Phobias: Navigating Fear and Anxiety
“One cannot answer for his courage when he has never been in danger”
Fear and anxiety are occasionally used interchangeably, as if they were synonymous.
Fear originates from perception, sparking emotions and an immediate physiological response.
Anxiety emerges as the resulting physiological effect, an outcome of this perception-emotion partnership. My brain detects fear and triggers an anxious response.
That being said, it's important to note that fear and anxiety aren't disorders in themselves; rather, they are vital emotions and responses that aid animals, including humans, in adapting to their surroundings. These reactions occur within mere milliseconds upon perceiving a threat, serving as healthy and functional responses that engage our bodies in initiating the fight-or-flight mechanism.
When fear elicits a physiological response that surpasses the point of functional activation, it transforms into a limitation.
Various conditions stem from fear and anxiety, including panic attack disorder, agoraphobia, specific phobias, social phobia, health anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorders.
While these conditions differ in how they manifest, they share a common thread: the psychological traps or dysfunctional response patterns individuals employ in attempts to alleviate their fear and anxiety (attempted solutions)
If I avoid it, it doesn’t exist
Avoidance is a common strategy employed by individuals dealing with various phobic and anxiety-related disorders. It seems logical: if something is frightening, avoiding it should put an end to the suffering. However, avoidance leads to two distinct outcomes.
On one hand, avoidance provides temporary relief because it allows you to steer clear of what you fear. On the other hand, avoidance most potent consequence is that it reaffirms both the perceived danger of the feared object and your own perceived inability to confront the situation. Consistent and repeated avoidance behaviours can eventually evolve into full-fledged phobic disorders.
Examples of avoidance behaviours include steering clear of public transportation, refraining from solo outings, avoiding enclosed spaces, shying away from social situations, and evading encounters with spiders, animals, or objects that trigger panic. Some individuals also avoid distressing or unwanted thoughts, hospitals, or TV programs about accidents or illness. The list of things, people, places, and situations that one can avoid is virtually endless. However, the end result remains consistent: anxiety and fear intensify.
If I ask for help, I’ll be safe
Another psychological trap that can emerge—often less visible but equally powerful—is the help request. This strategy tends to appear when the person cannot avoid a situation or control their fear directly, so they turn to others for assistance. On the surface, asking for help may seem like a reasonable and even adaptive response; however, when it becomes a recurrent pattern, it can generate unintended consequences.
Each time help is given, two implicit messages are transmitted—consciously or not—by the person offering support. The first message says: “I help you because I care for you.” The second, and far more powerful one, says: “I help you because you are incapable of doing it on your own.”
Over time, this dynamic reinforces the belief that the world is dangerous and that the individual is too fragile or incompetent to handle it without assistance. The consequence is a gradual erosion of self-confidence and self-esteem, which leads to an insidious vicious cycle: the more help I receive, the more incapable I feel; and the more incapable I feel, the more help I will need in the future.
This dynamic doesn’t just maintain anxiety—it magnifies it. What began as a request for safety becomes an invisible chain that binds the person to dependence and fear, validating both the danger of the situation and their perceived inability to cope.
If I try hard, I can control it
Another common strategy employed by individuals grappling with specific fear-related disorders is attempting to exert control over their spontaneous physiological reactions. This strategy is rooted in the belief that with enough effort, they can manage their anxiety or various bodily responses. As a result, when anxiety emerges, they attempt to elicit a state of relaxation. In moments of breathlessness, they endeavour to stabilize their breathing and regain their composure. Similarly, when their heart races within their chest, they work to slow it down in order to restore a sense of tranquillity. Regrettably, these efforts to exert control frequently have the opposite effect, exacerbating the sensation of losing control and potentially culminating in a severe panic attack.
In addition to avoidance, help request, and control, individuals with conditions like OCD may resort to rituals and compulsions as a means of initially alleviating anxiety. However, over time, these rituals can become a confining prison, making it challenging to break free. People struggling with health anxiety may frequently seek reassurance through multiple doctor consultations or online research.
When individuals with anxiety turn to strategies such as drugs to reduce their anxiety, these approaches may temporarily suppress their reactions. However, they do not fundamentally alter their perception of fear.
From a brief strategic standpoint, our efforts are directed toward altering the person's perception of reality. This approach seeks to diminish and transform the associated anxiety response, as opposed to directly altering the responses themselves.
Therapies centred on expanding knowledge and bolstering rationality may not always prove effective, as they can inadvertently amplify an individual's perception. Instead, employing suggestive strategies that interrupt the cognitive process is often more advantageous.
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not who does not feel afraid, but who conquers that fear.” Nelson Mandela
If any of this resonates with you, please don't hesitate to reach out. Together, we can explore the strategies you've employed and work towards discovering more effective ways to reshape your perception of fear, ultimately empowering you to lead a courageous life.
