starting to give detailed practical suggestions, I’d like first to briefly describe the factors which can trigger the development of fears and explain what is going on in our brain at the moment when we are experiencing danger. I mention it in order to show how important it is to involve our inner sensations and not only the reason for the tension. I will also give a short description of other methods of phobia treatment and explain why they are less efficient than my method of Psychocatalysis. Those readers who are not that interested in these details can go straight to the part containing practical advice.
1.2. What is a phobia: general remarks
Sad statistics
According to population studies, the majority of healthy individuals (60.7% of men and 51.2% of women) at some moment of their lives get serious psychological traumas accompanied by fear, desolation, or a feeling of helplessness.
On average, in a quarter of all cases the traumas take root and become chronic. (See.: В. Н. Краснов с соавт., 2007).
I’ve tried to find out how many people feel uncomfortable in their everyday life because of their fears.
The situation according to a survey taken on my site Psychocatalysis.ru, in 2011—2012, is the following:
– 59.2% of the surveyed admitted “feeling uncomfortable about certain aspects of reality”,
– 33.8% of people declared “having a certain phobia”.
The option “I’m not afraid of anything” was chosen by just 7%.
The most frequent fears of the modern metropolitan population are connected with health, traffic, and means of transportation. In addition to this short list, there is a long list of more exotic and rare fears.
For example, one can develop the fear of feathers after hearing the news about the bird flu.
It’s worth saying that mankind has experienced phobias since the dawn of time.
In the works by Areteus of Cappadocea (latter half 1st century B.C.) there’s a description of a case in which you can easily recognize what today would be called agoraphobia.
“Some patients don’t show anything unusual at home, but in less familiar atmosphere, you can notice at once the incapacity of their mind. One carpenter was like this. He measured the planks carefully, was a skilled woodworker, made reasonable arrangements with the customers, but all this was only when he was within his usual scope of activity. But every time he was going to the square, to the market or baths he put down his tools with a deep sigh, bent his back, started to shake and went into a state of sad agitation as he was losing sight of his workshop and his apprentices. After he turned back home, he calmed down and went about work again.”
Felix Platter (1537—1614) describes obsessive-compulsive disorders amongst other mental diseases:
“One woman, a correspondence clerk’s wife, can’t dismiss a fear of killing her husband, whom she loves very much by the way. Another woman, a cantiniere, feels the same kind of worry concerning her newborn baby; both of them would like to forget about these thoughts, but they can’t”
The number of phobias is almost immeasurable. There are people who try to classify fears and add new exotic names to the list… This list called the doctrine of fears, was named by one specialist as “the garden of Greek roots” (You can see it at Appendix I). In my opinion, such classification is more philological than bearing any practical value. The keys to working through these unpleasant states is the knowledge about the processes which go on in the mind when a person is afraid, rather than the terms used to name various conditions.
Risk factors
There are several important factors which affect the chances of a person developing a phobia.
1. Natural factor: the nature of a person. There are people who are naturally resistant to changes in their surroundings and those who feel at a loss even if there’s a slightest confusion in their life. Some people worry and are frightened even when the reason for it is insignificant. Their body type is in most cases elongated: a narrow face, a thin neck, comparatively long arms and legs. This constitution type ([битая ссылка] phenotype) is called asthenic or gracile.
People with fine skin and soft hair often worry too much about their family. These peculiarities are typical of so called “pyknic”, or sumptuous body type.
There is another phenotype that falls within the danger area. These people are inclined to day-dreaming and exaggerating reality. They have deep-set eyes, a narrow nose and a chiselled face: their body type is “bony” and lean.
2. The memory of generations. According to the ideas of some researchers (B. Hellinger, V. Dokuchaev, L. Dokuchaeva), the information from the precedent generations can be transmitted to their succession through the family spiritual field, through the “big soul” which all of us belong to. Sometimes my patients notice that the positive experience and support comes from “the roots” or “from the back”. But the memory of stressful situation which the ancestors had gone through can also be inherited. In this case a person experiences fears which cannot be explained by his or her own life or the contemporary situation.
3. Early childhood impressions. It often happens that the beginning of life creates a base for phobias and other traumas. Lack of experience and support, high levels of sensibility; there aren’t many people who managed to avoid “childhood fears”. In many cases they transform and become a part of the adult life. Some of the authors also pay special attention to pregnancy and childbearing periods (O. Rank, S. Grof).
4. Type of education. It’s quite important what kind world view was received from the patient’s family. It’s great if the overall spirit was that every problem could be solved: “there’s a chance in every crisis, I see the goal and I don’t see any obstacles.” But it’s a different story if the mood of panic was predominant in the family and if every trouble is seen as apocalyptic. It’s one thing when the child was taught to lead a healthy lifestyle and to wash hands before eating. However, it’s a totally different thing if there was a constant “fight with germs” and if they suggested the idea of people being helpless as if the immune system didn’t exist at all. Of course the risk of development of stable fears is much higher in the latter case.
4. General level of education and life competence. The more you know about life and ways of solving the problems, the calmer and more self-assured you are. The calmer you are, the more adequate your actions are. The more adequately you act, the more self-assurance you get. And vice versa, the less experienced you are, the more nervous you get and it’s more likely that you won’t accept the challenge.
5. Situations when it’s really difficult to adapt. There are extreme cases which even a very reasonable person can find difficult to maintain his or her cool. Unexpected situations may arise at the time when one simply has no experience dealing with and feels completely helpless. Such situations can happen at any stage in our life: from infant to elderly.
6. Whether one enjoys or lacks the support of other people or of society in general. An active team member
