Anxiety and Phobias: What is at the Core?

It turns out, the best way to get over your fears, is to face them.  Typically, anxiety and phobias are developed and maintained through a pattern of escape and avoidance.  Initially, one may experience a traumatic event of some sort or another. These types of experiences naturally elicit the feeling of being afraid for one’s life or well-being.  Such feelings may include increased heart rate, rapid breathing, clenching of the stomach and increased energy/movement in preparation to deal with the threat.  This is called the fight or flight response, and enables the human body to face threats successfully.  Problems arise when these types of physical responses continue to emerge during otherwise safe environments based on various triggers.  In order to prevent these kinds of physical symptoms, one might then become hypervigilant and seek to avoid places or areas that re-awaken these symptoms.  In addition to fearing the original place where the traumatic event happened, other areas are added to the list.  Avoiding certain areas might be adaptive in the short-term, but in the long-term, become problematic.  By never fully facing the fear, the place where it began or was triggered, one’s behavior actually becomes a hindrance in overcoming them.  The human body has an innate tendency towards homeostasis, which is really a fancy name for a normal, steady state.  When the fight or flight response is initiated, it eventually recedes and the body returns to its normal, calm state, after the threat has been faced or avoided.  By continually avoiding such things later on, the body never realizes that return to calm and steady.  Systematic desensitization is an evidenced based procedure that will enable you to regain the control over your life that has been lost.  A therapist can walk you through this process, in ways that ensure your success, in order to teach your body and mind how to refrain from escaping and avoiding triggering environments/experiences.  By doing so, you will regain your sense of hope and control over your life.  If you are interested in regaining what you have lost, give The Cedars a call!