To let my phobia ruin my life?

[cookieswirls]

I have a fairly common phobia. I don't even like to mention the word so don't want to say what it is, but as I've got older I've got more affected by it. Now I have children and I feel I really need to sort this out. In some ways it is ruining my life and I don't want it to affect my dc. I would love to hear how you have all coped or overcome your phobias .

Hi

My DM is arachnophobic and a I really really wish she had sorted it out. We can't say the word in from of her and she won't even discuss phobia in general because of it. My dad has to cut articles out of the paper and everything.

I won't pander to her too much and I say 'the word' in front of her now, but she could have stopped it with help and that makes me sad.

I second hypnotherapy. I had a terrible phobia of needles and would regularly faint/vomit/hyperventilate if anyone came near me for a blood test or injection. I had two hypnotherapy sessions over 5 years ago now and have been completely cured.

Op it's a shame that you immediately say cbt won't help you. That sounds like your aren't listening to what people are saying. The mind is amazing ...people with extreme phobias do cure them abd move on.

Don't get me wrong I hope that I can be cured and cbt sounds great but it the thought of the gradual exposure that I'm concerned about

I'm having cbt for emetophobia at the moment. It's scary but I'm doing I for my dcs as I don't want it to affect them or pass it on. Please talk to your gp x

ExpectoPatronummmm I also have a phobia of buttons! Never met any one else who does.

The annoying thing is when you tell people they often find it hilarious and say things like "does THIS button bother you?" and try and shove their shirt in your face or something. It's so gross. I'm definitely not as bad any more and can be around them on other people with no issue, but when I was younger I used to cry and retch whenever I had to put my school uniform on. I don't own a single item of clothing with buttons on (except the metal one on jeans don't bother me for some reason).

Re: fearing the exposure - the therapist will never insist that you do anything you're not comfortable with. If you decide that you only want to reach the level of being able to look at a picture of the feared object or write the word down, that's fine. The point of CBT is that you progress very, very slowly because then you are more likely to succeed and that reinforces your confidence. However, you can stop at any time.

Princess that sounds bad! It is hard when people don't understand. I hate it when people make jokes about it.

I have emetophobia to the point I can't even eat properly because I'm afraid being full will make me vomit. I've lost a lot of weight, but while CBT didn't help me personally it's helped many people.

I had hypnotherapy and neuro linguistic programming (NLP) to overcome my phobia. It really worked! I did a lot of visualisation (under hypnosis) of myself encountering the thing I was afraid of and it going well. This creates false memories in your brain so that when you encounter the thing you're afraid of IRL you believe that you have already done so and it's gone well so you are not afraid (IYSWIM). Also the NLP gave me a trigger to be able to calm and relax myself and put myself in my happy/safe place (and actually feel those feelings) really quickly which was also great (and now I use it whenever I go to get a smear test or to the dentist too lol)

I know this is an old post, but I'd love to know how you got on. I have a serious phobia and have had hypnotherapy (which unfortunately did not work) and CBT. I am not cured, but find myself managing each situation far better than I ever have before. I still get hysterical, but I can push through it and find a way to manage.

Gradual exposure was fine. There was a point where I couldn't do it and we stopped and did something else that session and she tried a different exposure exercise the next time. I also feel now that I can't let the "crazy" that I feel beat me. CBT has helped in managing that a little too.

Anyway, I hope you went for it and that you are managing a little better now 😊

So many people don't understand how debilitating living with a phobia every day can be.

I suffer with emetaphobia. It really affects my life and people without it don't understand - all you hear is no one likes it - totally different to an actual phobia! I have had CBT which didn't really help all that much tbh, I'm on a waiting list to try hypnotherapy, fingers crossed this will work.