Conquering A Phobia

phobia - An irrational, persistent fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation.

I would not find it hard to believe, if someone told me they have a phobia related to doing taxes. That Form 1040 with all its schedules is daunting. Gov. Mitt Romney avoids it by having a personal accountant and trust funds to handle the problems most of us would be willing to endure…were we in his circumstance, and we would likely hire our own personal accountant, too, and do so willingly!

If the Form 1040 phobia has you paralyzed in fear and trembling, what is the solution?

Surprisingly it may just be as simple as adopting “the Romney solution.” It applies to any phobia: get help!

(That is not to say that Governor Willard Mitt Romney is afraid of anything. In fact it is looking as if he has fewer Republicans to worry about than President Barack Hussein Obama. Which is not to say that President Obama is afraid of anything, either.)

According to the National Institute of Health: “Specific phobias affect an estimated 19.2 million adult Americans and are twice as common in women as men. They usually appear in childhood or adolescence and tend to persist into adulthood. The causes of specific phobias are not well understood, but there is some evidence that the tendency to develop them may run in families.” [http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/anxiety-disorders/specific-phobias.shtml]

If you are one of the 19,200,000 persons struggling with a phobia and it is of enough concern that it is interfering with living a normal life at home, at work, and/or in public, then the best advice may be to find a good psychotherapist and participate in the psychotherapy that may normalize life for you.

There are phobias that most of us have never heard of. Did you know that some of us are afraid of women? Rodney Dangerfield might have said “That’s because they don’t give no respect!” He also asserted following a divorce that he would never marry again, but just find a woman he didn’t like, and give her a house. He must have overcome that hesitation, for he did marry again. It often appears that a specific phobia can be traced back to some experience in childhood, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there is an equal and opposite phobia that is a fear of men!

Among the most common phobias are a fear of heights, a fear of being in a small, confined space, a fear of darkness, a fear of flying, a fear of water, a fear of fire, a fear of thunder and/or lightning. a fear of crowds, a fear of things such as spiders, mice, or snakes, etc..

Like so many fears, a good psychotherapist will identify the fear, work with you to identify its possible causes, and fashion an individualized plan to work through the fear in a series of therapy sessions over a long enough period to minimize the phobia or even eliminate it.

The important thing when suffering from any phobia that affects your full enjoyment of life, is to get qualified, professional help as soon as possible so you can enjoy a long, productive, healthy life free of the effects of the specific phobia.

I wonder, are there phobias brought on by watching 3D movies and 3D TV? I think I might be afraid of a spear seemingly coming through the air directed at me! The fear of women doesn’t appear to be one of mine, but standing at the edge of the roof of a tall building is not an experience I would look forward to, and then…oh, just hand me the phone book so I can find an accountant.

© 2012 Demas W. Jasper All rights reserved.