FEAROF

You are here: Home / Fear / Cure Your Fear – Phobia Treatment

Cure Your Fear – Phobia Treatment

By 75 Comments

Under certain circumstances, each of us is capable of developing an intense fear or phobia of something, someone or a situation. The reason behind phobias is not genetic; rather they are triggered by life circumstances or events. There is no proven drug phobia treatment but certain medicines can be prescribed to cure your fear and relieve anxiety. However, the majority of these medications work only temporarily and also have several side effects. Therefore, experts stress upon trying to deal with the phobia by accepting and confronting it instead of using medicines all the time.

Self help techniques to cure fear

Let me show you some proven techniques and phobia treatment options that can help you overcome your fear on your own.

Keep a journal

Expert motivational speaker and life coach Robin Sharma recommends journaling as a proven and powerful technique to make positive changes in life. The journal need not have long entries; rather it can be filled with positive reaffirmations, rational thoughts regarding one’s fear and also ideas or inspirations that strike through the day.

Create a fear ladder

This involves making a list of all the situations or objects you fear. For example, if you fear dogs, you can make a list like: “I fear thinking about dogs, I fear looking at a picture of a dog and I fear dogs which are barking or are not on a leash” and so on. Once you have made this list, you need to categorize it into “Least Scary” and “Most Scary”. This means you assign the fear a rating on a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is most scary and 1 is least scary. Once this fear ladder has been developed, you can try and expose yourself to those situations that are least scary and progress to the next step of the ‘fear ladder’. For example, in the above situation, you can start by looking at photos of dogs, or hearing their bark or seeing them in a video and gradually progress to being in close vicinity of a dog for prolonged period. The key is to not rush things. Be patient and take your time.

Read religious books

No matter whether you are a believer or non believer, turning to religious self help books is a proven way of relieving anxiety and facing your fear. Fears and phobias are evolutionary; they have existed since the beginning of time and fear of what might happen is a part and parcel of life. By reading the Bible, or other religious book, you can try understand and accept this concept.

Get into the self rewarding habit

Many individuals have seen great results with this type of self-help phobia treatment. For example, if you fear heights, you can climb to the top of a building or look out of a window for five minutes, at the end of which you can treat or reward yourself. The next time, you can increase this period to up to 10 minutes or longer while promising to reward yourself handsomely.

Other methods for phobia treatment

  1. Hypnotherapy– This is a proven phobia treatment that can cure many social and animal phobias. It gets to the root of the issue to help you deal with the anxiety in a much calmer manner.
  2. Psychotherapy– This is of two types: behavior and cognitive behavior therapies. Both types help you to mentally re-approach each anxiety inducing situation to cure your fear once and for all.
  3. Systematic desensitization– This is a type of behavior therapy that aims to remove the fear or disgust response to an object, animal or situation and replace it with relaxation response by using gradual counter conditioning. This therapy involves training yourself in muscle de-tensioning and deep breathing techniques.
  4. NLP or neuro-linguistic programming– This therapy is based on the principle that a phobia origins from tightly wound neural network. The patients are made to imagine themselves in high-anxiety causing situations and then imagine that they are watching themselves in that situation as if in a movie. Then they are asked to “reverse the images” and freeze frame the end of the phobia. This is a five minute rewind therapy that is known to work on all phobias and most patients claim being unafraid at the end of the session.

These are some of the phobia treatment options that can help cure your fear so you can get on with your life. You should always seek professional help if you are experiencing severe depression or anxiety.

Comments

  2. Hi, I have a fear of men (I’m a trans female to male) and I don’t know if it will affect my sexuality as a trans since I have this fear. If anyone has this same fear as me, please give me advice. I don’t want to be afraid of men because I’m interested in men more than women, and in the near future I don’t want to be scared of confronting a man to ask him out.

    Reply

  3. I have Koumpounophobia and I argue about it every day. I also have Lepidopterophobia and Mottephobia. What can I do?

    Reply

    • I have been tortured by anxiety disorder for a year. My racing heart, shaking body and clenched fist always appear in the middle of the night. And I’ve already refused a job invitation because I’m afraid of doing something I’ve never tried before. I’m afraid that I will mess it up. I have to get a job but I don’t know how to get over the fear.

      Reply

  4. I have a fear of rollercoasters because anything can happen as these lowlife workers are lazy and do not know what to do (ever seen final destination 3?).

    Reply

  5. I have a fear of creatures that appear to be without legs. Slugs, snails, snakes, jellyfish, eels, roly polys, worms, etc. I don’t want to touch a fish but I will because they have fins but I will freak out if something without legs touches me. You couldn’t make me pick up a worm.

    Also things with too many legs. Centipedes, cricket spiders, hermit crabs, etc. freak me out too

    Reply

  6. I have a fear of failure. I don’t know if this was induced by anything, but I cannot stand to fail. I’m fairly young, still in Junior High, and the other day we were doing a project, with a group, and everyone else in my group was goofing off (as I’ve found most people do) and we hadn’t gotten anything done. The project was due the next day, and I was terrified we were going to fail. I started crying and shaking and having panic attacks, I was terrified. I think this fear might go hand-in-hand with my anxiety, but I still don’t know how to fix it. I’m also afraid of small spaces, and suffocation. Anything that involves me being cramped into a small space, I have a panic attack as well. Any thoughts?

    Reply

    • I have a fear of death cause i might go to heaven or hell. One is good and that’s heaven because God is by my side. I knew he was from day one (ever seen the end of the world?).

      Reply

  7. I am sure a lot of you are not scared of dogs because they are cute but, I am scared of dogs cause most of our country (Philippines) have some strong, angry dogs. Some have cute dogs but still I’m scared of dogs, I am also allergic of their flying fur. Thanks to the persons who are reading this.

    Reply

  8. I have a huge fear of being forgotten and a fear of being abandoned does anyone know what to do?

    Reply

  10. I have trypanophobia and it really affects my life. Every time I even begin to think of a needle or a vaccination I start to sweat like crazy and I can’t think straight. I have to get vaccinations before I can go to the next grade, and for the first time in my life I find myself dreading my birthday. Being around any sort of medical person freaks me out. I don’t know what it is about shots that I’m afraid of, I just can’t handle my fear anymore. Please help..

    Reply

    • Me too.. been looking for cures all over the place. Ask for numbing gel and panic meds if you can afford it. Ask your parents to surprise you with a vaccination if you are a kid. But yes.. it ruins your life.

      Reply

    • Oh my gosh me too! I had lung problems when I was younger. And I am allergic to the chicken pox vaccine. Also peanuts but it’s going away. I had so many needles that I developed a fear. I also have a fear of dentists and getting my hair trimmed. My therapy rabbit helps with needles.

      Reply

  11. I have a fear of spiders. I can’t bear looking at them, my family always makes fun of me. I can’t do anything with spiders in my way. I am roughly 12. I always have a plan for the day and if a spider gets in the way I waste 10-15 trying to get it out, that’s when I either call my mom or step dad or brothers or sister anyone. They always tell me to get it yourself and I always refuse. Spiders are the one thing in life I hate

    Reply

  14. I am afraid of dolls. I am afraid of their eyes, and every time I’m near one I feel like it is staring at me. I know in my mind that they won’t, but I always feel like they are going to come alive. Even though I know it won’t happen, I always have to check on this one doll in my dining room to make sure it hasn’t moved. My parents make fun of me for being scared of them.

    Reply

    • my friend have that phobia too, i don’t blame you. dolls DO look creepy, even my sister doesn’t like looking at a doll’s eyes

      Reply

    • I have the same thing, it’s called pediophobia and it is really hard for me to get over. I’m only scared of them because of a horror show that I watched. To get over the fear force yourself to watch people doing hairstyles on dolls then, up it to watching a stop motion of a Barbie, then start looking at the dolls around your house more and see what scares you about them, then start being more comfortable with sitting near them, when you are comfortable sitting near them start maybe, just maybe, you will feel better. After all this, you will not COMPLETELY lose your fear but I promise that it will get better. It worked for me at least.

      Reply

  15. I’m afraid of not fitting in and being alone I’ve always made an effort to have friends and I have alot of friends But I still have that fear of being alone. I wish that I was a likable person who people really liked to where I could have real friends that I could rely on and friends who don’t turn their backs on me sometimes. I have a best friend who’s a grade lower than me I don’t see her as much because I’m in middle school (6th grade). If you were in middle school with sixth grade girls you would know that they could be non-reliable.
    Thanks for reading (if you did), May

    Reply

    • Hi May! I often feel the same way, it’s been this way most of my life and I am older now. Kids would always make fun of me and I would get bullied a lot. One important thing I want you to know is and please listen to me when I say this.. GOD loves you! JESUS loves you. You will never ever be alone. Please think about accepting JESUS as your Savior. If you aren’t sure how to OR you don’t understand what this means, please ask me. I have left alone a lot of my life and until I accepted JESUS into my heart, I was alone, but now, I have my precious Savior, HE is there all the time and every time I call out to HIM, HE is there and I never feel alone. GOD bless you!

      Reply

  16. I have a fear of Germs (Mysophobia) I get it at school from people who i just don’t want to touch (there are reasons but I don’t want to say them because they embarrass me. I need help. It’s ruining my social life and I can’t concentrate at school and I am getting low grades.

    Reply

    • Well,one thing I can tell you is that not ALL germs are bad.There are germs in your body at this very moment.The germs in our bodies help us get nutrition from food you digest.I hope I helped :)

      Reply

        • No, NOT having them would kill you. Some germs are critical to our very survival (think, food digestion for example).
          Besides, our body’s ability to fight off the “bad” germs (immune response) come from germ exposure. If we are never exposed to germs, we would become ill much easier by almost everything in our environment because our bodies would not recognize the germ as a threat.

          Reply

  17. I’m not exactly sure if this is a phobia but I can’t stand seeing people suffer or have disease I know I have Nosocomephobia cause I can’t even go near a hospital or even study in school about anything to do with them. Its taking over my life and I don’t know what to do. In class today we were studying the Black Plague and I couldn’t cope I just got up and left. Is there anything I can do.

    Reply

      • Just be more comfortable watching them from afar or even just on a computer screen. After this make yourself go outside for a while. Bee stings do hurt for a little while but they get better pretty quickly. Bees won’t harm you if you don’t harm them so if you are going on a hike DON’T MESS WITH THE BEES!

        Reply

  21. I have an irrational fear of growing old. It causes me much anxiety and sadness. I fear the worst possible outcomes for my future as an old lady. I think it’s because I’ve been dealing with aging parents and others who I’ve met who have had difficulties in their old age ( strokes, falling and breaking bones). I can’t enjoy the present because I’m depressed about what lies ahead.

    Reply

    • heyyy im Kim and i just wanted to tell you if you stay worrying about whats going to happen later you can’t enjoy life Now so Go out with friends Go shopping Go have some fun

      Reply

  22. I found out that I had Trypophobia yesterday. Just thinking about holes makes me squirm and itch; not generally the ones on inanimate objects, like a sponge, but on plants, animals, humans in particular etc. I sweat and I can feel my heart beating fast when I’m thinking about them, and sometimes physically feel sick when I’m looking at photos online. The condition seems to be getting a lot worse, and I’m 14 :(

    Reply

  23. I have a couple of fears. Let’s see the first one I got is heights, then being alone and being in serious situations. Quite a lot right. Btw I’ll recommend this to a friend of mine.

    Reply

  24. Hi. Actually I’m afraid sometimes and sometimes I’m not. I have a fear of a place where I can’t see a house and I’m also afraid of sitting on a bike and in a bus. We are going for a tour in few days and we are going with bus and I said yes to go but I’m still afraid, what should I do?

    Reply

  25. Hi Jacob! My fear is defiantly holding me back, and I would love your help! I have a huge fear of balloons, and I have read up about it and found out that there are others out there with this phobia!

    I am okay with myself holding a balloon that is blown up, however as soon as I see a balloon on the floor or a balloon being played with by a child I immediately feel anxious and no longer want to be in that location.

    I have had this phobia all my life and my mum says it started when a balloon popped in my face when I was 2, I can however not remember this event.

    Please include any information you have that may help me overcome my fear!

    Many thanks

    Chloe Unsworth

    Reply

  26. Hi I have fear of ghosts. At night when I go to sleep I think ghosts are roaming around me. This especially happens when I stay in new places. I am really afraid of ghosts. I am 22.

    Reply

    • I get that one too. It is tough because they are invisible, so how do I know if there is one?
      I remind myself that it feels like there is a ghost because I am creating a fake one in my mind out of anticipation.
      Telling myself they don’t exist can help a lot.

      But the best way is to burn sage. It has been used for thousands of years to scare off spirits. It is extremely effective and requires no ceremony, just spread the smoke around your room until you feel safe.
      Blessings ☺️

      Reply

  27. Hi, well I just found out that I have trypophobia about 3 days ago. But I have so many memories of me scratching after seeing a bunch of little holes and that first happened when I was little. I also had a recent incident in June, I was looking at this one Instagram post and I saw a mans arm full of holes and I just started scratching and I couldn’t stop. I also had another incident 3 days ago, I was looking at small holes once again and I just started scratching and couldn’t stop but this time, I had goosebumps and I just started crying because the holes make me feel uneasy. How can I get rid of this phobia without looking at holes? I tried looking at the holes to get rid of it but it doesn’t work out at all.

    Reply

    • Luckily, the picture you saw was likely faked. There was a viral photo for a while that sounds like that, it’s just a weird looking lotus seed pod photo-shopped onto a normal arm.

      Reply

  28. I am afraid of things in the sky such as comets and fire rainbows. I am so ashamed as I am an adult. I do take medication but it has side effects.

    Reply

  29. I have a fear of moving (out of my parents house) and either back into my house, which is currently being rented out, or into an apartment. If I don’t think about it and only “talk” about it, as long as I’m not going to actually do it, I’m fine. When I really start thinking about moving and actually plan or when the day gets closer to actually making the decision to move, I start freaking out and I get a sharp pain in my elbow. Since the house is currently being rented I constantly think about telling the management company to keep the tenants even though they are destroying my house, they are consistently paying their rent late and I really want them to move out. And the worst part of the whole situation is – I really do want to move out. Living in my parents living room is not fun. All my belonging are in moving boxes spread throughout the house, the front door entryway has become a makeshift closet and all of my sewing and quilting items are spread throughout the house including a corner of my parents bedroom. There really isn’t any privacy for having guests over or getting sick. I have even had comments of “put on your big boy pants and just do it”. I would love any help with this anxiety that I have. Thank You.

    Reply

  30. I do not have many fears but there is an unusual one that makes me squirm in my seat. I haven’t taken note to it much until I was playing a game where in a level there was a huge kraken in the middle of a huge ancient room/hall. There was water in there, about 10+ feet at the bottom of this place. My character fell into the water at one point and that was when I noticed my reaction. It wasn’t terrifying but very discomforting. I started to shudder and exclaim. I always knew it made me uncomfortable, the whole concept of a huge sea creature hiding in the bottom of your bathtub where the bottom will just give way to a bigger body of water. It isn’t a well that would scare me. But something that would be living in the well where the bottom would open to a deeper wider place. And that is where it ends. There are limits to these bodies of water. It doesn’t span out to the ocean or anything. So I don’t think I’m scared of water, depth, or sea creatures (I love swimming and pools and being in deep water) but rather the unknown. The ocean at night is something that makes me nervous but I wouldn’t say no to it if someone was to swim with me. Alone, probably not. An irrational fear, really. I think it stems from dreams I used to have, deceivingly small bodies of water with huge sea creatures in them ready to take me down. And even now I don’t think I’m explaining it right. But I don’t like shuddering when I see a picture that reminds me of these things.
    Thanks for reading.

    Reply

    • I’m a scuba and free diver. I began being terrified of manmade objects in water, bottoms I can’t see and things like seaweed or fallen trees in water. I was able to overcome most by diving in the tropics then gradually going deeper. Now I am only afraid of sunken branchy trees and not knowing how far down the bottom is (doesn’t help the fjords here can go -2300 feet only 15 feet from shore). I also still imagine all manner of sea monsters at times and have to end the dive due to panic.
      My point is I bet water fears are the most common. But water can be faced gradually, which is very nice. However, because of its nature and humans relation to it, facing all the fears within water is facing all mortal fears, that’s a big reason why I am a diver.

      Reply

  31. I have a horrid fear of the dark, and being left alone while in the dark. I’m still young, as I am only 13, turning 14. Children are ‘ought to be afraid of it, but I’m terrified of it. I can not stand the thought of being left alone. I even sleep with two night lights to light up my room a bit. It is hard to sleep, as I do not like being smothered in darkness. It’s caused me to become sleep deprived, and I hardly can get around. Even though I stay up all night, I always have a light on. People say that it’s not serious, as so my brother, or someone else in my family. It is bad, I may stay up but, it is difficult to go away from a light. As I am typing this at 3:38 AM.

    Thank you,

    Jamie.

    Reply

    • I have a daughter who has the same fear, no one can help her and we have tried everything. She sleeps with me every night and I worry about her adult life and how she is going to be able to be independent. I am sorry for you because I understand the fear and know how it affects you and everyone around you.

      Reply

      • I understand this fear greatly, I’m 17, almost 18, and I either need a night light or someone sleeping next to me so that I can sleep. I also have a fear of roaches and there’s one somewhere, I didn’t see it after I blocked off my door, but I couldn’t sleep as I took out my night light. The thought of the roach being in the house just really makes me nervous.

        Reply

  32. Your article helped a lot. I have a peculiar type of fear.
    I wonder if you can call it fear of needles. I have never felt nervous or afraid to get injections in particular. But I really get depressed when I see others getting a shot or hear about their experiences with needles. How do you think I can get over this?

    Reply

  33. I have a fear of water, I’m fine in the bath and running water, but anything bigger than a bath leaves me crippled, I’ve even crawled over a canal bridge to avoid seeing it, or I link arms with my son and close my eyes while my son walks us over till were back on land, I have an idea why I’m scared of water but don’t understand it.

    As a child, my mother used to fill the bath with cold water and make me get into it, after getting in, she would push my head under till I started gagging for breath, and after that, she would take me somewhere where there was a canal or river and she would ask me if I wanted to go for a swim, I still can’t swim, btw, the other water nightmare, was her trying to drown my dog in the canal while it was dark and I still hear the dog splashing for his life, and the dark water, and the eeriness surrounding it, the bath thing started when I was about eight and carried on till I was 12, the saying do I want to go for a swim finished, when I ran away from home, but I’m 50 now and the water fear is still controlling my life, if someone could show me how to manage this would be great as I do want to travel but the water thing has prevented me from doing so.

    Thank you

    Reply

    • Hello Debbie,

      I find your story too disturbing. I don’t understand why your mom had to do it. Did she want you to learn that water can be dangerous? I mean really it was so wrong of her to have done it I am sorry to say that. It seems to me that your phobia has embraced you so badly that it affects your everyday life. They said that to overcome your phobia you must slowly face it and undergo a therapy. I too have phobias. I have a phobia of earthworms, dead bodies, morgue, funeral. If I see a dead body or even a car where the dead body is put, I panic and get too scared. If my friend force me to look at a dead body of someone we know, I cry and tremble in fear. So even in the hospital. I am afraid to just go anywhere because I might see a dead body. The earthworm is really severe. I feel like I am going to die. My co worker once scared me thinking that maybe it wasn’t really a phobia but I was screaming, crying so badly, I barely could breathe, I closed the entire car so they couldn’t enter and I felt like the earthworms were all over me. They had to calm me down and they waited until I opened the door. For the water, I only get scared if I can’t step on the sand. When I swim, I always make sure that I can touch the bottom. If I can’t, I start to panic. My breathing is also not normal when I am swimming no matter how I try but I think I can overcome this fear.

      Reply

      • I hate sounding so cliche, but I strongly suggest getting professional help with your phobia. With something as profoundly traumatic as what you described with your mother (I’m going out on a limb here and guessing she probably had some deep-seeded psychological issues going on, but I’ll leave it at that), I think that you could inadvertently set into motion other psychological factors/issues by facing this one without help. The reason I think this is because it sounds like this was something done, for whatever reason, intentionally by your mother to cause you to experience a negative feeling or reaction (fear, helplessness, loss of control, but something aversive). Your comments about crossing the canal and the incident with your dog really brings your mother’s own emotional wellbeing into question and how deeply those things – and possibly other things) affected you. This story is deeply disturbing and sad to me. I hope you consider asking someone to help you that is qualified, to not only cure your phobia, but also to know how to help if anything else comes up in the process.
        Good luck to you,
        – Dee

        Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *