Fear of an upcoming event is a real problem affecting many people today. For some it’s a fear of the unknown and for other’s it’s a fear of what’s to come. This fear causes a build up of anxiousness or anxiety.
Anxiety usually builds up gradually until the event occurs and once the event is over the person’s anxiety subsides until the person has to do the same thing again. The effect is much like a light dimmer switch, you turn the knob from low to high to light up the bulb and there are many, almost infinite, shades of brightness between low and high.
This fear of what’s coming usually starts at an initial point in time. It’s called the ISE or initial sensitizing event in hypnosis. It’s the first time something happens to cause the person to be afraid and the next time the same event happens the fear of it gets worse. Take being afraid of flying as an example. The person may have heard a report on Television of a plane crashing either out of mid-air or after taking off. Then when the person goes on his first plane ride and he experiences turbulence, that triggers his fear of flying. So the next time he has to fly his anxiety kicks in until after the flight lands and he’s okay. It’s a never ending loop that gets worse each time he has to make a flight.
Sometimes, at an early age a child hears a report of a plane crash on Television. And sometime goes by and he forgets his fear of flying that started when he heard of the plane crash that day. Then one day he’s riding in a car and he has a traumatic experience of a car crash. The next time he has to get in a car he has a panic attack and from then on he has anxiety about driving either in a car or with the person who was with him when he experienced the accident. Then when he grows up and has to take a plane for business or pleasure he starts to have anxiety weeks or days before going on the plane and he can’t understand why.
Well, he has forgotten the first time he was scared by the report of the plane crash when he was young and the car crash. So as he thinks of flying, his mind brings to his conscious attention his fear’s of crashing in a plane like the first time he heard of a plane crashing and the fear he experienced when he was in that car crash. What’s happened is the fear of crashing in a plane and the car crash he experienced has crossed over and turned into anxiety of flying! So he has anxiety of flying and also a phobia for enclosed spaces. This is just an example of how phobia’s and anxiety come about.
So can Hypnotherapy help with this? Yes, it can and does a great job of eliminating it from the persons mind. That’s the beauty of Hypnosis, there are no pills needed. There’s no need to have ten sessions talking about the problem like in Cognitive/Behavioral Therapy. In CBT when you talk about the problem, the client re-visit’s the experience and that just sets up the anxiety to fire more strongly the next time.
We as Hypnotherapist’s don’t make the person re-live the experience or at least I don’t. I use safe and effective techniques to eliminate the anxious feelings so that they don’t fire again when the person goes to fly or drive in a car. The person does the activity and says to themselves “Hey, this isn’t bothering me at all I can handle this just fine”. And then the person goes on his way and lives an anxiety free life.
