Demystifying Phobias
Phobias, an extreme and specific form of fear, can have a detrimental effect on your life. Particularly when the chances of being exposed to the feared situation or object are difficult to avoid in everyday life.
I have seen how a brief, seemingly insignificant event can develop into a phobia that leaves a lasting impact on my clients. This sharp contrast between the brief triggering event and the impact can be baffling for some.
Many of my clients feel embarrassed by their phobias, thinking it’s silly, weak or irrational. They are puzzled by how they can react so strongly to something they know poses no real danger. There response, however, is not a sign of weakness but a normal brain function. Evolution has conditioned our neurology and nervous system in ways that predisposes us to develop phobias. It’s a protection mechanism that’s been instrumental in our survival. If the neural circuits that cause phobias didn’t exist, nor would we!
The Huberman Labs podcast on fear and trauma explains this phenomenon using the latest research from neuroscience and psychology. Providing valuable insights into the neural pathways of fears and phobias. Let’s start by looking at how phobias get established.
What causes a phobia?
Phobias are formed through the brain’s fear circuitry, primarily involving structures like the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. With the amygdala playing the most crucial role in processing fear and other emotions.
The threat reflex
When we experience a threat, it’s the amygdala that triggers the fear response, that then embeds the memory of that fear. This is what creates what’s known as a threat reflex. Once this threat reflex is encoded into our memories, fear becomes the automatic response even when we know rationally that it doesn’t pose a real threat. It’s the threat reflex that triggers the release of adrenalin, alongside the physical reactions, such as the rapid heartbeat, heightened alertness, and increased access to energy stores. Simultaneously, it suppresses neural circuits associated with calmness and sleep. It makes absolute sense when you think about it. If you’re in danger, you wouldn’t want to go take a nap!
Fear as a survival mechanism
Fear, in many situations, is an adaptive response essential for survival. The threat reflex exists to protect us from harm, guiding us towards choices that avoid danger. The fear system is, in essence, a memory system designed to embed specific past experiences, activating the threat reflex in anticipation of potential danger. As explained by Dr Huberman, a neurobiologist at Stanford and host of The Huberman Labs podcast, this is similar to classical or Pavlovian conditioning.
In Pavlov's famous experiment, dogs began to salivate upon hearing a bell that had previously been repeatedly paired with food. Phobias operate in the same way. The object or situation that triggers the phobia becomes automatically associated with a fear response, just as the bell was linked to food for Pavlov's dogs. In order to overcome a phobia, we must effectively rewire this automatic association.
You might question how just one single episode can create a phobia. This comes down to something known as “one-trial learning”, where a single experience, if intense enough, gets encoded into our memory. This one experience is enough to put the threat reflex in place. This is why even a brief encounter can lead to a long-lasting phobic response.
Overcoming phobias
For therapeutic approaches to be effective, they must engage and work with these specific mechanisms in the brain to overcome the phobia. The goal being to ‘rewire’ these fear memories and change the brain’s response to the phobia-inducing stimulus.
The Huberman Labs podcast explores the research and the best practices for doing just that.
Based on the latest evidence, overcoming a phobia or fear response requires two steps: retelling the episode that triggered the fear and creating a new narrative about what happened.
Techniques like exposure therapy, cognitive-behavioural therapy, and hypnosis have been shown to be effective in achieving this. They work on desensitising the individual to the feared object or situation, effectively decoupling the stimulus from the fear response.
In treating phobias, I have used both CBT and hypnotherapy, but the latter is the most effective by far.
Transforming fear through hypnosis
Hypnosis offers a potent way to work with the brain’s fear circuitry. It’s so effective that I can typically clear many phobias in as little as two sessions. My clients come away amazed at how quickly and easily they’ve overcame their fears.
For the sceptics out there, you may question why this is? Let me take you through the reasons why hypnosis is so effective when it comes to treating phobias.
Firstly, hypnosis helps create a state of disassociation which creates the optimum condition for clearing the phobia. This enables you to disassociate from the fear response and associate to a more empowering one. In addition, many find the hypnotic state very relaxing, enabling them to safely confront, re-evaluate and reframe their fears in a controlled, relaxed environment.
Moreover, hypnosis uses suggestion to create a new narrative around the event that caused the phobia. This new narrative decouples the object or situation from the fear, essentially ‘rewiring’ your brain. Instead of feeling fear, you start to feel neutral or even positive about the object or situation.
The process utilises neuroplasticity, your brain’s ability to form and reorganise synaptic connections in response to learning or experience. By guiding you through relaxing and positive experiences associated with the phobic object or situation, hypnosis helps to rewrite the narrative and create a new, non-threatening association rather than fear.
Addressing the root cause
Integral to overcoming a phobia is getting to the root cause and the event(s) that caused it. Hypnosis excels at this. Many clients who come to me don’t always remember what triggered their phobia, but in a state of inner absorption that hypnosis affords, these memories are more readily accessible. This ensures we are getting to the very heart of the problem.
As you can see, while the neurobiology of phobias illustrates how a brief encounter can lead to a lasting fear response, it also underscores the brain’s ability to change. Hypnosis, by promoting, disassociation, inner absorption and relaxation, supports the retelling and reframing of what happened, offering a powerful tool to tap into this neuroplastic potential and rewire the threat reflex. The brain is then able to form new, non non-threatening associations with the previously feared stimulus. This new association overrides the older, fear-based responses, effectively clearing you of the phobia.
If you have a phobia and want to find out more do book in for your free 30 minute consultation.