop similar patterns of restrictive eating behaviour in childhood. Research by Schreck at Pennsylvania State University found a higher percentage of children with obsessive compulsive disorder and autism are more likely to have selective eating problems. Children with acute sensory processing abilities (sensory processing disorder) are likely to overreact to “normal” sensory stimuli. The condition causes certain sights, smells, tastes and sensations to overload how their brain handles sensory inputs. Other research suggests that a small percentage of the population are “super tasters”, possessing a gene that heightens their taste response. Super tasters are overwhelmed by certain taste sensations that “non” or “normal” tasters can manage comfortably.Treatment for restrictive eating behaviour
Most restrictive eaters would like to broaden their limited food choices. There can be numerous personal and lifestyle changes that can motivate a desire to overcome the restrictive eating behaviour. For example, reaching teenagehood or young adulthood, being in a new relationship and being a new parent are common situations to encourage a dietary change. Motives to change restrictive eating often include: the limitations it places on your lifestyle, new healthier eating values, feeling embarrassed about how the restrictive eating appears in public and how the restrictive diet is affecting significant others e.g. your partner or your children. A successful treatment will confront the variety of issues that cause your food aversion and identify progressive realistic and achievable goals. A combination of cognitive behavioural therapy and systematic desensitisation are conventional approaches used to treat restrictive eating behaviour. The strategies will vary for adults and children. The teenager or adult who chooses to start therapy will arrive with a motive for change. Young children are still responsive to the conditioning patterns offered by their parents. Both the young children and parents will discuss the child’s current restrictive eating behaviour and how it is conditioned by the parents. A treatment plan is discussed and new conditioning strategies can be suggested. For example, the emphasis with young children can focus on offering non-food related rewards (e.g. a sticker) for being curious about tasting food that is new or disliked. It’s important to avoid giving food-related rewards like sweets. The experience should be fun with the parents similarly being involved in the new taster sessions. Exposure to the new food needs to be repetitive (with trials completed at least once a day) and thus keeping a stock of that food item is essential for continuity. It can take ten attempts with the new food to convert it from a “dislike” to “acceptance”. A parent typically surrenders to a child’s refusal after two attempts and will then give the child what they know they will eat. This prevents “failure” on both parts and reduces food wastage, but the submission is premature for long term gains. When persevering with the food trials, the food doesn’t have to be “loved”, more that the anxiety and tension-related symptoms are alleviated. The new food item can then be “accepted” and can be included into the general meal. Some parents try to disguise food to reduce the anticipation of rejection. This can have the benefit of minimising strong flavours or rough textures when they are liquidised into a soup for example. The child has already eaten the food that they “dislike” (albeit in a disguised form) and this can be used as a reference to reduce the fearful reaction when they say “I don’t like carrots!” The parent then (smugly) replies “you didn’t object to the carrots in my homemade soup that you’ve been eating on the last ten occasions!” If applied carefully, it can enable the child to separate the “danger” that a disliked food might cause them. There is a risk however. When outsmarting the child too frequently or too obviously (when the carrot isn’t disguised enough), the child can feel betrayed and will distrust not only the parent’s future cooking, but other’s attempts to control what they want to eat. It’s far better to gain their approval with trials, praising being curious with new food and ignoring their refusal of a food. Criticising the refusal will hinder their progress.How can hypnotherapy help restrictive eating behaviour?
My hypnotherapy treatment for selective eating behaviour incorporates cognitive behavioural therapy approach to challenge negative attitudes and systematic desensitisation to encourage graduated exposure to disliked foods. Hypnotherapy is used to reduce anticipatory anxiety and control the anxiety reactions when sampling the food. Positive visualisation of food eaten can accelerate the food trials, acting as pleasurable experiences that have already been practised in reality. Regression is also used to remove past negative “causes” of an aversion, releasing the beliefs that are contributing to an emotional block with disliked food.For more information on treatment for your restrictive eating behaviour in Cardiff, contact Richard J D’Souza Hypnotherapy Cardiff
Spider Phobia Treatment Cardiff
Spider Phobia Treatment Cardiff
One of the most common and oldest recorded phobias is a spider phobia (or arachnophobia). The term is derived from the Greek terms “arachne” meaning spider and “phobos” meaning fear. Whilst the term is usually associated with spiders, it also includes other arachnids including daddy long legs and scorpions.Arachnophobia in UK
In UK, about 45% of the population admit to being terrified of spiders. However, the research doesn’t say what percentage of the sample is too embarrassed to admit that they have a spider phobia! Are UK spiders dangerous? Some UK spiders are known to bite, but their venom is considered harmless.Spider phobia symptoms and reactions
- A racing heart rate and stress induced chest pains
- Breathlessness (rapid and shallow breaths)
- Sweating and hot/cold flashes
- Trembling and Dizziness
- Confusion and hysteria
- Nausea and other gastrointestinal tension
The role of anticipation with your spider phobia
The panic reaction is generally acute when actually confronting your phobic object (a spider). Where you see the spider and experience the panic attack can then become a fearful location in which you anticipate seeing the spider again. Your fearful mind is trying to protect you from yet another “trauma” by generating anxiety symptoms, so you feel the breathlessness and the rapid heart rate etc. as you approach the (previous traumatic) location. You now distrust the location and avoid it, whether there is a spider there or not. Your anxiety symptoms predispose you to believe that you will see another spider because your “instincts” are being emotionally influenced by fear. At this advanced stage of your spider phobia management, others might say that you are becoming paranoid! You are just responding to how your brain has become wired to deal with spider fear. In addition to location traumas, there are other associations that you will instinctively make. The season in the year can be a significant trigger for anxiety. Feelings of apprehension can creep up on you, leaving you confused about having Seasonal Affective Disorder or some background virus and then you remember that “spider season” in UK is around autumn (early September until mid October). This is when the outdoor temperatures drop and male spiders seek their mates in warmer indoor locations. With advanced spider phobias, generalised anxiety (to unrelated issues) can raise your irritability and expectations that you will confront a spider. It’s as if the more anxious you are, the more spider-paranoid you become. You may even have “arachne”-related dreams that are part of your unconscious mind symbolising your anxious connection with spiders.Spider Phobia: Home used to be a safe place
Progressively, as you are traumatised by seeing spiders, you become more alert to their whereabouts. You want to stay ahead of yourself, so you ask others where they have come across them and label their account as a potential danger. Google is a great place to traumatise yourself further because, still in avoidance mode, you are drawn towards topics that confirm that spiders are a threat to your emotional wellbeing. Your mind is filtering “in” the content that confirms your beliefs about spiders. With your hyper vigilant action plan, you then compulsively cleanse popular spider assembly areas before you can relax. You might approach the location armed with a long vacuum cleaner and frantically suck up cobwebs as you go. Or you send your “spiderphiliac” loved ones to thoroughly investigate and purify the location first. Here are some of the popular spider assembly danger areas:- Under and behind furniture including sofas and under your bed
- Confined spaces with limited exit points such as cupboards, attics or basements
- Outdoor areas such as the shed or garage
- In the ceiling corners of a room
- Various places in the bathroom or toilet
- Near holes, crevices and cracks in walls (all of which need to be sealed)
- Outdoor areas of clutter, debris or vegetation
Spider pranks, social anxiety and other phobias
Fear and disgust with spiders
Although the fear reaction is considered illogical, people may not appreciate that there can also be a disgust response mixed in with the panic reaction. The internal disgust reaction associated with spiders can be so hideously repulsive, that you can then fear it being triggered. The mix of fear and disgust can vary between spider phobia sufferers, but it adds another layer of distress to the panic reaction. Disgust can be associated with anything, but in this case, it’s the sight of spiders and what you imagine that they could do to you that overwhelms you. Most spider phobias are started in childhood. The imagination is so vivid at this young age, that a child will traumatise themselves with ghoulish images of spiders doing ghastly things. As a child, these “horror movies” then leak into your dreams giving you nightmares about it. It’s common to be awoken in a panic imagining the object of fear near you. Even worse is a nightmare where you are in contact with this fearful object, something that is likely to make your skin shiver with disgust. It's a dream that was terrifying as a young child and remains terrifying as an adult, even though you can appreciate that the dream is just a dream.Causes of a spider phobia
Spider phobias are generally learned by personal direct traumas and indirect traumas from authority figures. Biology may also be a cause of your arachnophobia. Click this link for more information on the causes of a phobia.Treatment for a spider phobia
Medication from your GP may be used to alleviate the short term effect of a panic attack or general anxiety caused by long-term uncontrolled exposure to spiders. It’s common to combine medication with therapy involving relaxation techniques, visualisation and controlled exposure.How can hypnotherapy treat your spider phobia?
Phobia sufferers are very responsive to hypnosis (you can try this hypnosis test to assess your level of suggestibility). You can benefit from a combined approach including, visualisation techniques, regression to remove the cause, controlled exposure and anxiety (panic) control to assist the removal of your fear of spiders. There is more information in this link on how hypnotherapy can treat your phobia.For more information on treatment for your spider phobia in Cardiff, contact Richard J D’Souza Hypnotherapy Cardiff
Addiction Relapse Triggers
Understanding Addiction Relapse Triggers
Addiction relapse triggers: Quitting an addiction should always be understood as a process rather than an accomplished goal. If you are an addict who has overcome your addiction, the job is not finished. The effects of a long-held addiction are likely to be deeply attached to many aspects of your life, including your emotional, mental, environmental, and social levels.Addiction Relapse Triggers
Listed below are some of the most common addiction triggers that are likely to cause a relapse.Good Times
Contrary to popular belief, the bad and tragic times associated with your addictions are not the strongest triggers to cause your relapse; it's the good times that deceive you best and weaken your resistance. Think back to the experiences where you achieved something special and your addictive substance symbolised your celebration. Was this when your self esteem was soaring and you had the best fun with your drinking partners? Or did the achievement inspire the gambling activities which drove your adrenaline and excitement to the highest levels as you played your riskiest bets and won the games, giving you another euphoric “high”? When you have quit your addiction for months and restricted your sources of pleasure, these “good times” cravings can return to seduce you for one more mood lift like they did in the old days. It’s seducing because it’s during this period that it seems so unlikely that you will to go back to your addiction now. Then consider how your brain physiology is so susceptible to the imprint of these joyful memories because it formed deep attachments to higher levels of dopamine during the long periods of your addiction. You cannot deprive yourself of good times, but caution needs to given to how you manage your mood variations, finding new ways to celebrate and new ways cope with your emotion lows.Places
Stress
Stress is a constant feature of modern living and the way that you manage it is important for you to feel emotionally balanced. When stress is managed poorly, it can lower your mood and influence anxious and depressive thinking. Additional adrenaline in your system caused by stress inhibits the production of dopamine, something that an addict’s brain has been hard-wired to expect and satisfy on demand from your addictive behaviour. Effective stress management is the key to long-term success in your addiction recovery. As your therapist establishes your emotional profile, stress management techniques will be individualised to help you develop new habits to reduce your stress. Stress is often considered to be having excessive demands, but a lack of demands can also be stressful if you find it hard to cope with boredom. When you are bored for long periods your time becomes meaningless and you will fill it with whatever is easily available in that moment. Boredom is a major trigger for habits and addictions, and needs to be managed with setting and working towards achievable and realistic goals.H.A.L.T. (Hungry, Angry, Lonely and Tired)
HALT is an acronym for some of the states that are considered high risk situations and can make you an easy victim to relapse. According to Ego Depletion theory, when hunger, anger, loneliness or tiredness reaches an excess, your willpower to confront your addictive urges is weakened and you will seek immediate comfort. If your comforting strategy is not rehearsed, you are more likely to find comfort in your addiction. Understanding your own ego and when you are vulnerable to its depletion can help you to take charge of these (and other) excess negative states from overwhelming you. Giving attention to the common healthy lifestyle areas (e.g. eating healthily, managing stress, maintaining social interaction, exercising regularly and sleeping well, practising meditation etc.) are key to preventing relapse from a depleted ego.Bad Times
Negative emotions from the bad times are at the heart of addictive behaviour and impaired dopamine production. You may have to go back further than the first day that your addictive behaviour kicked off to appreciate this connection. Anxiety, neglect, abuse, betrayal, worthlessness and insecurity are just some of your childhood influences that have created a pathway of dependency. When you found your addictive escape, it temporarily numbed the pain. It was easier than challenging authority figures or trawling back through your emotional history to resolve it. Your “high” remains the reactive mechanism to similar emotions that you feel in your life now. When confronted by negative emotions to resolve, you are tempted to reach for the quick fix because the pain still runs deep. Gradual exposure to these emotions and their solutions are huge strides to make for someone whose “solution history” is marked by addictive retreat. Embracing the other road is effortful but with therapeutic support, it’s a journey that changes your behaviour and the past emotions that connect them.Overconfidence
Over-confidence is one of the most dangerous addiction relapse triggers that betray you into believing that your addiction no longer exists. Just when you think that you are over it and months (or years) have gone by, you become complacent. Over-confidence deceives you that it’s fine to quit your relapse prevention plan and test the “I’m over it” hypothesis. “Just one more time...” can seem like a reward for all of your efforts and repairs that you have made. And then you realise how foolish you have been and you are back inside your addiction chains again! Don’t confuse over-confidence with self confidence. With self confidence, you accept that your addiction is a chronic disease and your recovery is a life-long process; you choose never to want “just one” ever again. With self confidence, you embrace your commitment to this choice.Relationships
Social Settings
There are many individual and social addiction relapse triggers that can compromise your “clean” intentions. A social situation where your addictive substance is the main event is undoubtedly a risk to your recovery and needs to be avoided in the early stages due to the pressure of social compliance. When you look back on your addictive pathway, peer pressure may have been the factor to start your addiction and it continues to be your vulnerability when you fear offending a close friend’s offer of another “hit”. Even without an offer from a friend, just being surrounded by your peers who are under the influence (when you are not participating) can cause you to feel lonely and alienated from the surrounding social mood and force your relapse. And social unease can still be your weakness even when you are with acquaintances, colleagues or strangers who are not addicts. You may struggle to blend in with them and then feel the pressure to look as if you are having a good time. A quick hit can momentarily take the edge off your social anxiety. If you are convinced that your addiction is the source of your “better self” or your social confidence, you may believe that you need it to be “the life and soul of the party” and without your substance, you are inadequate, dull and a “nobody”. How you believe that your addiction defines your self esteem and social esteem is an essential part of your recovery treatment. When you have worked through these issues, a return to your social life is no longer a threat to your recovery.Reminiscing Times of Addiction
The reason that your addiction gained power over you is because at some level you gave it a reward. It convinced you that it numbed the pain of abuse or control, gave you an escape from depression or anxiety, or relieved the stress from work. You persisted with it until the need for it became automated. Then the balance changed. It took over and became the problem that controls you. It destroyed the relationships and situations that are important to you. In your mind it needs to stay loathed with all memory traces of the addiction’s glory completely eliminated. Only then can you be free from it. But there’s an internal danger to its security; it’s called reminiscing. Reminiscing is also known as replaying the “good old times” where you glamorise your addictive past, boasting about how much more you could “use” compared to your peers and of the power it gave you. When your mood is low and you are searching for a way out of a problem, the frustration can put you into a daze. You are doing what is natural though, delving into the depths of your subconscious mind to access a solution. You are entering a reflective state of “self-talk” that some would call self hypnosis. When your resolve is strong, your internal voice will reject your romantic past with your substance. When you are down, reminiscing the times of addiction can seem like an attractive activity. Without developing assertive thinking however, it will be a trigger to a relapse. Learning to stay firm with your intentions is an essential part of your treatment. When you can access an assertive and positive thinking attitude, it takes charge of how you handle those situations. It also guides your mental rehearsals and reflections when you are away from the situations. Learning to take control of your mind will help you eliminate fondly thinking about your past addiction as a glorious period in your life. You will reframe your addiction’s past as a betrayal that it deserves.Social Isolation
Many of the social pressures that can cause your addiction to relapse are listed above in “social settings”. On the opposite end of the continuum is social isolation. Having your own space is important but the mix needs to be applied effectively to avoid loneliness, as this can be another one of the many addiction relapse triggers. Shy introverts are justified to argue a case for avoiding some social interaction, with the degree of social anxiety that you experience, but consider if your addiction has really become your substitute best friend.Re-exposure
Returning to the situations where you have previously accessed your substance should be avoided during the early stages of your treatment. In these early stages, the trigger is often too strong and complex, and is likely to cause your relapse. As your therapy progresses, your therapist will help you deal with the surrounding issues and set up a controlled exposure plan to confront those situations again. So if social situations are your vulnerability, treating your self confidence and social confidence is fundamental to the re-exposure of social situations. Your treatment will prepare you to engage with social situations in controlled stages, dealing with craving control and specific relapse issues that are contained in the situation. Avoidance of these situations can last for a period of months because even though you may believe that you are ready, there’s usually more therapeutic and developmental work to be done before you can confidently confront those situations without feeling vulnerable.Addiction Relapse Triggers: Summary
For more information on how to treat your Addiction Relapse Triggers with hypnotherapy, contact Richard J D’Souza Hypnotherapy Cardiff
Phobia and Fear Treatment Cardiff
Phobia and Fear Treatment Cardiff
Definition of phobia and fear
Phobia and fear treatment Cardiff: Fear is a natural emotion that helps protect you from imminent or real danger. A phobia is an anxiety disorder that causes you to feel intense fear of an object, situation, place, or living organism. In contrast to the level of danger commonly felt with a fear, the reaction with a phobia is more severe, usually triggering a panic attack. With a fear you may cautiously interact with the object or situation but with a phobia, the intensity of your anxiety influences the way that you lead your life. When you have a phobia, you mould your lifestyle to avoid the object or situation, even though the imagined danger is usually far greater than it actually is in reality.
How common are phobias?
Some phobias that develop during childhood can be short term and can disappear within a few months. However, 80% of phobias that progress into adulthood can become chronic and need to be treated. Approximately 10 million people in the UK have a phobia, and the sufferers can be of any age, sex, and social background. You may feel embarrassed about having a phobia, but you are certainly not alone however remote your phobia might be.
Phobia and fear treatment Cardiff: Types of phobias
Phobias can be divided into 2 main types:
- Specific or simple phobias
- Complex phobias
Specific or Simple Phobias
Specific or simple phobias are an irrational fear caused by the thought or presence of a single specific object or situation. The phobia usually develops at a young age, and as you grow into adulthood, its intensity may become less severe. As an adult with a phobia, you can appreciate that your panic reaction is usually disproportionate to the actual danger you are in, but you are still unable to prevent your reaction from overwhelming you.
Specific or simple divided into the following types:
- Animal phobias: these are the most common, and can include being afraid of anything living such as a fear of spiders (arachnophobia), fear of dogs (cynophobia), fear of snakes (ophidiophobia) or a fear of insects (entomophobia).
- Situational phobias: these can occur in response to a specific situation such as a fear of flying (aerophobia), fear of visiting the dentist (dentophobia), or fear of being in enclosed spaces (claustrophobia).
- Natural environment phobias: these can include examples such as a fear of water (hydrophobia), fear of heights (acrophobia), fear of storms (astraphobia), or a fear of contamination or germs (mysophobia).
- Blood-injection-injury phobias: this category can include a fear of blood (haemophobia), a fear of needles or invasive medical procedures (trypnophobia) and fear of injury (traumatophobia). These are specific fears that evoke the emotion of disgust and anxiety. They can also cause a further fear of fainting.
- Other phobias: these can include various fears such as a fear of falling (basophobia) or fear of costumed characters such as clowns (coulrophobia).
Complex Phobias
These phobias have an overwhelming effect on an individual’s life and mostly develop during teenagehood and adulthood, although the roots of the phobia can be caused in childhood. These are commonly divided into 2 types:
Social phobia: This is also known as Social Anxiety Disorder, and is affiliated with feeling extremely shy or anxious in social situations. With a social phobia, your “danger” is focused on another person’s negative reaction. Thus, you fear embarrassment, humiliation, attention, judgement and intimidation from other people. In its generalised form, all aspects of social interaction are affected by anxiety and can also be combined with introversion where you feel even more anxious in the presence of larger groups. In its specific form, social phobia can affect individual situations such as meeting new people or eating in public. It can also be characterised by performance anxiety situations e.g. when public speaking (or performing in front of an audience), during exams, interviews, in sports performance and in sexual performance situations. When you have an individual phobia and a social phobia to cope with, the social phobia adds another layer of “embarrassment” anxiety. You fear drawing negative attention to yourself with a public display of your panic attack. With an individual phobia and social phobia, great effort is also placed on hiding your anxiety symptoms, since you don’t know who to trust with this information or whether you will be taunted or bullied by your peers.
Agoraphobia: Agoraphobia is commonly associated with the fear of open spaces but can include numerous fears which ultimately leave the sufferer housebound. Before a complex agoraphobia develops, individual phobias and/or a social phobia may combine to gradually affect the sufferer. Other fears that can activate the agoraphobia include a fear of loneliness (monophobia), a fear of confined spaces (claustrophobia) which conditions a hurried exit from the situation to a safe place (usually your home), and health anxiety (hyperchondriasis) - the fear of that your anxiety symptom is a more harmful condition. As these fears and avoidance strategies progress, panic disorder can surface where the panic attacks can seem random and unexpected. Your home becomes the “safe place”, but journeys from home can vary from individual to individual depending on the method of travel, distance from home, the activity upon arrival, the situation, time of day, whether you can trust your company during the journey and/or upon arrival. When agoraphobia is untreated, the anticipation of leaving the house can trigger the panic attacks meaning that your home is no longer your safe place.
Phobia and fear treatment Cardiff: What causes a phobia?
There are numerous causes of a phobia ranging from direct trauma, parental influences and genetics. Follow this link more information on the causes of a phobia.
Diagnosis and prognosis of a phobia
Most specific or individual phobias are not formally diagnosed by a doctor. As the condition develops in childhood, you are often told by parents or other authority figures that you have a phobia. As a young child, you live “within” the condition, guided by your parents’ reactions and management of your phobia. Their diagnosis or lack of diagnosis could be influenced by the existence of their own phobias which biases their reaction to you e.g. if they have a social phobia they are more likely to protect you from embarrassment, advising you to avoid a social situations where you could be exposed to “embarrassment” harm.
Following their informal diagnosis and you grow older as a child, you will then research your own condition for confirmation of your behaviour, symptoms and potential coping strategies. Avoidance is the common short-term coping strategy but each retreat only serves to reinforce the power of the phobia over you.
Shock is a common reaction to the diagnosis of a condition as you begin to come to terms with the full meaning of a phobia. As a growing child, avoidance may continue to dominate your behaviour even with your progressive understanding of the phobia. Assessing possible solutions to your phobia can be met with indecision because the commitment necessary to confront it can build anticipatory anxiety when the situation beckons. The accumulation of anticipatory anxiety itself can “flood” your response to the phobic situation, overwhelm you and create yet another traumatic setback in your self help phobia treatment plan; your anticipatory anxiety feelings justify your avoidance instincts.
Fear of embarrassment may play a central role in the prognosis of a simple phobia through teenagehood as your value system shifts towards the approval of your peers. Again with a social phobia you can rationally understand how it is affecting you, yet still feel helpless to deal with the negative attention that it can generate.
Between teenagehood and adulthood, some phobia sufferers can react with denial or shame until you are able to fully accept how the condition is affecting you. To admit that you have anxiety might be considered a weakness by your peers and be a target for bullying. This adds more anxiety in those situations where your panic reaction could be visible to your peers e.g. when speaking in public.
A fear of public speaking (glossophobia) is a demanding situation for many people. When you add social anxiety, it can expose the common social phobia symptoms like blushing and shaking to your peer audience. It can also affect the control of your speech with tension felt in the diaphragm and vocal chords, leaving you breathless when you are desperately trying to sound confident. The effort to suppress these symptoms becomes a distraction to the skills needed to speak in public, but are considered the priority for the social phobia sufferer.
A fear of public speaking is a phobic situation that can span school, undergraduate study and your adult career. Public speaking traumas from school can leave avoidance footprints throughout this period, influencing you to avoid undergraduate presentation tasks, or job applications (or promotions) that specify public speaking in the new role. Where there is the opportunity to delegate, you will justify it as being good development for the subordinate staff.
If the growing need to confront your phobia hasn’t sabotaged your career opportunities, the damage that it can do to your relationships may serve as a “wake up call” to treat certain phobias. In a new relation, the early motivation of the “honeymoon period” can easily mask a deeper social phobia, with shyness appearing as an endearing quality. During this stage of relationship bliss, the anxiety is temporarily “transferred” to your partner as you both push emotional boundaries and are being supported by the other partner to be your “best” person. As the honeymoon period fades, the social anxiety “returns” to its original owner with the declining desire to socialise if the social phobia has not been overcome. The social phobic partner hopes that their gregarious partner is accepting of these changing relationship dynamics or the relationship can be strained with a diminishing desire to socialise together.
Even a flying phobia can impact on a couple’s holiday arrangements and be a source of relationship break down for intolerant partners. Indeed, there are solutions to enjoy holidays together without the need for flying, but the pressure to overcome a phobia is again brought into the limelight with a new family. Parents are aware of how young children can easily learn and imitate phobic behaviour. In an attempt to avoid guilt and shame, this can be a time to motivate the phobic parent to confront the phobia. A phobia held for many years is still treatable, but the treatment now has a long history of conditioned avoidance to work through. The treatment also has to take into consideration the time pressures of working and a family lifestyle that limit the time necessary for graduated exposure to the phobia and its benefits to alleviate it.
During adulthood, the consolidation of personality traits and other mental health conditions can reinforce the affects of a phobia e.g. anger may be communicated as a defence strategy to mask the embarrassment of the phobia or some OCD issues can attach themselves to the phobia forming deeper ritualised patterns of avoidance.
But despite the potential restrictions that a phobia can cause you, your family and your lifestyle, the growing awareness and tolerance of a phobia as a mental health issue can mean that your phobia can still be supported. As you learn to live with your phobia and justify your avoidance, those people close to you can, where possible, change their lives so that you are protected from the distress of your panic attack.
What are the major common symptoms of a phobia?
A panic attack is the acute anxiety condition common with all phobias. You can feel specific symptoms whenever you encounter the object or situation of your phobia. In some cases, you can also experience milder symptoms just by thinking about that object or situation. The severity of your individual anxiety symptoms can vary from person to person.
Psychological anxiety symptoms can include:
- Extreme feelings of fear: these will be intensified as you get closer to your specific phobia object or situation.
- Irrational thoughts: you can appreciate that what you fear does not affect other people in the same way; and that the likelihood that the feared experience is going to actually happen is very remote; and that your fearful reaction is usually disproportionate to the degree of actual harm that you are in, yet this still does not alleviate the severity of your response.
- Hopelessness, frustration and confusion: the conflict of these emotions tearing away at your mind can leave you feeling helpless, anxious and embarrassed.
Physical anxiety symptoms can include:
- Dizziness, light headedness, and nausea when facing your phobia.
- Excessive sweating and an increase in heart rate/palpitations.
- Shortness of breath and shaking.
- An upset stomach (nervous diarrhoea) or IBS is also a common.
Phobia and fear treatment Cardiff: Common Phobia Treatments
For many people the common self help phobia treatment is avoidance. If the phobic object or situation rarely affects your life then avoiding it (in the short term) will give you a feeling of control. Connected to avoidance is delegation with certain specific phobias. Getting someone else to remove a spider with a spider phobia (in the short term) is an effective way of minimising anxiety. Changing your lifestyle to minimise exposure can seem drastic to non-phobia sufferers but would only be done out of necessity to reduce long term suffering.
After avoidance, delegation and lifestyle changes to minimise exposure, the next level of treatment approach can include a combination of attending self-help groups and self-initiated exposure therapy. With simple phobias, creating a hierarchy of graduated exposure situations can take time to work through but with the effective use of relaxed breathing techniques or mindfulness, it can prevent the “flooding” of intense anxiety. Flooding (when the participant is not prepared) can cause traumatising setbacks in the alleviation of a phobia.
Complex phobias and agoraphobia are usually more difficult for the sufferer to objectively confront and work through by yourself, unless you understand your belief system and can stage graduated exposure situations that don’t generate internal conflicts. This is where certain talking therapies like counselling or CBT can be helpful, creating an understanding of your beliefs and conflicts so that you can then progressively confront your phobia.
Medication such as tranquilisers is not usually helpful for phobias but they can reduce the short term effect of a recent traumatic exposure of anxiety. Beta-blockers can reduce the effect of panic when you know that you are about to confront a phobic situation e.g. when public speaking. Antidepressants are more beneficial with certain long terms situations found with complex phobias and agoraphobia. The use of any medication should be done in consultation with your GP.
Phobia and fear treatment Cardiff: Treating phobias using Hypnotherapy
You may tell yourself that the source of your phobia does not pose an actual threat, however, your mind and body will still react with fear because your phobic reaction exists at the subconscious level. Hypnotherapy is a technique that allows you to understand and disconnect the cause of your phobia. It can help you communicate with your subconscious mind to change how you feel towards the phobia. Under hypnosis, you will feel extremely relaxed while still being in control allowing you to confront your fears without actual exposure trauma. Follow this link for more information on how you can treat your phobia and fear with hypnotherapy.
Phobia and fear treatment Cardiff: for more information contact Richard J D’Souza Hypnotherapy Cardiff
Treat your phobia and fear in Cardiff using hypnotherapy
Treat your phobia and fear in Cardiff using hypnotherapy
Are you ready to treat your phobia and fear in Cardiff using hypnotherapy?
Avoidance of a fearful situation is a natural, short-term response to feel safe. In the long-term however, the avoidance behaviour can leave you helpless and stuck with a situation that is far more challenging to overcome. When you are ready to confront your phobia, you have decided at some level that avoidance is no longer the best option for you.
Your decision to overcome your phobia or fear may have been prompted from an external situation or forthcoming lifestyle change. I often ask my clients their reasons for confronting their phobia and fear. They include health changes, internal conflicts, despair, embarrassment, relationship issues, travel arrangements, study needs, conflicts within your family, fear that your children will learn your phobic response, general lifestyle changes, promotion at work or potential situations in your next job.
Whatever your motive to change, you can live your life freely with your anxiety in the distant past when you want to treat your phobia and fear in Cardiff using hypnotherapy.
How will your phobia be treated?
A previous BMJ publication by Vickers and Zollman gave a clinical review of existing research on hypnosis and relaxation therapies. It concluded that there is good evidence from randomised controlled trials that hypnosis is an effective treatment for phobias and fears.
My treatment therapy will essentially use a variety of hypnotic techniques to help you overcome your phobia and fear. Some types of phobias need a different treatment approach e.g. when treating a fear of fainting compared to a fear of spiders. In addition to this, each client also brings different core beliefs and issues into the treatment process. These need to be analysed to find the most appropriate hypnotic solution.
Hypnotherapy treatment techniques can involve strategies such as removing the emotional “cause” of your phobia or fear, anxiety control, and changing the thoughts, emotions and behaviour connected to your phobia. The treatment will also apply methods used in CBT and controlled exposure to ensure that you are benefitting from other effective processes used to alleviate phobias and fears.
Can you treat your phobia and fear in Cardiff using hypnotherapy if you have an uncommon phobia or fear?
Some of the more common phobias and fears include:
- Agoraphobia – commonly considered as a fear of open spaces, but is characterised by the fear of leaving home. When you are outside, you fear having a panic attack in a confined space or around other people where you would feel extreme embarrassment. The need to rush home to your “safe” place exacerbates the agoraphobia.
- Arachnophobia – a fear of spiders.
- Phonophobia – a fear of loud noises from any source e.g. balloons, fireworks, car engines, thunder etc.
- Phagophobia – a fear of swallowing usually when eating food but can also be experienced with liquids or saliva.
- Emetophobia – a fear of being sick, your own or somebody else’s vomit.
- Pseudodysphagia - a fear of choking, sometimes related to phagophobia.
- Vaginismus - a fear of pain with vaginal penetration or intercourse.
- Aerophobia – a fear of flying.
- Toilet phobia – also known as parcopresis. This fear of defecation in a public place can also be related to irritable bowel syndrome.
- Urination phobia – also known as paruresis, shy bladder syndrome, bashful bladder and pee shyness.
- Katagelophobia or social phobia – fear of embarrassment, attention, judgement, and humiliation.
- Claustrophobia – a fear of confined spaces.
- Acrophobia – a fear of heights.
- Mysophobia – a fear of germs or contamination commonly associated with obsessive compulsive disorder.
- Pyrophobia – a fear of fire.
- Xenophobia - a fear of strangers.
- Entomophobia - a fear of insects.
- Speksophobia - a fear of wasps.
- Cibophobia – a fear of food. Food is avoided to minimise illness (contamination) or vomiting (emetophobia). It can also be called a restrictive eating behaviour when there is a disgust/panic/choking response with certain food types. It can also be mistaken for anorexia.
- Gamophobia – fear of commitment, affecting long-term relationships but can affect other lifestyle situations such as long contract work, mortgaging a house and staying in one city location.
- Hydrophobia & Aquaphobia - a fear of water and drowning.
- Ophidiophobia - a fear of snakes.
- Panic disorder - a fear of panic attacks which can be associated with hypochodriasis, medical anxiety and health anxiety.
- Hemophobia (blood phobia), trypanophobia (injections phobia) and traumatophobia (injury phobia) which can develop a fear of fainting or passing out.
- Illyngophobia - a fear of vertigo (or feeling dizzy).
- Belonephobia - a fear of needles.
- Atychiphobia or Kakorrhaphiophobia - fear of losing control.
- Nosophobia - fear of illness, health anxiety or hypochondriasis.
If your phobia or fear is obscure and is not listed as a common phobia, you can still treat your phobia and fear in Cardiff using hypnotherapy. Your phobia and fear will have a sensitising event and subsequent reactions in which you have associated your panic attack. The acute anxiety or panic attack is common with all other phobias and fears. The treatment will analyse your individual background experiences and disconnect your panic response using some of the same hypnotherapy techniques discussed in this article.
Are phobia sufferers receptive to hypnosis?
There are many intra-personal and inter-personal factors that can influence how receptive you are to hypnosis, including a strong desire and commitment to change your behaviour. When you have made the decision to seek professional help from a hypnotherapist, you are already a step closer to being open to therapeutic hypnotic suggestions. What then happens during your treatment will continue that process to its resolution.
When I look back at the profiles of my previous phobia clients, almost all of them have been highly responsive to hypnosis. Does this reliably mean that phobia sufferers can be hypnotised easily? Studies from Stanford University state that phobia sufferers “tend to score high on hypnotic susceptibility scales and... respond favourably to hypnotic intervention.”
Are phobia sufferers generally treatable? In the same article, a psychologist Joseph Barber, PhD considers that the source of a problem and its resolution can conveniently originate from the same place. “The very capacity that lends itself to developing the problem is the same that lends itself to solving it." Barber considers the learning of phobias as “environmentally suggested anxiety”; which means that the anxiety can be effectively un-learned or relearned with the use of external therapeutic suggestions. You can assess your level of suggestibility using this hypnosis test.
What happens in your first phobia and fear hypnotherapy consultation?
The first important stage in your phobia and fear treatment is to analyse your individual phobic or fearful situation. This is conducted in the early stage of the first consultation but can also continue through your treatment as new issues are uncovered. Every situation can be different and this process ensures that your treatment is individualised to your specific needs. The process includes the following:
Establish the history of your direct and indirect traumas: This usually answers the “how and why” you have arrived at your phobic or fearful situation. Sometimes this is obvious with direct traumas, but with complex situations like agoraphobia, it may involve a number of issues. By understanding this pathway, it helps you to appreciate how your sensitising events have affected you and continues to inhibit the achievement of your goal (the removal of your phobia).
Identify any conflicting beliefs and emotions: Other beliefs and emotions (outside of your specific phobic or fear) may have contributed to your phobic situation. For example, during your teenage years, defiance may have added anger into your coping strategies when people tried to control how you should deal with your insect phobia. So anger and anxiety are now triggered when you confront insects because you anticipate people interfering with how you will cope with your phobic situation. Or social anxiety during your teenage years may have added embarrassment into trying to confront your wasp phobia. So now when you have to cope with the fear from wasps, you also feel embarrassment from your anticipated peer’s judgements.
Examine your coping strategies: In most cases, the (negative) coping strategies that you have previously employed have gradually transformed your fear of a situation into the current phobic situation with panic attacks. With repetition sustained over a long time period, your reactions have now made your coping strategies automated even though you try your best to keep yourself safe from perceived danger. This build up of avoidance reactions can create a complex phobic situation especially when it involves more than one fear. Aviophobia (fear of flying) can involve direct flight-related traumas, but it can also be a complex situation that involves a number of fears e.g. a fear of heights, fear of confined spaces and social anxiety. In order for you to maximise the effective use of your new therapeutic coping strategies and prevent “flooding” of anxiety, this process is made easier when a complex phobic situation has been analysed.
Define your treatment pathway: In response to the analysis of these specific and wider issues that impact on your phobia and fear, your treatment plan can then be formulated to ensure that it is individualised and goal-oriented.
How can hypnotherapy treat your phobia and fear?
Listed below are some of the ways that you can benefit when you are ready to treat your phobia and fear in Cardiff using hypnotherapy:
- Treat your phobia and fear in a controlled environment
Hypnotherapy offers you the opportunity to confront your fears in a controlled and detached environment, limiting the amount of exposure to your situation so that you are not overwhelmed (flooded) with panic. Hypnotherapy also allows you to safely deal with your fears and the removal of your panic response at an unconscious level. You can accept positive suggestions without interference of your conscious mind.
- Control of your anxiety and panic response
You may not feel that you have conscious control over your phobic response but appreciate that you have ownership of your reaction; it’s yours to change. Your hypnotherapy treatment will help you to alleviate your panic symptoms that cause you to feel so traumatised when confronting your phobia and fears. For example breathlessness (hyperventilation) is a common symptom of panic. After learning relaxed breathing techniques, these techniques will be incorporated into your hypnosis treatment so that your breathing rate and breathing style can be calmer when you are ready to deal with your phobic situation. Other symptoms like palpitations, shaking, profuse sweating etc. will also be alleviated in your hypnotherapy treatment.
- Treat anticipatory anxiety
With some anxious situations, the build up to the situation can be as bad (if not worse) than the actual demands needed to cope with the situation. Your anxious mind will instinctively play any number of random “what if...” scenarios where you meet your doom. Learning to cope with anticipatory anxiety is integrated into your phobia treatment so that you can disconnect the anxious build up to the phobic situation. You can then apply your positive resources when it is needed during the phobic situation.
Fear and panic dominate most phobias, but your panic response may combine with (or be specific to) a disgust reaction. When your disgust response is triggered, it creates such an overwhelming, internal feeling of revulsion that you are then unable to cope with this emotional response and you fear it being activated by your phobic object or situation. Disgust reactions are common with certain phobias such as a fear of vomiting, fear of insects, fear of holes, fear of germs, fear of blood, etc. They can also contribute to a penetration phobia (vaginismus) depending on your individual background history. Dissociating your emotional disgust reaction is essential for you to overcome this type of phobia.
- Treat your fear of fainting with a blood phobia, injection phobia or injury phobia
About 15% of the population have an in-built fainting response (some people sense it before fainting, whilst with others it happens spontaneously). Physiologically, fainting occurs when blood pressure spikes due to the initial anxiety and then suddenly drops, causing blood to be diverted away from the brain. There numerous physiological explanations (e.g. vasovagal response) and self protective psychological theories why a fainting response is activated. Fear and disgust are the emotions responsible for the creation of a blood, injection or injury phobia. If you have previously fainted or near fainted, it can then trigger this additional fear with the insecurity and embarrassment that can accompany it. Your hypnotherapy treatment is specific to keeping your blood pressure raised as you confront your fears and inhibit your fainting response. This particular hypnotherapy treatment technique is a method also used in The Applied Tension Technique.
- Assisted desensitisation (controlled exposure)
When you research how to treat phobias, you will see the term desensitisation or controlled exposure appear time and time again. Desensitisation is an effective way of treating phobias. By itself however, this method can be cumbersome and time consuming. Hypnosis can offer you the positive mental rehearsals that act as accelerated controlled graduated exposure away from the phobic situation. So when you are ready to progressively deal with your fearful situation, you will feel as if you have already done the practise with the appropriate positive mindset. When combining hypnosis with desensitisation, you can expect a rapid progression your phobia and fear solution.
- Treat the causes of your phobia and fear (sensitising event)
This technique is favoured less by solution focused hypnotherapists who tend to disregard the influence of the past on the treatment of a phobia. The sensitising event holds the repressed emotions contained in the memories that “cause” the phobia and generates the anticipatory anxiety (panic attack) when confronting similar future incidents. When the emotions contained in the sensitising event are released (as an abreaction), it can have a dramatic effect on the alleviation of your phobia. This technique uses regression to identify the experiences just before the sensitising event so that the unconscious details of the trauma (e.g. beliefs held at that time and conflicts that influenced the learning of the anxious response) can be studied and reframed. When you remove the roots, you set free everything above the ground to allow new positive resources to be planted. The Rewind Technique can sometimes be used with some clients with the same purpose of reframing the traumatic emotions contained within the sensitising event or panic attack.
- Visualisation of your desired positive experience
Visualisation is a powerful tool in phobia and fear treatment
Visualisation is a powerful tool that can launch you towards the achievement of your goal. When you visualise positive change, you are creating the network of neural pathways that can be accessed more easily when you are in that situation. Hypnosis is a relaxed state where the depth of visualisation is enhanced. When you visualise in hypnosis, it’s as if you are passing those “real” imagined experiences down into your unconscious mind to help it accept that this is the new reality without actually being in the experience. Put another way, you are accessing the necessary “in-vivo” controlled exposure that can sometimes be difficult to access in real life situations. For example, when you have a wasp phobia and you want to practise your relaxation techniques with a wasp nearby without being re-traumatised with panic. It can be difficult to recreate a controlled situation involving real wasps. In hypnosis, you can do the “mind work” necessary to dissociate your panic reaction without always having to access the real life situation.
But hypnotherapy can you offer more than just visualisation when using advanced techniques. Many of the cognitive restructuring processes used in CBT can be applied during hypnosis, helping you to accelerate the change of your thought patterns towards the removal of your phobia or fear.
Contact me for more information
So when you are ready to treat your phobia and fear in Cardiff using hypnotherapy, please contact me giving a few brief details of your phobia. These details will help me understand the precise nature of your phobia or fear however obscure you think it may be. This information will be treated in the strictest confidence.