Fears and phobias do not allow you to fully live and function, take away mental resources to deal with them. Therefore, the treatment of fears is the most important task of psychology and psychiatry. In order to defeat them, it is necessary to study the phenomena associated with them: anxiety, panic, phobia.
What is fear?
Fear (anxiety neurosis) is an emotion associated with a specific or abstract danger, as well as a human condition due to a number of mental and psychological reasons.
If fear prevents you from adequately assessing the environment and acting rationally, causes overwhelming horror, increased pressure, disorientation - this condition is called panic.
Phobia - a persistent fear of a specific object, irrational and obsessive, associated with the fear of being unable to control something, anxiety at the thought of a frightening object, the presence of physiological manifestations (heartbeat, etc.)
Fears arise on the basis of mental trauma, and for the first time after itconsidered a natural phenomenon. But if they continue to bother you for years, this is a good reason to consult a specialist.
Symptoms
This form of condition, like fear neurosis, manifests itself as a change in behavior and processes in the body. A person is constantly exposed to emotional stress, gets tired quickly, sleeps poorly, worries about various things, finds it difficult to choose priorities, their roles in society. Anxiety neurosis borders on such states as a feeling of unreality of what is happening, a strange sense of self.
Main phobia symptoms:
- inability to control fear;
- obsessive, haunting fear;
- dizziness, shortness of breath;
- palpitations;
- sweating, nausea;
- feeling "coma in the throat";
- feeling hot or chilly in the body;
- trembling; numbness, tingling;
- unable to move;
- chest pain, abdominal pain;
- frequent urination;
- fear of going crazy;
- fear of death.
Reasons
According to one version, phobias arise as a subconscious reaction to put up a defense against an irresistible craving for something. This also includes the obsessive fear of killing another, which is transformed into a neurosis.
Mental disorders can be accompanied by high anxiety, which leads to the formation of phobias. They are associated with phobic and anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, obsessivecompulsive disorder.
Stress occurs in a he althy person as a reaction to prolonged emotional stress, misunderstanding in the family or in the team, unrequited love, and so on. With the loss of the ability to cope with fears, a person’s anxiety finds its embodiment in fear-fantasies from childhood.
Tense events related to a change of residence, the loss of a loved one, the birth of a child provoke anxiety and stress. Hereditary predisposition to anxiety, combined with frequent stressful situations, reinforces the prerequisite for anxiety neurosis.
The reason for fear lies in the conflict of desires with goals and opportunities. There is a constant pathological excitation. Prolonged stressful impact of a characteristic situation on the psyche leads to chronic conditions.
Medicated treatment
A person suffering from anxiety neurosis, panic attacks, should acquire drugs that block the characteristic manifestations: "Validol", "Glicised", "Corvalol", medicines based on motherwort and valerian.
Drugs of the last century for the treatment of fears were "Sodium Bromide" and "Potassium Bromide"; modern remedies are tranquilizers and antidepressants.
Tranquilizers, for example, "Phenazepam", "Sibazon", eliminate emotional stress, are used as a sedative and sleeping pills. These drugs have an antiphobic effect, reducemuscle tone, stop insomnia, obsessive compulsive disorder, nausea, dizziness, sweating, fever.
Antidepressants act to reduce feelings of melancholy, apathy, increase mood, activity, improve sleep and appetite. They are:
- Tricyclic: "Imipramine", "Amitriptyline", the introduction of which begins with a small dose, and the result of their use is observed after two weeks.
- Selective serotonin inhibitors: Citalopram, Fluoxetine, Sertraline, Paroxetine. Minimum side effects and high results.
- Benzodiazepines: Lorazepam, Alprazolam, Diazepam. Have a short course of therapy.
- Beta blockers like Propranolol. Used just before an alarm situation.
- Herbal preparations: with St. John's wort, other herbs, the use of which requires preparation and imposes some restrictions (prohibition of drinking alcohol, visiting beaches).
Any medicine to treat anxiety and fear requires consultation with a specialist and official prescription of drugs after diagnosis.
Help Options
Depending on the severity of the phobia and the ability to control it, one can talk about methods of treating fear neurosis.
Options for overcoming fears:
- overcoming fear on your own, trying with the help of awareness and willpower to transform your fear and become free from it;
- application forhelp to specialists who will prescribe medication and correct behavior.
Talking to a professional can help you figure out how to deal with your fear without resorting to psychoactive drugs. Their task is to concentrate on the analysis and determination of the causes of phobias, the interpretation of the meaning of fear. The treatment of constant fear encourages you to immerse yourself in the most unpleasant emotions that have been repressed, suppressed.
Intensive care may include techniques such as specific desensitization exercises (reduction of symptoms), behavior modification based on Neuro Linguistic Programming techniques.
There are not always the means and the ability to entrust the problem to a qualified specialist, so patients resort to the following methods and techniques:
- Take fear as an ally: in response to the alarm sent from within, begin to interact with the images that arise in the imagination. Come up with an "embodiment" of your fear in the form of a drawing, a sculpted figure, transform it into a humorous image or object that will help you rethink your emotions.
- Listen to your condition, if an attempt to take a step towards a phobia begins to inspire - this is a sign that there is a chance to overcome fear; if such thoughts cause panic, this is a reason to make every effort to protect yourself from possible threats.
The main obstacle to liberation from fears is the fear of being afraid. The goal of therapy is to actively manage your life and do something meaningful.for yourself.
Help of a psychologist, psychotherapist
The goal of behavioral therapy is to teach a person to properly relate to anxieties, fears, panic, physical discomfort. Psychologists recommend auto-training, relaxation, and positive concentration techniques.
Through cognitive psychotherapy, it becomes possible to identify thinking errors, correct the way of thinking in the right direction.
A fear neurosis complicated by phobias requires hypnotic intervention. In this case, the impact is directed to the subconscious of a person. The session returns the patient to a state of trust and security in relation to the world. In the absence of the expected effect, medications are prescribed.
With a mild course of neurosis, the main task is to establish a trusting contact between the doctor and the patient.
Stages of treatment of fears by a psychotherapist:
- clarification of the circumstances that led to the neurosis;
- search for healing through psychotherapy.
Methods of psychotherapy:
- Persuasion. It is necessary to change the patient's attitude to the situation, after which the phobias lose their significance and weaken.
- Direct suggestion - influence on consciousness with the help of words and emotions.
- Indirect influence - the introduction of an auxiliary stimulus that will be associated with recovery in the mind of the patient.
- Autosuggestion allows you to activate the thoughts and emotions needed for healing.
- Auto-training - muscle relaxation, during which control over the state of he alth is restored.
Additional methods - gymnastics, massage, hardening - will enhance the effectiveness of the main course of treatment of fears.
Self-release
The first piece of advice is to stop fighting obsessive thoughts and accept that they arise. The more violent the resistance to them, the more stress they cause. It is necessary to develop a correct attitude to thought: if it arises, this is a natural phenomenon, as a result of the work of a part of the brain. As experts have proven, obsessions have nothing to do with intuition.
In order to treat persistent anxiety and fear, it is necessary to understand their causes. The primary task is to realize the moment of a person's true fear: to die, to be disgraced and the like, in order to resolve the internal conflict. The next step is to start working on phobias by including yourself in frightening situations. This means stepping out into obsessive thoughts, encouraging yourself to do things that lead to feelings of fear. "Treatment" in this way will allow the forced method to experience strong emotions in order to subsequently rethink and get rid of them.
Keeping a diary of feelings will reveal the essence of feelings and desires, help you live consciously. It is important to describe in detail the situation that caused fear and discomfort. This process of familiarization with oneself, values, needs will be useful for those suffering from neurosis. It is recommended to write down, speak, share your thoughts with others. Embodied in words, the thought will seem harmless.
In the following steps, you need to changeobsessive thoughts rational, draw up a plan of action to be executed if trouble occurs. Willingness will reduce fear.
Since panic attacks are fear, as a reaction to a non-existent situation, it is necessary to instill awareness in yourself, to encourage yourself to "come back" at a crucial moment. And this is where meditation and relaxation become good helpers. Over time, you will be able to face your phobias.
On the path to the treatment of panic fears, destructive factors must be eliminated: harmful food, nicotine and alcohol abuse, being alone in a closed room for days on end.
In addition to everything, you need to start eradicating negative information from your life: stop being interested in bad news, do not watch horror films, TV shows that cause disturbing thoughts, do not communicate with those who tend to discuss negative topics. When fear arises, one should concentrate on realizing that the cause of fear is absent.
Breathing exercises
Panic attack - a kind of way to protect the nervous system. After the reaction of fear, a person spares himself more, behaves carefully in situations fraught with stress and overload.
Breathing exercises will help to alleviate the state in the process of an attack of fear: inhale, pause, exhale, pause. Each phase has a duration of 4 seconds. Such gymnastics, during which you need to relax, is repeated up to 15 times every day.
As a result of exercise, the level ofcarbon dioxide in the blood, breathing slows down, heartbeat slows down, the respiratory center in the brain functions at a different pace of activity, muscles relax, attention switches to current events from panic images.
Childhood anxiety neurosis
The main causes of childhood anxiety neurosis are conflicts in the family, peer group, sometimes physical trauma, illness or severe fright.
Parents should be alerted by the following manifestations:
- constant alarm;
- obsessive fear;
- emotional depression;
- chronic fatigue;
- frequent hysterical crying for no apparent reason;
- tics, stuttering.
Treats for chronic anxiety and fear in children rarely involve drug therapy. Most often, this is a way to resolve internal conflicts of influence on the psyche with the help of creativity: drawing, modeling, writing. Art therapy is safe and effective, promotes self-expression and self-knowledge. When a child portrays his fears, it causes them to disappear from his life.
Family Therapy - Teaching family members to interact productively with each other. Psychotherapists are convinced that the sources of neurosis are in relationships with loved ones, and anxiety and fear can be cured by removing the cause.
How to distinguish neurosis from psychosis
To make an accurate diagnosis, the doctor needs to have a conversation with the patient in order to exclude psychosis, the symptoms of which are very similar to those of neurosis.
With psychosis, a person is not aware of the fact of a disease that suppresses the personality, and is to a small extent treatable, and in the case of neurosis, he understands what is happening with a mental disorder: he is critical of himself, does not lose touch with the real world. It is important to have a complete examination.
Symptoms of neurosis: mental discomfort, irritability, anger, mood swings, experiences without good reason, chronic fatigue, fatigue. Psychosis is characterized by delusions, auditory and visual hallucinations, confused speech, obsession with past events, limiting oneself from society.
Consequences of panic fears
The consequences of neuroses are such that a person is able to become a hermit because of them, lose his family, work. Independent ways to get rid of panic attacks should be used in a complex way. Timing of therapy may take about three months.
Most likely consequences of phobias:
- their number will increase;
- probability of physical harm to yourself and others;
- constant panic can aggravate chronic diseases;
- frequent, severe, uncontrollable panic attacks can lead to suicide.
Fighting the fear of death
Treatment of feelings of anxiety and fear begins with looking at it philosophically and spending resources on life's affairs, leaving useless thoughts about death.
It is good to direct thoughts towards the future, to think about what will happen after the embodiment of fears. If it's the death of loved ones, for a whilethe state will be unbearable, and then life will continue, but it will change. It is impossible to experience the same emotions for too long. Faith in God gives hope for eternity. The condition of believers is calm in terms of such issues.
You need to live life to the fullest, and death is only an indication of such a need. Years are given to make dreams come true, to receive joy, to achieve victories. You can make it easier to achieve your goal by breaking it down into steps. The more satisfied a person is with his life, the less his fear of death.
You should allow yourself to feel fear sometimes. The more often this happens, the weaker the emotion becomes, and eventually it will also disappear.
Successful treatment of anxiety and fear is replaced by confidence in the present, peace of mind about the future, and then death seems to be something far away.
What to do with loved ones
Anxiety neurosis disturbs the tranquility of the sufferer and his inner circle. A possible reaction of family members is a wall of misunderstanding and a surge of emotions, since it is not easy to constantly put yourself in the place of a sick person.
He needs attention and help in the form of reassurance. But this does not mean that you need to agree with his worldview and play along with his fears. Participation implies moral support, an assurance that all difficulties will be overcome by joint efforts.
Independent attempts of the patient with anxiety neurosis do not help him to return a balanced state, despite the awareness of what is happening. In difficult cases, the disease depletesneurotic, attracting thoughts of suicide. The patient should be advised to treat fears and phobias with the help of a psychotherapist, a neurologist.
