These are two faces of the same coin in effect.  Both are caused by an unconscious "fixed idea" in effect.  To use the computer analogy, this "fixed idea" would be similar to a program that is hardwired into the brain, whereas most ideas and thoughts are software generated, and are subject to simple mind change, as the software changes.

In a phobia, the mechanism is "self-preservation".  Somehow, the brain has become convinced that some action is dangerous, and the brain therefore employs different physical mechanisms to prevent the person from this action.  Fear of heights is this type of simple mechanism.  If you fall, you die.  Fear is natural.  Fear of animals or insects can be triggered by bad experiences, or even conversations with others.

Many compulsions are also part of this self preservation mechanism.  Examples are compulsive hand washing after touching anything - here the idea is that germs are deadly on the hands.  Or, bedwetting at times.  I once had a 10 year old bedwetter who at about 6 years old had heard someone trying to break into his house - he wet himself, and the house breaker didn't get it, but went away. The brain logic - wet the bed every night, and no burglars can get in.  Self preservation!

In most phobias there is some traumatic event - usually forgotten by the phobic person, but easily recoverable in most with hypnosis.  (As was the bed wetter's experience.)

In 1981, I wrote a paper that appeared in the Behaviorist (the Journal of the American Assn of Behavior Therapy) that attracted a lot of controversy.  In it, I related adult onset phobias to sugar handling or hypoglycemia.  Some psychologists pilloried me for this "absurd idea", that phobias could have a physical cause.  Some others were supportive and had noticed the same in their practice.  (Why didn't they report it?)

How can low blood sugar make a person phobic? The scenario goes something like this:

1. A sweet meal is eaten.
2. 3-4 hours later, the person experiences a hypoglycemic "dip".  This is very common at this time after a sweet meal.
3. The dip is low enough to cause near fainting or blackout at the time of occurrance. 
4. If the person is driving at the time, it is enough for the brain to get the "idea" that driving is dangerous - Voila! - a driving phobia.  Or, suppose the person is going thru a tunnel or over a bridge? Get the point?

The brain uses logic that is different from our conscious logic, but very logical - sort of like the strange logic used by Mr Spock on Star Trek.  The bedwetter above illustrates this logic quite well.  If the parents of a child implant some idea in the child mind, it may very well affect the child seriously, even though it was well intended.  (I well remember my childhood serious fear of the "cutty-ear-off man", a neighbor who threatened my brother and I with this if we went into his yard again - it terrified both of us for years, and no assurances by our parents that he was "a very nice man" could convince us.)

How can we treat phobias? Well, the Behaviorist approach worked well for me.  I taught the person my Relaxation Technique, and then worked with the person in the office, imagining the phobic situation, then relaxing when the tension got high from the phobia.  (I used a simple GSR biofeedback device for measuring tension).  This cycle of phobic tension and relaxation is continued until the phobic tension is much lower, then the person is sent out to experience the actual event which causes the phobic response, and relax.  This is a simplified version of this therapy.  Of course, there is much more detail and case histories in my book.

Another technique involves hypnosis.  Hypnotize the person, and use age regression to find the actual traumatic event that caused the problem, and bring it into the conscious mind where it can be examined (either under or out of hypnosis), and dismissed by conscious logic.  I often used both techniques with great success.

Another successful approach would be to use a combination of Neuroliminal Brain Wave Training and/or Hypnosis, and/or Behavior Therapy as described above. 

Let's next look at the most difficult phobia of all - acrophobia.  This is most crippling of all because the affected person literally cannot leave their home.  The behaviorist technique described above often worked initially with an acrophobic, but within a few weeks, he/she was back with the same phobia.  This scenario was repeated so many times in the literature that many (if not most) psychologists believe that acrophobia is "incurable". 

In working with my first agoraphobic, I was familiar with the failures of the behaviorist techniques, so I hypnotized her, and using age regression techniques, I found that she had fainted in public at least twice.  She woke out of the faint to find lots of people staring down at her on the floor.  Very traumatic to say the least.

Going further than other behaviorists, I used the same technique to find out what she had eaten before each episode.  Aha!! She had had a very sweet meal before both occasions, and her family had a history of diabetes and sugar handling problems.  When I did a Glucose Tolerance Test in my office, I found she nearly fainted at that midpoint of the GTT test between 3 and 4 hours.

No wonder the literature is so full of failures to solve this problem except temporarily.  Even if the behavior therapy works, the person will, sooner or later, repeat the sweet meal, and the faint (or even near faint) happens, and the person is right back in the phobic response.

One of the best things that I could do for these patients was to tell them that they were not "crazy", but just had a serious physical problem that can be easily solved.  I was completely successful with all four acrophobics that I saw in my practice.  The rest of the phobics didn't cause real problems either, and were easy to solve.

Compulsions are perhaps the least understood by lay persons.  Addictions are strong compulsions, and they are physical, but the brain "makes me do it".  People often think it has to do with "will-power", but this is just not true.  A person who actually quits smoking often congratulates him/herself on their excellent will-power, and thinks "If I can do it, you should be able to".  Not true! The person who quit was not affected as strongly by the addiction, that's all.  Will power has little to do with it.  Try using will power the next time you have diarrhea.  That's a strong compulsion.  Compare that to holding off when you have to go to the bathroom normally.

Again, hypnosis and age regression can often help the compulsive, and even the addictive.  Another behaviorist technique is aversion technique where the subject is given a small electric shock while viewing pictures of the compulsion subject.  For example, a "flasher" would be shown pictures of naked persons streaking.

I used a subliminal 3 minute repeating audio tape with great success for compulsives instead of the above.  It was my voice speaking a script tailor made for the person, using his/her name, and using positive visualization and statements along with conscious logic to change the behavior.  It worked well, particularly for "flashers".

This page is a sub page.  To see a lot more free health info, click on the Home Page button below.

This page is a sub page.  To see much more free info, click on the Home button below.