A change of season, as we head into summer, means the emergence of all types of creepy crawlies again. For some of us, the arrival of warm weather is a boon, for others, it is not.
For arachnaphobics and entomophobics – people who fear spiders and insects – this is a particularly bad time. These people have an irrational fear of spiders and creepy crawlies in general. And that is just what a phobia is – an irrational fear.
But this overwhelming fear can sometimes be debilitating as phobias are more pronounced than fears and they develop when a person has an exaggerated or unrealistic sense of danger about a situation or object.
The NHS points out that a severe phobia can cause the sufferer to organise their life around avoiding the thing that causes the anxiety. As well as restricting their day-to-day life, it can also cause a lot of distress.
The NHS further points out that a phobia is a type of anxiety disorder and there is a variety of ways in which this can be treated. With treatment, many people are able to control their anxiety levels. However, some treatments may need to be continued for a long time and there may be periods when symptoms worsen.
One way to treat phobias and the underlying anxiety is with clinical hypnotherapy. The National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH) states that hypnotherapy is an evidence-based therapy with over 70,000 research references worldwide.
The NCH adds, however, that some people do not understand hypnotherapy and stresses that it is important to understand hypnotherapy is not a magic pill. It requires that the client be committed to change and prepared to make the effort to make that change a reality.
With that understood, hypnotherapy can help people to make changes in their behaviour. It cannot force someone to make any changes against their will.
Anxiety UK says hypnotherapy lets the subject to experience deep levels of relaxation and so helps to reduce levels of stress and anxiety. It is often used alongside classical behavioural therapies such as ‘systematic desensitisation’.
Two important elements of this therapy are the ability to clearly imagine something that makes you feel anxious and then to attain a deeply relaxed state. Hypnosis helps to achieve both of these more easily and quickly than many other forms of treatment.
With more than 1800 qualified and highly-trained therapists across the UK, the NCH is ideally placed to help people overcome their phobias. Successful treatment for anxiety can be achieved in just a few sessions but this will lead to a life changing alteration in behaviour.
Whether the phobia is seasonal – like a fear of insects or regular, like a fear of heights, open spaces or closed spaces, why not talk about it with an NCH hypnotherapist? Just click here to start that life-changing journey.