Are these five common phobias affecting your relationships?

Phobias can cause a range of issues for those who experience them.

According to Harley Street hypnotherapist, Adam Cox, phobias can affect our relationships all year-round.

“Phobias are an unconscious reaction to a stimulus, not a choice. People don’t choose to be frightened of love, intimacy, rejection or germs. The impact of these fears and phobias can mean people avoid flirting, dating, kissing and even sex and relationships.

The good news is that no matter how severe the phobia is, psychological tools such as hypnotherapy and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) can reverse a phobia in just one or two sessions.”

We asked Adam which relationship-related phobias he most commonly encounters.

• Aphenphosmphobia – The fear of intimacy. Fear of being touched and love.
• Mysophobia – The fear of germs. It is also rightly termed as Germophobia or Bacteriophobia.
• Androphobia & Gynophobia – The fear of men and women. Usually seen in younger females, but it can also affect adults. This may occur if you have unresolved mother issues.
• Philophobia – The fear of love, which causes sufferers to be frightened of falling in love or developing emotional attachments.
• Monophobia– The fear of being alone

There are many different phobias, some you may know, others may be more obscure. Regardless, phobias exist and can affect a person’s life massively. As Adam says, the good news is that a phobia doesn’t need to control your life. Hypnotherapy aims to identify the root cause of the phobia, help you understand potential triggers, and know how to control the anxiety and fear often associated with the phobia.

Learn more about the different types of phobias.

For more information on hypnotherapy for anxiety, fear of flying or other phobias, visit our fact-sheets or contact a hypnotherapist near you, using our search tool.

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Too many people decide that they want to make a change in their lifestyle and use the New Year as a way of making the required change. Or that’s what they plan to do. And sometime in January, too many people find that they haven’t succeeded in giving up alcohol, losing weight, stopping smoking, going ... Read moreNew Year’s resolutions

Anxiety cells discovered in mice

Researchers from Columbia University and the University of California placed mice in mazes with open spaces (something mice are afraid of) and found certain cells at the bottom of the hippocampus became more active.

The team then tried to alter the activity of these ‘anxiety cells’ in the brain using optogenetics, which involves using light to control cells in living tissue. Reducing the activity in these cells made the mice less anxious and more willing to explore the open spaces.

Read more about the study on the Independent.

This discovery could have huge implications for people living with anxiety. Understanding the biology behind it and potentially being able to reduce activity in these ‘anxiety cells’ could make a significant difference for those suffering.

Kat Nicholls, content writer for Hypnotherapy Directory speaks on the discovery:

“As someone who has experienced high levels of anxiety and knows how much it can affect daily life, this is very welcome news. Mental health is just as important as physical health and as a nation we seem to be struggling more than ever with anxiety. The number of visitors to Hypnotherapy Directory’s anxiety page has risen 140% in the last two years.

While there are certainly ways we can reduce anxiety, including hypnotherapy, self-care and a change in lifestyle, the more tools we have in our arsenal, the better.”

It is estimated that 7.8% of people in Britain suffer from anxiety and depression.