Agoraphobia: fear of open spaces

· While it is generally understood to be a fear ofopen spaces, agoraphobia is a much more complex fear.

· It is a serious anxiety disorder than can trappeople in their homes or make leading a normal life next to impossible.

· Some people with agoraphobia avoid specificplaces or venues.

Acrophobia: fear of heights

· Some people fear heights so badly the escalatorsat the local shopping centre give them vertigo.

· Vertigo is different to the phobia and is thesense of dizziness people can develop.

· For others a cliff-top lookout or a tallbuilding makes their head spin.

Pteromerhanophobia: fear of flying

· With all the media coverage of air disasters itis understandable many fear being in a plane crash and hence have a fear offlying.

· But with more than 100,000 commercial flightsaround the world each day, the chances of being struck by lightning are higherthan dying in a plane crash.

Claustrophobia: fear of enclosed spaces

· Sometimes the fear of flying is actually moreclosely linked to a fear of enclosed spaces.

· People with this fear say they feel like thewalls are closing on them.

· Some theories suggest there is a genetic link tospecific phobias as a kind of dormant survival mechanism.

Entomophobia: fear of insects

· They are small, they crawl and they often bite,so it is understandable why many people do not like spiders and insects.

· But they are a crucial link in the food chainand we cannot live without them.

Ophidiophobia: fear of snakes

· Indiana Jones famously quipped "I hatesnakes", and he is not alone.

· A fear of all things long and venomous is commonto many.

· The great thing about snakes is that if youleave them alone they will leave you alone.

Cynophobia: fear of dogs

· A fear of dogs is a common phobia, particularlyamong children and door-to-door sales agents.

· The fear can be exacerbated by a negativeexperience with an animal and can be one of the most difficult phobias toconquer given canines can sense people's fear.

Astraphobia: fear of storms

· It is understandable why the booming sound ofthunder can send people's hearts racing and a fear of storms is common.

· Realistically it is lightning that can hurtpeople, but the chance of that happening is remote.

Trypanophobia: fear of needles

· Having a sharp piece of metal stuck in your armis always an unpleasant thought and many people develop a strong aversion toneedles.

· But needles are typically worth the pain withthem either delivering vaccinations, delivering blood donations or helping toinvestigate a potential illness — even creating a tattoo.

The good news is thereare lots of ways to overcome fears,anxiety and phobia.

Agoraphobia: fear of open spaces

· While it is generally understood to be a fear ofopen spaces, agoraphobia is a much more complex fear.

· It is a serious anxiety disorder than can trappeople in their homes or make leading a normal life next to impossible.

· Some people with agoraphobia avoid specificplaces or venues.

Acrophobia: fear of heights

· Some people fear heights so badly the escalatorsat the local shopping centre give them vertigo.

· Vertigo is different to the phobia and is thesense of dizziness people can develop.

· For others a cliff-top lookout or a tallbuilding makes their head spin.

Pteromerhanophobia: fear of flying

· With all the media coverage of air disasters itis understandable many fear being in a plane crash and hence have a fear offlying.

· But with more than 100,000 commercial flightsaround the world each day, the chances of being struck by lightning are higherthan dying in a plane crash.

Claustrophobia: fear of enclosed spaces

· Sometimes the fear of flying is actually moreclosely linked to a fear of enclosed spaces.

· People with this fear say they feel like thewalls are closing on them.

· Some theories suggest there is a genetic link tospecific phobias as a kind of dormant survival mechanism.

Entomophobia: fear of insects

· They are small, they crawl and they often bite,so it is understandable why many people do not like spiders and insects.

· But they are a crucial link in the food chainand we cannot live without them.

Ophidiophobia: fear of snakes

· Indiana Jones famously quipped "I hatesnakes", and he is not alone.

· A fear of all things long and venomous is commonto many.

· The great thing about snakes is that if youleave them alone they will leave you alone.

Cynophobia: fear of dogs

· A fear of dogs is a common phobia, particularlyamong children and door-to-door sales agents.

· The fear can be exacerbated by a negativeexperience with an animal and can be one of the most difficult phobias toconquer given canines can sense people's fear.

Astraphobia: fear of storms

· It is understandable why the booming sound ofthunder can send people's hearts racing and a fear of storms is common.

· Realistically it is lightning that can hurtpeople, but the chance of that happening is remote.

Trypanophobia: fear of needles

· Having a sharp piece of metal stuck in your armis always an unpleasant thought and many people develop a strong aversion toneedles.

· But needles are typically worth the pain withthem either delivering vaccinations, delivering blood donations or helping toinvestigate a potential illness — even creating a tattoo.

The good news is thereare lots of ways to overcome fears,anxiety and phobia.

Step1: Learn more about your fear

This first step can be the hardestone, but it’s also absolutely necessary. You can’t overcome a fear that remainshidden in the dusty regions of your subconscious. You must face it. When youturn your face toward a person, you see that person and learn what he lookslike and how he is acting. When you turn toward your fear (rather than awayfrom it), you notice things about your fear that you didn’t know before. Thisawareness helps you overcome it.

To help yourself face your fears andanxiety, try keeping a journal over a period of two or three weeks. Record anypatterns you notice. Do your hands turn clammy and your stomach clenches whenyou hear the doorbell? Do you experience more symptoms of anxiety in themorning or the evening? What do you tend to do when your fears arise? Jot downanything that seems significant. Transferring your fear patterns and symptomsinto writing can help demystify them. They are no longer so big andinsurmountable.

Most importantly, learning all aboutyour fear gives you an idea of how to counter it.

The journal can also be filled withpositive reaffirmations, rational thoughts regarding one’s fear and also ideasor inspirations that strike through the day

Straight away send a mail to [email protected] for a free Anxiety Journal with subject anxiety Journal.

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Step2: Use your Imagination in Positive Ways

An imagination is a wonderful thing.It gives you power, creativity, and the ability to think outside the box.Unfortunately, an active imagination can be a harmful tool when it causes youto think about negative things. Your imagination can magnify your fears, makingyour situation seem much worse than it actually is.

Instead of letting your imaginationlead you down the dark corridors of fear, purposely use it for overcoming fear.

How do you do that? Pick a calmmoment when you are relaxed and not anxious. Close your eyes and imagineyourself in a situation that normally causes fear. For instance, if you areafraid of being lost in a crowded building, picture yourself in a busy airport.Now, imagine yourself handling the situation peacefully. You don’t freeze andbegin to cry. Instead, you search for an information desk or a sign that willhelp you regain your sense of direction. You imagine yourself reaching the correctparking lot, unlocking your car door, and driving safely home without any badincidents.

The peace you experienced in yourimagined scenario can actually help you get through the actual ordeal morepeacefully.

Step3: Use Your Brain in a Different Way than Usual

Your fear and anxiety arise out of acertain part of your brain, and they allow emotion to overcome rationalthought. When you feel your fearful symptoms coming forth, try to use adifferent part of your brain. Think about numbers, for instance. A nurse in theclinic might ask a patient to rate his pain on a scale of 1-10. Use this scalefor your anxiety. How anxious are you when 1 is perfectly calm and 10 is yourvery worst symptom? Stop and analyze. Do you rate your fear at 7? Very good.You can work on lowering that to a 4 or a 3. Try using the next step to loweryour fear rating.

Step4: Focus on Your Breathing

Breathing is more important than youthink. Usually, anxiety begins with short breaths. The short breaths cause anumber of negative reactions in your body which quickly become an anxietyattack. The key to overcoming those fast outbreaks of anxiety is to controlyour breathing.

Fortunately, deep breathing is notcomplicated. Once you have recognized that you are becoming fearful, stop andfocus on your breathing. Take a breath in, and then slowly let it out. Makesure your exhale is longer than your inhale. This isn’t just some psychologicaltrick; deep breathing forces your body to physically calm itself.

Torelax your breathing, try this exercise: Lie on your stomach. Count to six asyou inhale; count to six as you exhale. Next, try the same deep breathing whilesitting down. Then, try it standing up. Breathe deeply from the diaphragm, andpractice this daily until it becomes natural

Step5: Use Positive Affirmations

Utilize affirmations to create a more positive,success-oriented mindset. Affirmations are powerful statements that describethe reality you want to create – and they are a powerful antidote to fear. Insteadof saying “I am afraid of doing this because I might fail,” look in themirror and say to yourself, “I have prepared for this. I am ready. I willnot fail.” The more you use positive affirmations, the stronger theybecome. The best way to cancel a negative belief is to develop its positivecounterpart.

Commit to making positiveaffirmations a key component of your morning ritual. By reciting them out loudit’s your way of saying to the Universe, “This is what I want.” Itliterally takes one thought, repeated over and over again, to set you on thepath to transforming your entire life.

Step6: Practice Mindfulness

You’ve heard about mindfulness, butwhat exactly is it? Mindfulness is a passive thinking activity that allows youto become more aware of your fear. As you learned in Step 1, awareness helpsyou overcome your fear and anxiety.

Practice these mindfulness tipsduring some of your less severe times of fear and anxiety. When you recognizeyour fear symptoms arising, sit down and think about what is happening to you.This is like making a mental journal entry. Observe the symptoms as they arise.Don’t do anything about it. Just sit and keep track of yourself as the momentcontinues. Being passive raises your self-awareness, and it prevents you fromdoing the typical things you do when you experience fear. It helps get you outof a rut.

Step7: Use Nature as Your Therapist

Try going for a walk outsideinstead! Natural beauty found in parks, backyards, or wherever something greenis growing does help reduce symptoms of fear and anxiety. Nature calms people,reducing stress levels and changing moods from anxious to relaxed. Plus, thephysical activity of walking or jogging outdoors requires us to use our brainsdifferently, which can cause a switch from irrational fearful thoughts toclearer thinking that can help overcome the fear.

Exercise regularly

Regular exercise, particularly aerobic exercise, may help you combat stressand release tension.

It also encourages your brain to release serotonin, which can improve yourmood.

Examples of good aerobic exercises include:

• walking fast or jogging
• swimming
• cycling
• tennis
• hiking
• football or rugby
• aerobics

You should aim to do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise aweek.

Moderate-intensity exercise should raise your heart rate and make youbreathe faster.

Learn to relax

As well as regular exercise, learning how to relax is important.

You may find relaxation and breathing exercises helpful, or you may preferactivities such as yoga or pilates to help you unwind.

Avoid caffeine

Drinking too much caffeine can make you more anxious than normal. This isbecause caffeine can disrupt your sleep and also speed up your heartbeat.

If you're tired, you're less likely to be able to control your anxiousfeelings.

Avoiding drinks containing caffeine, such as coffee, tea, fizzy drinks andenergy drinks, may help reduce your anxiety levels.

Avoid smoking and drinking

Smoking and alcohol have been shown to make anxiety worse. Only drinkingalcohol in moderation or stopping smoking may help reduce your anxiety.

To reduce the risk of harming your health:

• men and women are advised not to regularly drink more than 14 units a week
• spread your drinking over 3 days or more if you drink as much as 14 units a week

Fourteen units is equivalent to 6 pints of average-strengthbeer or 10 small glasses of low-strength wine. Find out how to stopsmoking easily sending a mail to [email protected] for a free quick smoking guide with subject quit smokingguide.

Step 8: Create afear ladder

This involves making a list of allthe situations or objects you fear. For example, if you fear dogs, you can makea list like: “I fear thinking about dogs, I fear looking at a picture of a dogand I fear dogs which are barking or are not on a leash” and so on. Once youhave made this list, you need to categorize it into “Least Scary” and “MostScary”. This means you assign the fear a rating on a scale of 1 to 10 where 10is 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 andprogress to the next step of the ‘fear ladder’. For example, in the abovesituation, you can start by looking at photos of dogs, or hearing their bark orseeing them in a video and gradually progress to being in close vicinity of adog for prolonged period. The key is to not rush things. Bepatient and take your time.

Step 9: Get into the Self-Rewarding Habit

Many individuals have seen greatresults with this type of self-help phobia treatment. For example, if you fearheights, you can climb to the top of a building or look out of a window forfive minutes, at the end of which you can treat or reward yourself. The nexttime, you can increase this period to up to 10 minutes or longer whilepromising to reward yourself handsomely.

Step 10: Food and Mood: Didyou know that the food you eat can have a dramatic impact on how you feel? Allthe processed sugars, additives, sweeteners, and other chemicals in our foodshave a surprisingly powerful effect in getting our body out of balance. Stickto a clean diet that suits you. Meaning, more fruits, vegetables and whole(real) foods. Just eat a bit more each day. See what happens. You may findyourself having more energy and courage.

A diet low in fruit and vegetables may contribute towards arange of mental health problems. This is because a balance of vitamins andnutrients are needed to keep the brain healthy.

Eat a variety of fruit and vegetables (at least 5 portions a day)will provide a healthy balance of many of the nutrients needed.

Not drinking enough water can make you feel tired, low in energy and unable to concentrate.This is because the body is around 3 quarters water and 2 litres (8 glasses) isneeded every day to replace lost fluids (more on a hot day or afterexercising). Drinking non caffeinated drinks throughout the day will keep thebody hydrated.

A diet low in Omega 3 (and sometimes 6) fatty acids maycontribute towards a range of mental health problems. This is because the foodwe eat, and how much we eat has an impact on how efficiently our mind and bodyworks.

Eating lots of ‘essential’ or ‘polyunsaturated’ fats such as Omega3, is thought to have a positive effect on how well our brain cells functionand communicate, with each other and the rest of the body.

Essential fats such as Omega 3 are not produced naturally by thebody and so can only be obtained through the food we eat or supplements. Eatinglots of foods such as oily fish, walnuts, linseed oil and spinach at least 3times a week can provide a healthy source of Omega 3 fatty acids.

Step11: Practice Acting “As If”

By using the “act as if” method, youwalk, talk, and carry yourself exactly as you would if you were completelyunafraid in a particular situation.

You stand up straight, smile, movequickly and confidently, and in every respect act as if you already had thecourage that you desire.

Step 12: Flooding

This is a type of exposuretechnique that can be quite successful. Floodingbased on the premise that your phobia is a learned behavior and you need tounlearn it. With flooding, you are exposed to a vast quantity of the fearedobject or exposed to a feared situation for a prolonged amount of time in asafe, controlled environment until the fear diminishes. For instance, if you'reafraid of planes, you'd go on up in one anyway.

The point is to get you past theoverwhelming anxiety and potential panic to a place where you have to confrontyour fear and eventually realize that you're OK. This can help reinforce apositive reaction (you're not in danger) with a feared event (being in the skyon a plane), ultimately getting you past the fear.

Social phobias

Practical solution approach

• Eat with a close relative, friend or acquaintance in a public setting
• Purposefully make eye contact and return greetings from others, or be the first to say hello
• Give someone a compliment
• Ask a retail clerk to help you find an item
• Get directions from a stranger
• Show an interest in others — ask about their homes, children, grandchildren, hobbies or travels, for instance
• Call a friend to make plans

• Prepare for conversation, for example, by reading the newspaper to identify an interesting story you can talk about.
• Focus on personal qualities you like about yourself.
• Practice relaxation exercises.
• Learn stress management techniques.
• Set realistic goals.
• Pay attention to how often the embarrassing situations you're afraid of actually take place. You may notice that the scenarios you fear usually don't come to pass.
• When embarrassing situations do happen, remind yourself that your feelings will pass, and you can handle them until they do. Most people around you either don't notice or don't care as much as you think, or they're more forgiving than you assume.

· Join a group that offers opportunities toimprove communication and public speaking skills, such as ToastmastersInternational

Pteromerhanophobia: fear of flying

Practical solution approach

Develop a fear ladder – identify your fear, set a goal and then work out theincremental steps to achieve it. For example, if you are afraid of flying, yourfear ladder could look like this:

1. Look at photographs of aeroplanes.
2. Watch videos of aeroplanes.
3. Visit the airport with your partner or a friend.
4. Visit the airport by yourself.
5. Sit in a plane simulator with your partner or a friend.
6. Sit in a plane simulator by yourself.
7. Take part in a simulated plane trip with your partner or a friend.
8. Take part in a simulated plane trip on your own.
9. Take a short flight with your partner or a friend.
10. Take a short flight on your own.

Ophidiophobia: fear of snakes

Practical solution approach

· If youhave a fear of snakes, you may start talking about snakes.

· Slowly looking at pictures of snakes.

· Playing with toy snakes.

· Eventually handling a live snake.

Cynophobia: fear of dogs

Practical solution approach

• If you're afraid of dogs, start by looking at a badly drawn doodle of a dog done in silly colors. Look at it until you feel no fear response.
• Then, look at a photo of a dog, then a video of a dog. Examine it until no fear response exists.
• Go to a park where you know one or a few dogs will be on-leash and watch them until you feel no fear.
• Go to a friend’s house who has a dog and watch him interact with a dog until no fear response is elicited.
• Ask a friend to let you touch or pet his dog while the dog is restrained by your friend until you feel neutral.
• Finally, be near a dog and spend one-on-one time with a dog.

Scopophobia isan excessive fear of being stared at

Practical solution approach

• Close your eyes to reduce the stimulation of your surroundings.
• Practice slow, deep breathing.
• Notice how your body feels — ground yourself in physical sensations.
• Relax one body part at a time.
• Take a pleasant walk if possible.
• Visualize a calming location — some place you feel relaxed and safe.
• Remind yourself that anxiety passes.
• Reach out to a trusted, supportive person.

PrayerHelps to Allay Anxiety

Prayer can reduce anxiety. Fearing danger fromhis twin brother, Esau, Jacob prayed: “O Lord, . . . I amunworthy of all the loving-kindnesses and of all the faithfulness that you haveexercised toward your servant . . . Deliver me, I pray you, from mybrother’s hand, from Esau’s hand, because I am afraid of him that he may comeand certainly assault me, mother together with children. And you, you havesaid, ‘Unquestionably I shall deal well with you and I will constitute yourseed like the grains of sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered formultitude.’”—Gen. 32:9-12.

AlthoughJacob took precautionary steps, his prayer was answered when he and Esau werereconciled. (Gen. 33:1-4) Read that petition carefully, and you will see thatJacob did not just plead for help. He expressed faith in the promised Seed andgratitude for God’s loving-kindness. Do you have some “fears within”?(2 Cor. 7:5) If so, Jacob’s entreaty may remind you that prayers can allayanxiety.

Everywhere people are in FEAR. They fear insecurity. Theyfear hunger. They fear disease. They fear neighbors. They fear governments.They fear war. They fear knowledge. They even fear fear.