Overcoming Fear
Fears are interesting because fears hinder us and keep us safe. Because fears protect us, but why do we have fears in the first place? What is the point?
People who have no fear, there are those who have a defect in the brain. It was thought that those people would be extremely violent, that was the theory. Instead, they were actually the most loving people because they were not afraid of anything
They weren’t afraid of rejection, nor were they afraid of not being appreciated. They are kind, nonviolent people. It is precisely those who are very violent who are actually extremely afraid.
If you are a professional fighter and say "I am not afraid of anything," I wonder if that is true.
Because research shows that the most violent people are actually afraid, and people who are not afraid are nonviolent.
If you participate in a martial art, this may well be a sign that you have anxiety. That you have some form of need to prove yourself or feel like a loser if you don't.
This is not a bad thing, because we all have fears. I have fears, too. Maybe I have fears for you, that you are reading this and thinking "I'm going to look that one up, who does he think he is that I am afraid, who is afraid then?!"
Then I might be very afraid.
Where does anxiety come from?
We have roughly 3 parts in our brain
The neocortex (prefontal cortex/memory), the lymbic system (emotional brain) and the brainstem (primordial brain) that generates the fear response. The amygdala in the brain stem is essentially the fear center.
The primal brain reacts very quickly, usually by freezing. You are startled by something and think "ho, what's that?" Immediately your brain scans whether it is dangerous or not.
Actually, it even scans for 3 things, namely:
- Can I eat it?
- Am I being eaten?
- Can I partner with them?
Those then are pretty much the scan of the amygdala. When it is hypersensitive we often speak of anxiety disorders. Mainstream medicine at least.
So how come? Our brain is about 70 to 80 percent set to what you see on your eyes.
People who are born blind have far fewer fears compared to those who can see. Those are often more related to sounds.
Most irrational fears—such as a fear of heights, claustrophobia, a fear of spiders, and a fear of public speaking—are not among them. That’s very interesting.
Of course, there are exceptions, but they are often linked to experiences.
There are distinct differences between people born blind and those who can see.
This is fascinating, because you find that a vast majority of the fears we can know are unknown to those born blind.
How anxiety begins
So how do we do it? We create a picture in our heads and that picture triggers the fear center.
I see a spider and it's small, but in my mind I make it big. Because that is something I want to protect myself from. This is also faster than reality. That spider is just sitting there, but in my head all kinds of things are happening. That memory, of my fantasy, that is being stored.
Also, if you are experiencing something, like you are 4 and you see a spider (then they are proportionally much bigger) or your mother sees a spider and starts screaming. That hits the amydale. Do you see a critter with eight legs? Alarm!
Very small signals from your parents, such as freezing when they see something can cause a fear to arise. So sometimes, as a result, you can't even very consciously remember why a fear arose[1]. You only know that when a certain trigger occurs, you react immediately.
Then you get the short route of reaction. You freeze, flee or fight immediately. You can't think about it. Afterwards, you can.
With cognitive behavioral therapy, they try to change that shortcut, but it is very difficult by talking about it afterwards.
Changing the visual trigger for anxiety
It's more convenient to change the visual trigger, because then you don't have to take that short route. Then you take the long route, the route where you can think and then you are no longer afraid.
Most fears involve visual triggers.
Sometimes experiences are also experiences, then you have to change them and the fear is gone too.
But often you have to change the image in your mind. Train that and then the amygdala becomes less sensitive and at some point no longer sensitive and then it's done.
It is important to realize that you do your own fear. So how do you do it?
Imagine seeing the New York skyline. You have a certain size in your mind. Just imagine taking that skyline out and just putting a spider in it. Then you get all scared so you don't want that.
If that spider is so big for you anyway. Then imagine a spider sitting on a table. Then that table must also be put into the image, what happens to that spider? It gets smaller otherwise it won't fit.
Then you put that table in a space, in a room, in a house, among the New York skyline, and there's a spider there somewhere.
If you just repeat and repeat it then the trigger goes away, you feel better and it is no longer triggered in your mind. When you do this you go through life anxiety-free.
And should you succeed in going through life completely fear-free, you will become a very loving person.
Also listen to this podcast on overcoming anxiety.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/195236/763012-angsten-hoe-kom-je-ervan-af
Overcoming hypnosis and anxiety: the science
The example with how I just got you to reduce your fear of spiders is a technique from hypnosis. It works even better if you are first put into hypnosis.
Hypnosis isn’t just for fears of specific objects. It has also been used, for example, to reduce exam stress (or test anxiety) among medical students. After the hypnosis sessions, they actually passed their exams[2]—how cool is that?
They succeeded even when they thought they still had some anxiety, but in the vast majority of students, hypnosis had helped reduce or overcome anxiety.
Hypnosis can also be used with children in a medical setting as an alternative to medication. For example, if children have to undergo surgery, they can become very anxious—I mean, having someone cut into you is no small matter. Generally, midazolam is administered to reduce that anxiety.
Researchers once verified that this is not also possible without medication and tested 2 groups of children aged between 2 and 11. One group was given the medication, the other group was given hypnosis. What turned out: there was simply no difference in the fear of surgery. So hypnosis works just as well in children to reduce anxiety as midazolam[3].
Another fear that’s worth overcoming is fear of the dentist. Hypnosis can also help overcome fear of the dentist[4].
Want to know all the techniques you can use to overcome fears. For example, how to make the image of the spider bigger and smaller and thus help people. How to bring this in the right way and how to hypnotize people first?
Why not come to a hypnosis workshop? In the hypnosis workshop, you’ll learn in just one day how to put someone under hypnosis and experience for yourself what it’s like to be in a hypnotic state. You’ll also learn more about what you can achieve with hypnosis and witness a demonstration of a hypnosis session. The hypnosis workshop is held in Wormerveer and Zwolle.
Do you want to learn more than just the induction—and even how to make people feel good? Then you can also attend a seminar. Over the course of several days, the seminar will teach you how to put people under hypnosis and how to make them feel good. In addition, you’ll receive all kinds of extra explanations and examples of hypnosis sessions.
Would you like to get started right away with techniques for conducting your own hypnosis sessions and using hypnosis to help yourself and others? Then sign up today for one of our training courses. The courses are held in Wormerveer, Zwolle, and online.
[1] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00029157.1960.10401808?journalCode=ujhy20
[2] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00029157.1993.10403004
[3] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1460-9592.2004.01514.x
[4] https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/abs/10.12968/denu.2014.41.1.78