Originally published on Yahoo Voices
I began to apply the method to other situations where I became nervous or uncomfortable..
When I was young, I had a phobia of dogs. Every time I panicked because a dog ran towards me barking, I would get angry at myself for me reaction to the dog. This article describes how I overcame my phobia. I hope it helps other people who are dealing with phobias and fears.
How does panic become a spontaneous reaction to an event? It actually doesn't suddenly happen. Consider a woman who is afraid of mice. She screams and jumps up on a table or chair every time she sees a mouse. Each time this happens, she is training her mind and her body how to respond to the event. Soon the response becomes spontaneous. She does it before she realized what she is doing. The whole situation appears hopeless to the person suffering from a phobia. Facing the phobia only causes more panic.
I found that people who try to persuade others to face their phobias forget to give the most important instruction. Then they are surprised when the person panics again. That most important instruction is one simple word: Relax.
This one word provides a hint. One effective way to overcome a phobia is to reverse your reaction to the object of your fears. You need to re-train your mind and body how to react to the situation that causes you to panic. Here is how I did it with dogs. I did it in accordance with the instructions from a Psychologist.
I would sit down in a chair and repeatedly tell myself to relax. I would take even breaths and hold my hands up in the air. Then I'd try to visualize the word relax in my mind. My hands were a good indication of how relaxed I was. Relaxation is the key to reversing your spontaneous reactions because your mind is most susceptible to new ideas when you are relaxed. When I was totally relaxed, I would imagine that a dog was approaching me. This took a lot of effort at first. Sometimes I would close my eyes and visualize a dog I had recently encountered. I would imagine the dog barking and growling at me. If I got anxious or if my hands started shaking, I would tell myself to relax. I would tell myself to stay calm Once I was totally relax I would say to myself. "The next time I encounter a dog I will relax. I will not panic. I will not run away. I will relax." Then I would repeat the whole process over and over again.
Every day I would repeat the process for about 15 minutes. I was training my mind and my body how to react to a dog. Eventually relaxation became a spontaneous reaction to encountering a dog. Three weeks after I started this therapy, my girlfriend opened her front door to find me sitting on the porch petting the dog I had feared so badly in the past. Yes, my legs were shaking. But I was not panicking.
I also learned that there are certain commands almost every dog understands. One day I was walking in a local park when a dog came running toward me barking. I stopped and stood perfectly still while the dog ran past me and then turned around to repeat the run.
"No!" I yelled in a sharp loud voice, "Sit!"
The dog sat down and moaned. The the dog got up.
"No! Sit!"
The dog was confused and sat down again. Every time the dog got up to charge me, I repeated the same command. Eventually the owner came and took the dog away.
How does panic become a spontaneous reaction to an event? It actually doesn't suddenly happen. Consider a woman who is afraid of mice. She screams and jumps up on a table or chair every time she sees a mouse. Each time this happens, she is training her mind and her body how to respond to the event. Soon the response becomes spontaneous. She does it before she realized what she is doing. The whole situation appears hopeless to the person suffering from a phobia. Facing the phobia only causes more panic.
I found that people who try to persuade others to face their phobias forget to give the most important instruction. Then they are surprised when the person panics again. That most important instruction is one simple word: Relax.
This one word provides a hint. One effective way to overcome a phobia is to reverse your reaction to the object of your fears. You need to re-train your mind and body how to react to the situation that causes you to panic. Here is how I did it with dogs. I did it in accordance with the instructions from a Psychologist.
I would sit down in a chair and repeatedly tell myself to relax. I would take even breaths and hold my hands up in the air. Then I'd try to visualize the word relax in my mind. My hands were a good indication of how relaxed I was. Relaxation is the key to reversing your spontaneous reactions because your mind is most susceptible to new ideas when you are relaxed. When I was totally relaxed, I would imagine that a dog was approaching me. This took a lot of effort at first. Sometimes I would close my eyes and visualize a dog I had recently encountered. I would imagine the dog barking and growling at me. If I got anxious or if my hands started shaking, I would tell myself to relax. I would tell myself to stay calm Once I was totally relax I would say to myself. "The next time I encounter a dog I will relax. I will not panic. I will not run away. I will relax." Then I would repeat the whole process over and over again.
Every day I would repeat the process for about 15 minutes. I was training my mind and my body how to react to a dog. Eventually relaxation became a spontaneous reaction to encountering a dog. Three weeks after I started this therapy, my girlfriend opened her front door to find me sitting on the porch petting the dog I had feared so badly in the past. Yes, my legs were shaking. But I was not panicking.
I also learned that there are certain commands almost every dog understands. One day I was walking in a local park when a dog came running toward me barking. I stopped and stood perfectly still while the dog ran past me and then turned around to repeat the run.
"No!" I yelled in a sharp loud voice, "Sit!"
The dog sat down and moaned. The the dog got up.
"No! Sit!"
The dog was confused and sat down again. Every time the dog got up to charge me, I repeated the same command. Eventually the owner came and took the dog away.
I learned another method of handling dogs from my dad. One day when two Doberman pincers were running towards him, he picked up a piece of metal and started banging it against a metal fence. Dogs hate the sound of metal against metal.
A friend of mine use to carry a small plastic bottle of ammonia when he rode his bike. If a dog came after him, he would spray the ammonia on the ground. The smell of ammonia would confuse the do and the dog would walk away.
I began to apply the method to other situations where I became nervous or uncomfortable..
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