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Doctors stink! 🤨

Good morning fellow Mightyers. How are you all doing?

I've had several downs lately and a hit after another. First, a doctor's visit who was rude to my mom and me. He would put his hand out to our faces to make us stop talking as we tried to explain to him our answers to the stupid paper form I filled out. He just wanted a yes or no response from us by the look of things. Then I had two problems today over a online game which I know it seems silly but that is how tired I am of problems and negativity and rude people. And to make matters even harder, today is Ash Wednesday and we are suppose to be kind to others. Well, year round actually, but to me, it is impossible now. I keep getting hurt by others, physically, mentally and emotionally.

how do you deal with problems that affect you physically, emotionally, and mentally?

#Depression #chronicnerves #SocialAnxiety #Diabetes #phobias

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Brainspotting Therapy: An In-Depth Guide to Healing Trauma

Within the broad field of psychotherapy, a multitude of approaches and strategies are available to assist people in recovering from traumatic situations. Brainspotting is one such strategy that has become more popular in recent years. However, what precisely is this technique, and how may it support the healing process?

The human brain remains a mystery in many respects. While we've made remarkable strides in understanding its complex structure and functions, the intricacies of how trauma imprints on our brain are still unfolding. Brainspotting emerges at this intersection, offering a profound insight into trauma-informed therapeutic approaches.

What is Brainspotting?

Brainspotting, a relatively recent entrant in the field of psychotherapy, came to prominence in the early 2000s under the guidance of Dr. David Grand. Dr. Grand's groundbreaking discovery revolved around the idea that specific eye positions, or "brainspots," served as windows to areas of unprocessed trauma within an individual's brain. By pinpointing these specific positions, therapists could access and address lingering trauma that may not be readily accessible through traditional therapeutic methods.

The foundational principle of Brainspotting lies in its unique approach to therapy. Rather than merely engaging in talk therapy, Brainspotting delves deep into the emotional and physiological realms of a person's experiences. By focusing on these "brainspots," the therapy aids in tapping into and releasing deeply ingrained emotional and bodily pain. This technique provides an avenue for individuals to confront and process traumas, which might have been suppressed or overlooked in other therapeutic settings.

How Does Brainspotting Work?

The fundamental tenet of Brainspotting is the close relationship between the body and brain, particularly in the context of trauma. When someone experiences trauma, their body has physical marks in addition to psychological wounds.

Brainspotting operates on the premise that the direction in which one looks can affect the way one feels. The therapist identifies a "spot" – an eye position correlated with the activation of a traumatic memory. By focusing on this spot, a client can access and process previously unaddressed trauma.

Moreover, the midbrain – an often overlooked part of our brain involved in processing emotions – plays a pivotal role in Brainspotting. By targeting this area, Brainspotting allows individuals to bypass the conscious, thinking part of their brain and tap directly into the emotional and somatic parts.

Key Benefits of Brainspotting

Accelerated Access to Trauma Sources: Traditional therapies might take time to reach the root of trauma. Brainspotting offers a more direct route.

Promotes Deep Processing: By honing in on specific 'brainspots', the therapy facilitates a deeper, more targeted processing of pain.

Versatility: While Brainspotting originated as a trauma therapy, its applications have expanded. It's now used for anxiety, depression, and even performance enhancement in sports or arts.

Differences Between Brainspotting and EMDR

Brainspotting and EMDR, both innovative therapeutic interventions designed to address trauma, do share similarities, particularly in their recognition of the connection between eye movements and trauma processing. However, the methodologies and primary objectives of each differ significantly. EMDR operates on a structured eight-phase protocol that uses bilateral stimulation, often in the form of guided eye movements, to help clients desensitize and reprocess traumatic memories. The aim is to change the way these traumatic memories are stored in the brain, reducing their emotional charge and making them less distressing to the individual.

In contrast, Brainspotting, while also acknowledging the role of eye movements, places emphasis on locating specific eye positions or "brainspots" that correlate with emotional and physical reactions to trauma. Once these points are identified, the therapy facilitates deep processing to release the emotional pain associated with the trauma. Its approach is seen as more fluid and adaptable, with therapists often tailoring sessions based on a client's unique needs and responses. This individual-centric flexibility distinguishes Brainspotting from the more regimented structure of EMDR, allowing therapists greater latitude in addressing the intricacies of personal trauma.

The Brainspotting Session

For those considering Brainspotting, understanding what a typical session entails can ease potential anxieties:

Preparation: A therapist will guide you into a relaxed state, ensuring you feel safe and comfortable.

Identification: Through various techniques, the therapist will help identify your 'brainspot' related to specific trauma or emotion.

Processing: Once the brainspot is identified, you'll be asked to focus on it. The therapist may use bilateral sounds or music to enhance processing.

Closure: The session will conclude ensuring you feel grounded and stable.

Sessions typically last about an hour, but the duration can vary based on individual needs.

Who Can Benefit from Brainspotting?

While Brainspotting is immensely beneficial for trauma survivors, its range of applicability is wide:

Trauma Survivors: Whether it's a one-time event or prolonged exposure, Brainspotting can help process the trauma.

Mental Health Issues: Those battling anxiety, depression, or phobias have found relief with this therapy.

Performance Enhancement: Athletes, musicians, and performers use Brainspotting to break through performance blocks.

Potential Limitations and Considerations

As with any therapeutic approach, Brainspotting may not be suitable for everyone:

Intensity: Some individuals might find the process emotionally intense or overwhelming.

Qualified Professionals: The therapy's effectiveness heavily depends on the therapist's expertise.

Finding a Qualified Brainspotting Therapist

It's paramount to find a therapist trained in Brainspotting:

Certifications: Look for professionals who have undergone Brainspotting training and have certification.

Good Fit: It's essential to find a therapist you resonate with, ensuring trust and comfort during sessions.

Brainspotting is a transformative therapy that has changed countless lives. While it offers a deep dive into the psyche, it's essential to approach it with an open mind and the guidance of a qualified professional.

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Childhood Anxiety Disorder: A Guide for Parents

Part 1 of 2 As parents, our primary concern is to ensure the well-being and happiness of our children. However, when childhood anxiety comes into the picture, it can be a difficult and distressing experience for both the child and the parent. Childhood anxiety is more common than most, affecting millions of children worldwide. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore what childhood anxiety disorder is, its characteristics, how to recognize the symptoms, and most importantly, how parents can play an important role in helping their child navigate in this difficult time.

Understanding Childhood Anxiety Disorder

Childhood anxiety refers to psychological states in which a child experiences fear, anxiety, and panic attacks that limit their daily activities and enjoyment of childhood. It is important to recognize that anxiety is a normal part of life and acts as a catalyst protection of the device. However, when anxiety is severe and persistent, it can significantly affect a child’s emotional, social, and academic performance.

There are several common childhood anxiety disorders, e.g.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): Children with GAD may worry excessively about a variety of everyday issues such as schoolwork, health, or safety. They often try to control anxiety and are too perfectionist.

Separation Anxiety: Children with separation anxiety experience intense fear and sadness when separated from their parents or primary caregivers. This fear can lead to severe distress and reluctance to attend school or participate in activities at a distance.

Social Anxiety: Children with social anxiety are very introverted in social situations and fear being embarrassed or unfairly judged by others. They may avoid socializing or experience physical symptoms such as shyness, sweating, and tremors.

Specific phobias: Specific phobias are intense fears and avoidance of specific objects, situations, or animals, such as high places, spiders, or darkness

Identifying childhood anxiety symptoms

Identifying the symptoms of childhood anxiety is important for early intervention and support. Keep in mind that every child is different and symptoms can vary. Some common symptoms of childhood anxiety include:

Excessive worry: Constant worry about everyday situations, even when there is no reason to worry.

Physical Symptoms: Abdominal pain, headache, muscle tension, or other physical symptoms without a medical explanation.

Sleep problems: Difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or frequent nightmares.

Avoidance Behavior: Avoidance of anxiety-provoking situations or activities such as socializing, school, or extracurricular activities.

Perfectionism: He is troubled by his striving for perfection and his inability to meet high standards imposed on himself.

Anger: Unexplained anger or outbursts of anger, usually associated with overheard emotions.

Supporting Your Child with Anxiety

As a parent, you play an important role in helping to guide your child through his anxiety challenges. Here are some practical ways to help your child with anxiety.

Open Communication: Create a safe and open environment where your child feels comfortable expressing their feelings and concerns. Listen deeply to their feelings and amplify their emotions, reassuring them that it is okay to feel anxious sometimes.

Educate yourself: Learn about childhood anxiety to gain a deeper understanding of what your child is going through. This knowledge can help you respond with empathy and get the right help.

Be patient: Be patient and understand your child’s progress. Recovering from anxiety takes time, and there can be obstacles. Celebrate their small successes and encourage them to keep trying.

Avoid avoidance: While it’s important to respect your child’s boundaries, slowly encourage them to face their fears. Avoiding anxiety-provoking stimuli may provide short-term relief but can reinforce fear in the long run.

Teach coping strategies: Help your child develop coping strategies to deal with anxiety. Relaxation exercises, mindfulness techniques, and positive self-talk can be powerful tools for managing anxiety.

Set reasonable expectations: Avoid putting too much pressure on your child in class or in extracurricular activities. Set reasonable expectations and emphasize effort over perfection.

Seek Professional Help: If your child’s anxiety is critically affecting his or her everyday lifestyles and functioning, recollect looking for expert help from a certified intellectual fitness expert. Treatments which include cognitive behavioral remedy (CBT) may be very powerful in treating youth tension disorder.

Taking care of yourself

Suppor

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Depression and its creeping phobias

I feel incredibly guilty. I planned to visit my bestie of 35 years in Connecticut this week to see him and his new house. We haven't seen each other in almost 3 years. The day came and I talked myself out of getting on the plane. This fear happens sometimes but lately it's all the time. Not sure how this phobia links to my depression, but the real issue is I lied to my friend because I just didn't want to explain my mental paralysis, especially when it sounds so irrational. I've flown all over the world. This was a short 2 hour flight. But I couldn't do it. Now I have a week at home to lie around and hate myself for it. My suitcase still sits at the front door. I'm riddled with shame.
Thanks for allowing me to be 100% honest. Sometimes even the ones closest to me forget I have these unpredictable internal meltdowns because I'm always putting on my best life-loving positive performance, to the degree that some people actually deny I have depression (like I'm wrong about myself).

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I would like to tell you what Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 1 has done to my body and mind...

Peace of mind is my biggest challenge because stress, depression, fears and phobias are my best friends and all my problems seem unsolvable and incurable. The body says everything is fine, and the mind thinks otherwise. It panics and creates fatal scenarios. It dominates me, not I him.

I bonded with a stalker and bully who whispered to me for years that she would come, until she finally came ... and dragged me down, even though I was already pretty down.

The spirit wants more than the body can do. Physical activity depends on health, but health also depends on physical activity. Lack of coordination, balance, agility, and regret over lost activity. Limitations and changes in perspective. Lowering expectations and increasing success factors. Functionality becomes a training goal and determines future and current exercises.

It ruined my life and put me on a losing position, deprived me of the chance to achieve my life goals, forced me to change them and focus on intellectual activities. And I helped her, too. I gave up what I was doing. For fear of losing something in the future, I lost it now. I could not go back and continue because even if the opportunities are smaller, the dreams and desires are the same. I wanted to, and I could not, but I did not know what to want either. Everything alternately and completely randomly, without any stabilization.

I am afraid for my present and future health, my finances, my attractiveness, my loneliness, my immobility, my dependence on others and for the mess my husband is in. And I must admit that the question often goes through my mind, what to do in this life for the future...

Accept the present. Yes, acceptance and surrender is a difficult thing because it means accepting the worst, fighting to the death and knowing that it may not do any good because no one knows what is happening in our lives and why. Acceptance and nothing else, because I will always be full of regrets and never forgive her, I only dream of not breaking down when the scales of victory tip to her side…

All my stories are on the blog.

#MentalHealth #RareDisease #ChronicIllness #Disability

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Persevering forever..

In episode 8 of Creative Copes Podcast we talk about how the anxiety/panic attacks can turn into disorders and the havoc it can wreak on someone's life. Stress is a normal part of life and everyone experiences it in different ways. But stress, even BIG stress, is not a disorder. It is bothersome, it can cause pain and anguish, and mirror most of the same symptoms that anxiety presents as.
We touch on anticipatory anxiety, specific phobias and each of our struggles with the invisible monster. We share some intimate details of life that are definitely not easy to openly admit. The vulnerability game is high in this episode. We hope that you can recognize that you are NOT alone, that we all suffer differently (but there is no one "right" way to struggle), and we all recover at our own pace. Be gentle with yourself. It's rough enough out there as it is.
anchor.fm/creative-copes
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♥ We dive deeper in the blog, Wisdom Walks, on our website:  creativecopes.wixsite.com/podcast/wisdomwalks.
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#creativecopes #creativecopespodcast #podcast #wellness #health #creativecoping #selfcare #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness #endthestigma #youarenotalone #ptsd #chronicillness #chronicillnessawareness #invisibleillness #agoraphobia #anxiety #pain #panicdisorder #fibromyalgia #dysautonomia #crohns #occipitalneuralgia #endometriosis #chronicmigraine #chronicpain #mecfs #spoonie #spoonielife

Creative Copes Podcast • A podcast on Anchor

A podcast featuring two friends wanting to inform, educate and raise awareness into our ways of Creatively Coping with mental and physical restrictions. We want to add flavor and color into the bland landscape of chronic and invisible illness. Through wit, crazy and sometimes dark humor, we will explore how to channel our energy through creative means while searching for balance and flow to stay sane with dynamic disabilities. Love and Light ♥
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all of my mental health struggles

I've struggled with my mental health for the longest. I'm currently 18 and probably have dealt with it since the age of 10. Most of it started off as anxiety but it grew as I got older. As a child, I definitely had a bit anxiety but a lot of kids do, especially since I was attached to my parents and hated going to school. I consider myself a complex case. I'm sure some of my relatives think the same. I struggle with generalized anxiety and panic disorder, OCD, phobias (which I will delve more into), persistent depressive disorder, PMDD, and ADHD. I've been diagnosed by a professional, so this isn't just a list I made up.

With my anxiety, I have many triggers. Some are open spaces, some are areas with tall ceilings, some are crowded places, sometimes it's just the public scene, etc.. Anxiety can be complex because sometimes I'll experience anxiety for no reason or it'll be triggered by a sensation. My symptoms vary, too. Sometimes I'll experience a stomach upset, clamminess, fidgetiness, pins and needle feelings, hot flashes, derealization, dry mouth, burping, crying spells, overwhelmed (usually sensory overload), throat feels like it'll close up (the sensations that i hate), and so much more. It can be hard to build the courage to push out of my comfort zone because these symptoms are scary. Sometimes my heart will race or other times, I may feel some lightheadedness or just an impending doom of dread. It's scary and hard to deal with.

With my OCD, I have a variety of subtypes. There's the Harm OCD, Sexual OCD, Somatic OCD, Existential OCD, Memory OCD, and more. I'm often embarassed by some aspects of my OCD because the obsessive thoughts are hard, espeically when they're intrusive. My harm OCD has intrusive thoughts, my sexual OCD has intrusive thoughts, my somatic OCD focuses on my body sensations/feelings, my existential OCD focuses on my fear of time passing and going through identity crisises and questioning my own self and if i'm being me. Then, my memory OCD focuses on my fear of losing memories and wanting to remember every little thing. I also do have health anxiety lol.

My phobias are also very complex. I have agoraphobia, altocelarophobia (ties in my agoraphobia), batophobia (sort of ties into agoraphobia), emetophobia, and social phobia. Agoraphobia is basically a fear of no exit and being outside of your comfort zone and some triggers (which mine are) crowded areas, public spaces, open areas, and more. Altocelarophobia is a fear of high ceilings, which can really tie into agoraphobia. Batophobia is a fear of tall buildings because I feel so small compared to the building and of course,, I'm standing next to something that makes me feel off and strange. I like to feel comfort and safe, I do not like to feel like I'm exposed or ungrounded or unsafe. Emetophobia is a fear of vomiting, so yknow that. My social phobia isn't severe but it ties into my anxiety and oepning up to talk to people

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Is There Any Help Out There? Please!

I am 47 years old and have yet to enjoy much of anything in this life. I have CPTSD, Anxiety, Depression, and all coated with psychosis. I have had these my entire life due to childhood sexual abuse and neglect. Then about 6 years ago I went through a series of extremely traumatic events all at the same time. It was too much. I broke. I started seeking treatment about 5 years ago. The national suicide hotline gave me the name of a place for people with no insurance. I am sitting here 5 years later, worse than when I started. I have never seen the same doctor more than once. The medication system they have leaves me without my meds about a week before I get the refill just enough time to be rushed with every suicidal thought there is. Don't get me wrong, my caseworker is so sweet and she's been the only consistency in my treatment. I appreciate that!! She didn't mean it when she said it, but last week she says, "I'll talk to you next month and pretend I have solutions I really don't have.". It disheartened my soul. I can't tell you the number of times I called their nurses hotline telling them I didn't feel ok. Telling them I was scared. Something was terribly wrong, and never a call back at all. I'm so lucky to have a husband that is so sweet, patient, and understanding or I would be dead. 100%. In addition to all of the chaos I deal with in my head, I am a full time caregiver to my mom who has early onset Alzheimers I have a front row ticket watching my mom slowly die. Everyone has long since forgot her. My brother robbed her blind and left her with nothing to care for herself. I made a promise to her I would never leave her. My husband and I are literally all she has. She's living her worst nightmare and I can do nothing to help. She can't even communicate with me anymore. I have to read her body language just to try to guess what she needs. I have phobias that leave me paralyzed for hours at times. My husband juggles work and trying to care for us. We are blessed he loves us and is so awesome. As my mom declines, so do I. I hear locusts 24/7. It was very low when I was a child. I focused on them the summer my sexual abuse began. I hear them so loud now that I am beyond desperate to make them stop. When you add that to all the chaos around me, I'm not sure how I'm still here at all. I have been swaying around that line for a very long time. I have my associates degree in radiology. I put myself through school with 2 kids and no help. All the while battling my mental health. I have worked on 2 presidents campaigns and always strived to make my children proud of who I was. I have a huge heart and have so much I want to do in this world, but I don't want to get out of bed. If someone could see the desperation I feel daily and could help me with treatment, I can repay them. Make payments, something but I can't even get most to even answer the phone. I need to get better so I can help my mom with this last stage of her life. I want so badly to feel life. Feel something other than despair. I have been through things you only see in the movies, most wouldn't have made it this far, yet I'm still here fighting to be a normal person. I'm no one special, but I feel after all the abuse I've endured and pain I've carried for others, I deserve to get better. I'm not asking for sympathy. Others have been thru so much more than me, I'm just begging for help. Is there anyone out there?

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