Are you irrationally fearful of something? Is your fear overwhelming to the point where you feel paralysed when you come into contact with the object? Is coming face to face with the object of your fear the worst nightmare for you? If so, when you come into contact with it (or even think about it), do your emotions likely begin to take over, and it doesn’t seem like there’s anything you can do about it?
Most people, at some point in their life, have had fear of something. For instance, several people are known to have hair transplant trypophobia. Trypophobia is an extreme aversion to or fear of clusters of small holes or bumps. That said hair transplant surgery involves techniques that create minute incisions, like FUE, to place the transplanted hairs, which can make it very stressful if individuals have trypophobia. Anyway, remember that phobic fears are not always easily explained and may seem irrational to several people.
However, these fears might not be irrational for those who suffer from them. That is why individuals who suffer from excessive fear may look for alternative treatments such as the ones that companies similar to the types that Kratom Organization and other herbal remedy bloggers might discuss. Another common treatment is to expose yourself to what you’re fearful of, however this takes time and can be very unpleasant for obvious reasons. So, is there another way?
The Secret to Overcoming Fear:
One study recruited women who had a fear of spiders. Participants were shown a total of 45 images (15 pleasant, 15 neutral and 15 of spiders). After viewing each image, participants were asked to rate the intensity of their negative feelings. Before seeing the images though, one group of participants were instructed to tell themselves “I will not get frightened” (the goal intention group). Another group was given the goal of not getting frightened, but were also to set the plan “and if I see a spider, then I will remain calm and relaxed” (the response-focused implementation intention group) Another group was given the goal of not getting frightened, but were also to set the plan “and if I see a spider, then I will ignore it.” (the antecedent-focused implementation intention group). A final group received no instructions.
The researchers found that just having the goal of not getting frightened by spiders did not significantly reduce fear. However, having the if-then plan either to remain calm or ignore the spider reduced fear significantly. Strikingly, fear in these participants was “completely eliminated” to the point where there was no significant difference between them and participants who had no fear of spiders! Hopefully, this will mean they will no longer be visiting https://www.pestcontrolexperts.com/ at first sight of a spider lurking in the bathroom. Although, no one should be discouraged from heading to that website if that one spider turns into an infestation!
Why does this occur? It appears that a fearful response is set off in the first 100 milliseconds after exposure to a stimulus. Just having the goal to not be afraid is “slow and effortful and thus runs into problems when immediate and strong emotional reactivity… has to be downregulated.” In contrast, having an if-then plan cues up the desired response automatically. Using a race horse metaphor, if-then plans
‘outrun’ the initiation of the emotional responses triggered by… fear-eliciting stimuli. As the two responses of staying calm on the one hand and showing fear… on the other are antagonistic, this faster initiation of the staying calm/relaxed response should actually block the emergence of fear… responses.
Conclusion:
So, the secret to overcoming fear is to form if-then plans. Examples would be “if I see a spider, I will ignore it” or “if I see a spider, I will remain calm. A quick an easy way to reduce fear!
Citation:
Gallo, Inge Schweiger, et al. “Strategic automation of emotion regulation.”Journal of personality and social psychology 96.1 (2009): 11.
