fear fear fear!!!!!!

Dr. Vikas Sharma

I fear people wearing tight fitting clothes. If I see people wearing such clothes like someone wearing a churidar pyjamas ‘ he said ‘I go into an attack of acute anxiety, I feel as if someone is strangulating me. it is a feeling of suffocation combined with a fear of impending death. The same feeling gets over me when I go into small tight closed places like elevator, small bathrooms etc. last year when I traveled by air , I was nearly in a state of collapse and had to be given a shot of tranquilizer on the plane itself.’.

This middle aged man was quite disturbed by this fear that had developed over the years which had nearly crippled his life. He was not able to relate the phobia to any incident in his life which could have directly or indirectly started it, except that he had extra-sensitive emotional characteristics. Combining his symptoms of phobia (claustrophobia) and his emotional traits, the prescribed homeopathic medicine Pulsatilla, cured his phobic symptoms and also optimized his over sensitive emotional responses.

Phobia is a persistent fear which is irrational. It can be of any object living, non-living or of a situation. It may or may not have any relation to an incident or a situation in ones life. Generally phobias are accompanied by a strong desire to avoid particular situation or object one fears. It can also lead to an inability to function normally at job, home or at social settings.

Although a specific phobia is an intense fear of something that poses little or no actual danger. Grown up individuals who suffer from it, even though they realize that it is an irrational fear they try and avoid the fear factor and whenever these individuals encounter this phobic stimulant, they get a severe anxiety attack.

Phobias can broadly be divided into three type’s simple, social and agoraphobia (fear of public places).

Simple phobias. These kind of phobias include a fear of: heights (acrophobia); enclosed spaces (claustrophobia) ; flying (pterygophobia); water (hydrophobia); dentists (odontiatophobia); tunnels; bridges; animals -lizards, snakes ,rats etc.. Fear of public places (agoraphobia). Is a fear of being alone in a place such as a mall or an elevator or a room full of people, and of there being no easy escape. This generally develops from an anticipatory fear of getting an acute anxiety attack (panic attacks) in a public place and generally occurs in patients suffering from panic attacks or acute anxiety disorder. Social Phobia. It is a strong fear involving fear of being social situations or gatherings etc. Social phobia involves a combination of being too much conscious of self, a fear of public scrutiny or humiliation in social situations, and a fear of negative evaluation by others.

Homoeopathy and Phobias.

With hundreds of fears and specific medicines listed in homoeopathic repertory (book enlisting medicines against symptoms), an effective treatment of phobias is possible with Homoeo medicines. Leave aside the common fears ?lizards, heights spider, snakes cockroaches, mouse etc, even if one dreads something not common, or not listed in books, homoeopathy has a way out. By studying ones constitution (mental and physical characteristics, family history etc.) a prescription can be made to effectively treat the specific uncommon fear. If phobias are a part of other diseases such as chronic depressions etc. They need to be evaluated and prescribed accordingly.

The author is a Chandigarh based homoeopath.

Text for box

Combating Phobias

Relaxation

The most common forms of relaxation therapy are progressive muscle relaxation (learning to relax ones muscles) and autogenic relaxation (using imagery to help one relax).other forms of meditation such as yoga can be of great help.

Desensensitising your fear

This therapy tries to alter your response to the feared object or situation. Measured, Gradual, repeated exposure to the cause of phobia may help one learn to conquer your fear

Behavior therapy

Cognitive-behavioral therapy aims at altering ones belief about the feared object or situation, the impact it has on ones life and also how one can view and cope with the feared object or situation differently.