Driving phobia is one of the most common phobias. people are surprised to hear that though as it's one of the 'hidden' phobias. This is because sufferers are too embarrassed to admit to having it and thus go to great lengths to conceal it. Like other hidden or silent phobias driving phobia is well known to phobia specialists and the avoidance patterns, symptoms and responses are very similar to other silent phobias.
Driving phobia is an irrational fear of driving or being out of control whilst driving and can cause dread, panic and avoidance. It rarely has any relation to how good a driver the sufferer is. Many of them are good competent drivers and normal, well balanced people who once drove quite happily but are now anxious or panicky when they drive or don't drive at all. A driving phobia can happen to lots of people and it can happen to anyone making driving very difficult or even impossible. The conscious, rational thinking part of the sufferer knows that they are a good driver and so it can be very frustrating. Sometimes though, when in certain driving situations or on certain roads, the irrational, unconscious part of them can push out rational thought and fear will rapidly take its place. It has been shown that it is the more creative, imaginative and artistic people that develop phobias such as driving phobia. Developing a phobia can have a lot do with misuse of the imagination so anyone can develop a phobia of driving, no matter what their level of competence.
Driving phobia can be caused by an upsetting or traumatic event, such as an accident, or something apparently insignificant like being stuck in a traffic jam, overtaking or going over a very high bridge. Things such as tiredness, stress or worry can cause the irrational mind to blow these events out of all proportion and a mild panic attack may be experienced. This can create a pattern where similar events in the future may be experienced in the same way and thus a phobia is created. Sufferers may use various strategies to control their panic and embarrassment. They may only drive at certain quiet times, avoid certain routes and places and make excuses so as to avoid giving lifts to friends and colleagues. Over time these 'solutions' can restrict and interfere with the sufferers quality of life and become a part of the problem. Eventually the sufferer must admit that they cannot change the situation themselves and seek professional help.
Like most phobias driving phobia can be treated with hypnotherapy, the NLP fast phobia cure, EFT and cognitive therapy.
Wednesday 30 September 2009
Friday 18 September 2009
Rare Phobia
I read an item in the newspaper the other day about a young lady who was suffering from a rare phobia - a phobia of knees. This goes to show how you can be phobic of just about anything, even something such as knees which most people would feel are totally harmless. It seems this young lady's phobia started when she was a child of 11 and saw her Father fall and dislocate his knee.
The phobia is spoiling her quality of life. She said that it was worse in summer and that she didn't feel she could go to the beach or the pub. She thought she would freak out if she saw someone in a bathing costume or a short skirt and quivers in fear if someone tries to touch her knees or accidently bumps them. She is fine with her family and friends but strangers knees still hold a lot of fear for her. She is getting married next May and hopes to be free of the phobia by then.
She has tried several therapies including Hypnotherapy but nothing has worked for her. She should try my book "Stress Free Dentistry. The easy way to overcome your fear of going to the dentist". It is available at www.lulu.com and the techniques can easily be adapted to overcome any phobia. The phobia of knees is called Genuphobia. I put this into Google and came up with a site that talked about a therapist who was having an 85% success rate in treating this and other phobias. He says it is caused by an energy imbalance and recommends Energy Psychotherapy. It doesn't explain but he may be using something like the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) of Thought Field Therapy (TFT). The site is www.phobia-fear-release.com/genuphobia.html. It clicks through to a site from where you can buy DVD's, audio CD's and books to help yourself.
The phobia is spoiling her quality of life. She said that it was worse in summer and that she didn't feel she could go to the beach or the pub. She thought she would freak out if she saw someone in a bathing costume or a short skirt and quivers in fear if someone tries to touch her knees or accidently bumps them. She is fine with her family and friends but strangers knees still hold a lot of fear for her. She is getting married next May and hopes to be free of the phobia by then.
She has tried several therapies including Hypnotherapy but nothing has worked for her. She should try my book "Stress Free Dentistry. The easy way to overcome your fear of going to the dentist". It is available at www.lulu.com and the techniques can easily be adapted to overcome any phobia. The phobia of knees is called Genuphobia. I put this into Google and came up with a site that talked about a therapist who was having an 85% success rate in treating this and other phobias. He says it is caused by an energy imbalance and recommends Energy Psychotherapy. It doesn't explain but he may be using something like the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) of Thought Field Therapy (TFT). The site is www.phobia-fear-release.com/genuphobia.html. It clicks through to a site from where you can buy DVD's, audio CD's and books to help yourself.
Saturday 12 September 2009
Seven Success Tips.
I said in a previous post that I would be publishing some articles on personal development/self-help. As promised, here is the first of them.
Every day it seems that life can get that little bit tougher. The faster pace of modern life with its increasing reliance on more and more technology can be difficault to keep up with. Sadly some people fall by the wayside and end up using excess alcohol or drugs in order to cope or end up with a stress related illness. The field of self-help is now massive with hundreds of books, magazines, CD's and DVD's available. The reason for this is that it works! There will always be people who knock the field of self-help but the old adage is true, "If you want a job done right do it yourself!" Whilst there are plenty of people out there who are trained to help you such as counsellors, psychotherapists and life coaches it all has to start with you. You are the one who has to take action and read the book, listen to the CD or make the appointment with the life coach or therapist. It is also you who has to do most of the work in order to truly succeed. Here are seven tips to help you along your way:
1. Have faith in yourself. This is very important You must have faith and belief in yourself that you have the ability to achieve your goals and your dreams. When you have faith and believe in yourself you release the strength to overcome the obstacles in life.
2. Recognize and develop your strengths. We are all totally unique individuals with our own strengths and abilities. Work on those strenths and develop them. Don't dwell on anything that you feel you lack in yourself. Work on your strengths, use them to the upmost and who knows where they might take you.
3. Judge yourself by your own opinions. People are often put down or depressed by a negative remark about them from someone else. Be proud of all your good qualities and judge yourself based on what you know about yourself. As long as you are good person being good to others as best you can then that's all that matters. Who are they to judge anyway? Nobody is perfect we are all doing the best we can with what we have.
4. Do the things you love to do. Spend as much time as possible doing the the things that you really enjoy. By this I mean preferably constructive things that increase your self-esteem and self-development. This kind of self-help will make you feel better and bring you closer to success.
5. Select your friends carefully. It really matters who you spend time with because people are either building you up or tearing you down so make sure you spend your time with good, positive people who encourage you in the good things you want to do and genuinely want you to be successful. Make sure you giving them back the same encouragement. As Brian Tracy says:
"If you want to soar with the Eagles, don't scratch around in the barnyard with the Turkeys!"
6. Have a mastermind group. It was Napoleon Hill, the Father of the field of personal development, who originated the idea of a mastermind group. Basically a mastermind group is a group of people/friends who come together on a regular basis to help each other achieve their goals. If you're in business this might include your accountant, solicitor, life coach and other business people with similar ambitions. All these people would work together to help each other succeed.
7. Think positively. Positive thoughts bring positive results. This is because the law of attraction says that like attracts like. Think positively about your goals and focus on them to bring your dreams into reality.
Whether you are a success in life will be mostly due to your own efforts. Life is too short to waste time. Take action NOW to achieve the life you dream of and good luck.
Every day it seems that life can get that little bit tougher. The faster pace of modern life with its increasing reliance on more and more technology can be difficault to keep up with. Sadly some people fall by the wayside and end up using excess alcohol or drugs in order to cope or end up with a stress related illness. The field of self-help is now massive with hundreds of books, magazines, CD's and DVD's available. The reason for this is that it works! There will always be people who knock the field of self-help but the old adage is true, "If you want a job done right do it yourself!" Whilst there are plenty of people out there who are trained to help you such as counsellors, psychotherapists and life coaches it all has to start with you. You are the one who has to take action and read the book, listen to the CD or make the appointment with the life coach or therapist. It is also you who has to do most of the work in order to truly succeed. Here are seven tips to help you along your way:
1. Have faith in yourself. This is very important You must have faith and belief in yourself that you have the ability to achieve your goals and your dreams. When you have faith and believe in yourself you release the strength to overcome the obstacles in life.
2. Recognize and develop your strengths. We are all totally unique individuals with our own strengths and abilities. Work on those strenths and develop them. Don't dwell on anything that you feel you lack in yourself. Work on your strengths, use them to the upmost and who knows where they might take you.
3. Judge yourself by your own opinions. People are often put down or depressed by a negative remark about them from someone else. Be proud of all your good qualities and judge yourself based on what you know about yourself. As long as you are good person being good to others as best you can then that's all that matters. Who are they to judge anyway? Nobody is perfect we are all doing the best we can with what we have.
4. Do the things you love to do. Spend as much time as possible doing the the things that you really enjoy. By this I mean preferably constructive things that increase your self-esteem and self-development. This kind of self-help will make you feel better and bring you closer to success.
5. Select your friends carefully. It really matters who you spend time with because people are either building you up or tearing you down so make sure you spend your time with good, positive people who encourage you in the good things you want to do and genuinely want you to be successful. Make sure you giving them back the same encouragement. As Brian Tracy says:
"If you want to soar with the Eagles, don't scratch around in the barnyard with the Turkeys!"
6. Have a mastermind group. It was Napoleon Hill, the Father of the field of personal development, who originated the idea of a mastermind group. Basically a mastermind group is a group of people/friends who come together on a regular basis to help each other achieve their goals. If you're in business this might include your accountant, solicitor, life coach and other business people with similar ambitions. All these people would work together to help each other succeed.
7. Think positively. Positive thoughts bring positive results. This is because the law of attraction says that like attracts like. Think positively about your goals and focus on them to bring your dreams into reality.
Whether you are a success in life will be mostly due to your own efforts. Life is too short to waste time. Take action NOW to achieve the life you dream of and good luck.
Friday 4 September 2009
Treatments for Phobias
For someone with a phobia life can be very difficult, depending on the phobia they have and its severity. They may spend hours of their day anxiously worrying about being in a situation that causes them so much fear. Someone with a phobia of birds may fear leaving their house and when they are outside they may have to plan their route to avoid places where birds, such as pigeons, congregate. If they do come close to birds the encounter may trigger a full blown panic attack. So people with phobias are genuinely suffering and about 10% of the population has one.
Their are many treatments available and some are more effective than others. If you go to your doctor you may be given drugs which just mask the symptoms but don't cure the problem. You may also be offered some form of counselling or talking therapy. This can can be helpful to a degree as can Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). I have, in a previous post, discussed how really effective Hypnotherapy can be. I cured myself of my own phobia of going to the dentist by using self-hypnosis suggestion therapy.
Eye Movement De-sensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is another effective therapy. It works by scrambling the programme that runs the phobia and replacing it with another, more positive one. The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is another very effective therapy and one of my favourites.
Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is perhaps the most effective therapy and has a specific technique, the Fast Phobia Cure, for treating phobias. Other NLP techniques can be effective
too.
In my book "Stress Free Dentistry. The easy way to overcome your fear of going to the dentist" I explain the NLP Fast Phobia Cure as well as hypnosis suggestion therapy, the technique I used to treat myself. For a copy go to www.lulu.com and put "Stress Free Dentistry" into search. the techniques can easily be adapted to treat any phobia.
Their are many treatments available and some are more effective than others. If you go to your doctor you may be given drugs which just mask the symptoms but don't cure the problem. You may also be offered some form of counselling or talking therapy. This can can be helpful to a degree as can Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). I have, in a previous post, discussed how really effective Hypnotherapy can be. I cured myself of my own phobia of going to the dentist by using self-hypnosis suggestion therapy.
Eye Movement De-sensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is another effective therapy. It works by scrambling the programme that runs the phobia and replacing it with another, more positive one. The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is another very effective therapy and one of my favourites.
Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is perhaps the most effective therapy and has a specific technique, the Fast Phobia Cure, for treating phobias. Other NLP techniques can be effective
too.
In my book "Stress Free Dentistry. The easy way to overcome your fear of going to the dentist" I explain the NLP Fast Phobia Cure as well as hypnosis suggestion therapy, the technique I used to treat myself. For a copy go to www.lulu.com and put "Stress Free Dentistry" into search. the techniques can easily be adapted to treat any phobia.
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