Fear of fire: How to still enjoy the fire pit
Fire has been an incredibly important discovery for humanity, but it has also caused much suffering. So it is not surprising that there are many people who have a fear of fire.
I recently helped a woman who was also afraid of fire because, unfortunately, she had to deal with a fire twice within a month. Not at all surprising if you have then become afraid of fire or fire.
But what if that fear is preventing you from living your life normally? What if at parties you can't be enjoyed if some candles are lit? Or what if you won't even let your child blow out a candle on the birthday cake, because you're afraid that cute little candle might cause a fire of some kind?
What if your partner wants one of those cute fire pits in the yard, but you can't bear to think about it. Those marshmallows you can make with it are not an argument for you to change your mind anyway. Even though your family probably enjoys it a lot.
Then it's time to do something about your fear of fire.
Causes of fear of fire
There can be all kinds of causes of anxiety. You may have experienced something like the woman I mentioned at the beginning of this article or you may have inherited the fear from other people around you.
For example, if one of your parents was afraid of fire and was always super careful. Maybe that one even got angry if you had a lighter in your bedroom. Then chances are you've adopted that fear from your parents.
So, on the other hand, you may have experienced something with fire, which means you now pay close attention when a fire burns somewhere.
In addition, you may have seen something that horrified you, such as fires in entertainment venues or in tunnels where people died in terrible ways.
And then you're stuck with it.
Symptoms fear of fire
There are a number of ways you can check if you have acquired a phobia of fire.
You'll notice this, for example:
- Panic at the sight of fire or even the thought of fire.
- You avoid situations where fire may play a role.
- When you are near fire you start to sweat, tremble, breathe faster and your heart rate increases.
- You suffer from nightmares about fire.
- You think a lot about fire.
In a forum about fear of fire, it became clear that people may have thoughts that the fire will attack them if they get too close. This fear prevents them from relaxing comfortably at home, and if they see a news report about a fire, they become completely distraught. They also obsessively check their homes for fire hazards. Plugs are always unplugged when something isn’t in use, and the smoke detectors are checked every night before going to bed[1].
A fear of fire can therefore make it difficult to relax and can be a major source of daily stress. Forum participants also noted that the fear began early in life (at age 5) and that now, at age 50, they still struggle with it. So it doesn’t always go away on its own.
Reason enough to do something about it.
Treatment of fear of fire
So if you want to go to a wedding, but you're afraid of those pretty stars on the cake, it's time to overcome the fear of fire.
There are an awful lot of ways to overcome fear of fire. Many fears are treated with cognitive behavioral therapy[2] because thoughts have an awful lot of influence on your physical reactions to fear.
In doing so, hypnosis can be used. In fact, the combination of hypnosis and CBT works better than CBT on its own to help people suffering from trauma, such as from a fire, overcome their fears and process their traumas[3].
With fears, it is also good to gradually confront yourself with your fear and take it one step at a time. So it can start with seeing a picture of fire and it can end with lighting the Easter fire in your neighborhood.
This is also something that can be practiced first under hypnosis with the help of a guided visualization.
Mindfulness can also help you think less about fire if it’s something that completely consumes your thoughts. While this won’t directly help you overcome your fear, it can help you overcome your obsession with the fear if it’s bothering you.
Mindfulness, in fact, helps you be in the here-and-now with your attention. So when there's no fire or other fire, you don't have to think about it, and that just lives a lot more pleasantly.
How hypnosis helps
As mentioned, hypnosis can be combined with cognitive behavioral therapy to overcome fear of fire. The best part is that hypnosis and cognitive behavioral therapy have no side effects. It is completely safe.
Hypnosis can help overcome fears in multiple ways.
If the source of your fear isn’t clear, hypnosis can help you use regression to identify the cause. When your belief makes no logical sense at all, this technique helps you reinterpret the moment when the fear arose, thereby correcting the fearful belief[4].
Do you know when the fear of fire arose? If so, the Fast Phobia technique is often used.
Chances are that for your subconscious, the moment is not "over" causing you to keep thinking about that scary event.
With this technique, a hypnotherapist actually helps people make it very clear to the subconscious mind that the moment is "over" and that the fear is no longer necessary for anything at all.
Hypnosis Institute Netherlands' training also covers this technique and the regression technique in depth.
Changing illogical beliefs
The idea that a flame or fire is attacking you is actually illogical. Changing that belief can then be the key to overcoming fear of fire. After all, why do you think fire attacks you? How did that association ever arise?
This is something that then becomes obsolete with regression. You then go back to the first moment in your life when you felt you were being attacked by fire. What happened then? As mentioned, anxiety can arise early in life, and with the regression technique, you also often end up in moments from early childhood, such as when a person was five years old.
Perhaps a little boy was playing with a torch and waved the torch just too close past you, creating the association that fire is "attacking" you. It could have been anything.
Sometimes during a regression, you may find that you actually made very separate connections as a child that don't make sense now as an adult.
So something will come out of that. Depending on what comes out, such as a little boy playing with a torch, the fast phobia technique can be performed to see that this moment is over.
Alternatively, a conversation with the inner child can be held. Suppose, for example, that the fear of fire was inherited because one of the parents is afraid of fire; in that case, a conversation with one of those parents can have a healing effect on such an illogical belief.
So it doesn't matter if your parents are alive or not, because you go back in time in your mind. You then have that conversation in your imagination while you are that child with your parents that you had at that time.
Exactly how that works is explained during the Hypnosis Institute Netherlands training.
Helping people who are afraid of fire
Would you like to help people who suffer from fears, such as the fear of fire, using the techniques mentioned above? Then you’ll enjoy taking the free masterclass on hypnosis.
You can also register for one of our events or trainings. You can take the training either classroom or live online. Ideal if you can't always come to the location, or don't even live near the Netherlands 😉.
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