Skip to content Skip to footer
3K
3K
740
3K
Menu
Menu

How to Remove Phobias from the Mind: An 800-Word Guide

Phobias can significantly disrupt daily life, causing intense fear or anxiety that feels overwhelming. Fortunately, there are several methods to manage and gradually eliminate unwanted phobias from your mind, including self-help techniques, positive affirmations, and seeking professional help like online talk therapy. Here’s a detailed guide to help you on your path to overcoming phobias.

Understanding Phobias

Before diving into solutions, it’s important to understand what a phobia is. A phobia is an excessive and irrational fear response to a specific object, situation, or activity. This fear can trigger physical symptoms such as heart palpitations, sweating, or dizziness. Some common types of phobias include fear of heights (acrophobia), fear of spiders (arachnophobia), and fear of confined spaces (claustrophobia).

Self-Help Techniques

  1. Gradual Exposure: One of the most effective self-help methods is gradual exposure, where you slowly expose yourself to the feared object or situation in a controlled way. Start with imagining the fear, then work up to videos, and eventually real-life exposure. By facing your fear in small steps, you reduce its power over time.
  2. Breathing Exercises: Practicing deep breathing can help you manage the anxiety that comes with phobias. When confronted with fear, take slow, deep breaths to calm your nerves. Inhale through your nose for four counts, hold for four counts, and exhale through your mouth for four counts.
  3. Visualization: Use positive imagery to reduce fear. Visualize yourself handling the phobic situation calmly and successfully. This can help build confidence and reduce anxiety when facing the real situation.
  4. Mindfulness Meditation: Mindfulness involves focusing on the present moment without judgment. By practicing mindfulness regularly, you can train your mind to observe thoughts and feelings without reacting to them, helping diminish the impact of fearful thoughts.
  5. Journaling: Writing about your fears can provide insight into the thought patterns that contribute to your phobia. Keeping a journal helps in identifying triggers and tracking progress in overcoming your fear.

The Power of Affirmations

Positive affirmations are statements that can boost your confidence and help reshape negative thought patterns related to phobias.

1. Create Affirmations: Develop personalized affirmations that counteract negative thoughts. For instance, if you fear public        speaking, you might say, “I am calm and confident when speaking in front of others.”

  1. Repeat Regularly: Saying these affirmations daily can reinforce positive thinking. The more you repeat them, the more your subconscious mind will believe in these affirmations, gradually reducing fear.
  2. Combine with Visualization: Pair your affirmations with visualization techniques. Picture yourself overcoming your fear successfully while repeating affirmations, amplifying their effectiveness.
  3. Write and Display: Write your affirmations on sticky notes and place them where you’ll see them daily, such as on mirrors, laptops, or fridge doors. Constant visual reminders help integrate these positive statements into your daily life.

Professional Online Talk Therapy

For many people, professional help is a critical component of overcoming phobias. Online talk therapy offers convenient, effective support tailored to your needs.

  1. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): CBT is a popular method for treating phobias. It focuses on identifying and changing negative thought patterns and behaviors. Online CBT sessions can teach you how to cope with phobias by restructuring your thoughts.

 

  1. Exposure Therapy: Through online therapy, a trained therapist can guide you through exposure techniques, helping you face your fears in a safe and structured environment.

 

  1. Convenience and Privacy: Online therapy offers flexible scheduling and the comfort of receiving help from your own home, an attractive option for those who feel anxious about visiting a therapist in person.

 

  1. Choosing a Therapist: Look for licensed professionals with experience treating phobias. Many platforms allow you to read reviews and select a therapist who fits your needs.

 

  1. Therapeutic Support Groups: Some online services offer group therapy sessions, where you can share experiences and learn strategies from others facing similar challenges. Communicating with peers can provide encouragement and a sense of community.

In Conclusion

Removing a phobia from your mind is a journey that may require a combination of self-help strategies, affirmations, and professional therapy. Patience and persistence are key, as overcoming a phobia involves gradual exposure and changing deep-seated thought patterns. By incorporating these techniques into your life and seeking help when needed, you can significantly reduce the grip that phobias have on you, leading to a more confident and fear-free life.

Remember, it’s important to go at your own pace and celebrate small victories along the way. Each step forward is a testimony to your strength and determination in overcoming fear. Whether through deep breathing, positive affirmations, or professional guidance, know that overcoming a phobia is not a process written in stone and a plan must be tailored to each individual person and phobia. Best of luck.

Your Fear Goes Up and Down

Are you someone who would rather climb the stairs than take the elevator? You call it squeezing in a workout after being sedentary the whole morning. Or perhaps you claim it's a faster route. These are both typical, normal, and acceptable reasons. But what if you need to be in the conference room on the eleventh floor in five minutes, and you're wearing your business suit and wingtips? Would you still prefer to take the stairs? If your answer is yes, then maybe it's time to take a closer look at your reasons for avoiding elevators. Elevators stir all sorts of emotions in passengers. From the discomfort of closeness to strangers to the sensations in our gut, elevators can be a source of the heebie-jeebies for many, but for some, they can also be a source of terror. Let's dig a little deeper into the latter, and see what this terror is all about and what can be done to manage it. To begin with, does being inside an elevator give you chills or the sweats? Or does it trigger an unpleasant memory? Perhaps you remember movies you've watched where something terrible happens inside an elevator. From Silence of the Lambs, The Shining, Final Destination 2, or the king of all elevator horror films, 2010’s Devil, the elevator becomes witness to something sinister and horrible. And you want nothing to do with any of it. You know that you're not claustrophobic. You can deal with heights just fine, too. And you know that you're not going to be trapped inside. All of these contribute to a fear of elevators—but they don't apply to you. Yet being inside one does something to you. It's hard to explain.

What is the Fear of Elevators Called?

What you have is a fear of elevators, which is called elevatophobia. It is most commonly triggered by an experience of getting stuck inside either due to a power outage or technical maintenance. Hearing about other people's experiences or watching a movie about similar circumstances can prompt a fear of elevators getting stuck with you inside. Usually, claustrophobics and agoraphobics may also develop elevatophobia because the triggers and objects of these fears are related. Claustrophobia is the fear of closed and cramped spaces, while agoraphobia is the fear of being trapped without any means of escape. Put the two together, and the elevator becomes the perfect combination of both phobias. The space is limited and closed, with only one means of entry and exit. You can add another point of access if you consider climbing the cables like they do in the movies, but that certainly isn't ideal.

Symptoms of Elevatophobia

If for some reason an elevator stops due to an outage or some technical difficulty, passengers with elevatophobia may go into full panic mode. Even if the maintenance team advises that it will just be a matter of minutes, by then, the person's mind has become irrational with the fear of the elevator falling, being stuck for hours, or other unpleasant thoughts. You would expect a person to exhibit the following physical symptoms: Additionally, you would be filled with that overwhelming anxiety where you feel that you have zero control over the situation. You start fearing the unknown and are filled with negative thoughts about death and imminent doom. You become irrational and unresponsive.

Possible Complications of Elevatophobia

When the panic sets in, the possibility of emergencies related to pre-existing conditions may make themselves known. This might include serious health crises like heart attacks or asthma attacks. When this happens, fear becomes a medical emergency. Elevator rides do not last long; it's just a matter of minutes or even less. But the fact that a person can escalate from panic to a near fatal medical situation classifies the fear of elevators as a 'hard phobia.'

Trying Some Self-Help Methods

Your fear of elevators can likely interfere with your social and work life and relationships. Not everyone understands that elevatophobia, like most phobias, can be crippling. But don't be disheartened. Depending on the level of your fear and level of control, you can gradually face and manage your phobia. Here are some recommendations you can try:
  1. Make a List of Everything that Entails Riding in an Elevator This is a systematic approach to getting over your anxiety. By following a step-by-step process, you can identify where the fear kicks in at its strongest. You can write a list of steps like pressing the topmost button and waiting to arrive on that floor, watching as the door closes and opens, being alone inside the elevator, or having delays with the doors opening. Now try doing the opposite. For example, face away from the door or occupy yourself with your phone so that you are distracted.
  2. Create Your Fear Ladder Although the name says fear of elevators, it is not the whole process that scares you. There are just phases and parts of the elevator riding experience that cause you to panic. So go back to the list you initially created and label the fear level you feel. You can do it numerically, too, like ten being 'really scary,' six, 'manageable scary,' and one, 'not scary at all.' You can put the corresponding fear levels so you can focus more time and effort into activities that are more scary to you.
  3. Face Your Fear By now, you have identified what scares you the most. You can try repetitive action to minimize your fear and increase your sense of ‘normalcy’. Remember that the longer you expose yourself to your fear, the better you get at handling your emotions. If you are feeling overwhelmed, stop. Pushing yourself too fast and too soon can backfire. Modify your pace and go slower instead.
  4. Talk About Your Fear People by nature, unfortunately, are not quick to offer understanding and support. You need to tell them what's wrong before they can empathize. Talk to someone who you trust and ask for their support, especially in the initial phase of overcoming your fear. If you are too afraid to ride the elevator alone, you can ask them to go with you, and before you realize it, you are on your floor, and there was no indication of panic.
  5. Learn To Be Patient Be patient with yourself and your predicament. This is, after all, your fight against fear. It might take hundreds of elevator ride practices before the fear gets under control. Even then, there might be some hesitations and episodes of nervousness. These are acceptable and expected, so cut yourself some slack and congratulate yourself for every progress.

Seeking Professional Help

Along with self-help, you can always enlist a medical professional's aid to support you with your elevatophobia. Talking to someone who has experience with similar cases can be comforting, because you know that you are not alone, and this situation can get better. Talk to your doctor about the severity of your fears and the symptoms that you experience. Explain how you deal with it in an attempt to control it. An exam and a health history are made to ensure that there are no unrelated or underlying problems that your symptoms might mask. Usually, phobias like this are approached with a combination of psychotherapy and medication. Your doctor will talk about these options with you, and it's entirely up to you, with your doctor's recommendation, what you want to pursue. For psychotherapy, the most common type is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which aims to help you find different ways of behaving, thinking, and reacting when about to step inside an elevator or when already inside it. With medications, there are beta blockers and benzodiazepines, but note that these can have side effects. Whatever these side effects are, you should promptly share it with your doctor.

Simple Tips to Overcome Elevatophobia

Elevators are not perfect, but their likelihood to malfunction, fall, or get stuck is very low. If you are not fully confident with this information, you can help overcome your elevatophobia by learning common elevator safety tips and basic elevator operations. These should help curb your mild fear until you become more self-assured. In addition to that, here are some of the things that you can do to gradually overcome your fear of elevators—both in getting on and riding one.

Conclusion

Yes, elevatophobia can be a challenge in today's world, but don't allow the elevator to win. Don't let it stop you from taking a job on the top floor or attending a social gathering on the rooftop. Sure, you can take the stairs if you insist and arrive winded and sweaty, with the party about to wrap up. But is this the quality of life you seek? Elevators are designed to make life easier. There are guaranteed ways to help you overcome elevatophobia. Take the first step and seek help. Soon, you’ll see yourself breezing through the floors with those arduous stair climbs little more than a memory.
This Pop-up Is Included in the Theme
Best Choice for Creatives
Purchase Now