Hey guys,

This post is about how to deal with phobias (as I’m sure you guessed from the title). I have something called emetophobia. That is the fear of throwing up. Now to get started I’ll just say that if you are afraid of spiders for example, it might not be a phobia. A phobia is when there is an extreme fear that takes over your mind and affects your daily life. So using the spider example, if you see a spider and scream for someone to kill it, you don’t necessarily have arachnophobia. However, if you are outside, see a spider, scream, run away, and don’t go back outside for a long period of time, you probably have arachnophobia. That is what I mean by “affecting your daily life”. It stops you from doing normal things that you should be doing.

Often if you see a therapist for phobias, the first thing they’ll do is teach you is relaxation techniques. For example, deep breathing. That is a very effective way to relax yourself when you are faced with your fear. After that, most therapists use a technique called exposure. That is where you gradually get exposed to your fear. Going back to the spiders, exposure for that would probably go something like this:

1. Looking at pictures of spiders

2. Watching videos of spiders

3. Getting close to a small spider

4. Getting close to a big spider

5. Touching a small spider

6. Touching a big spider

Okay, so I know that probably sounds awful, but it would probably be a more gradual process than I just described. I unfortunately still have my emetophobia, but I haven’t finished the process yet. I do know that lots of people have gotten cured from emetophobia and other phobias from processes like these. There are a lot of websites out there that have better explanations than me, but these are at least the basics

~Emma