Paranoia Pessimism & Phobias
Shoshin
No one in particularNowhere Special Veteran
For some people their "phobia" can be quite crippling, stopping them from doing things, they might miss out on 'fun' activities etc etc....
When I first arrived in Oz, I wouldn't go anywhere barefooted for fear of trapdoor spiders and other creepy crawlies, and as for going bush, with all the venomous snakes well..... and then there was the sharks in the sea... OMBN what had I let my self into????....
However I gradually became more comfortable with the Aussie environment and the opportunity arose for me to be able to study creepy crawlies, and as they say the more you learn the less you fear which was exactly what happened... mind you I didn't have phobias about things, that is the fear I had didn't stop me from going places and doing things, it was more down to my lack of understanding....
Anyhow I was just wondering if any of you who 'do' have phobias...has your Buddhist practice helps to alleviate the symptoms in any way ?
Comments
I have Trypanophobia: The fear of needles, specifically, injections. I know I'm not alone in this. All those I have met in the medical profession have been extremely understanding and sympathetic.
I have to be allowed to enter a meditative state, before I let anyone near me with a syringe. And I close my eyes and they must tell me the precise moment they are about to insert the needle. Then, I can cope with it....
You forgot to mention the dingoes @Shoshin! :-)
I grew up in the Australian bush and you just get used to it I guess. You never walk in long grass with barefeet, flip flops or sandals on. It is just a rule. When I lived in NZ (no snakes) it took me a long time to adjust to being able to do it.
Of course most of it is over exaggerated. I am not sure what people from NZ (in particular) are taught growing up but my wife was told to check her shoes before putting them on in case a spider was in them. No-one in Australia would do that!
Most of the nasty creatures don't live anywhere near populated areas so it's all non event really.
For animals, educating oneself about living near them helps so much. We have so many people who are deathly afraid of bears here, but once they learn more about the bears and their habits, and their reactions/language and how to read them, they aren't scared anymore. Most can be true of many other animals, though almost invisible creepy crawlies make it harder. I don't always like our climate in northern Minnesota, but at least it keeps the "ruffians" out as my grandma would say, including venomous critters,
Paranoia Pessimism & Phobias is the condition my sister is in. It is a hell realm.
My phobia is she will stay there, which is above sad. However lately the paranoia is lessening ... so hope and good news
Exposing therapy is the best treatment for phobias, smal steps each time.
Phobias are also brilliant for Learning more about yourself.
How to face the worst thing you can imagine?
1) Going around it, and avoid it totaly
2) Running fast towards it and kick it in the balls
3) Or do like the indians, and follow it quietly trugh the woods and then attack it when its dark.
There's no point. They're out to get me. It's their unwashed hands.
---> All is temporary. Ahhhhh...
I have a pretty serious fear of heights.
I remember going up the Rockefeller Centre in NY and standing in the outside observation area with my back pressed against the wall sweating!
Everything. Let's see... the ones that affect my every day life:
Agoraphobia. Tokophobia. Acrophobia. Nyctophobia.
Agoraphobia is the worst one. I can be out 13 hours a day for a week and I won't be over it. I'll get home and fall to the floor and cling to a chair and just cry like I've been stabbed. "Exposure therapy" they tell me... I always say that's like waterboarding someone until they aren't afraid of water anymore.
Wow! That must be tough......
I suffer from newagerphobia.
I had a nasty case of social anxiety for a long while, and a dread of public speaking. I'd be afraid to enter pubs or certain other types of public spaces where social interaction would take place. In the end it was success at work that cured me... It allowed me to ask, what exactly is it that I am afraid of? And in the end it revealed itself as a kind of sham, a fiction.
But I lived with it from my early teenage years until my thirties. It didn't hinder me in some areas of life, but in others it was a real handicap.
I heard they steal human babies and raise them as dogs.
Here is an artists impression:
![](https://tse4.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.M63c2c6d78fe41534fbf9ed0377b2aebbo0&pid=15.1&P=0&w=300&h=300~~~~"")
"This" Buddhist approach to dealing with phobias is interested...
I guess by having experiential understanding of "Sunyata" which more or less covers "Anicca" "Anatta" (From "Mahayana/Tibetan" "Zen" "Theravada" view points).... can be very beneficial when it comes to alleviating fears & phobias...
This is a new one on me: "Brontophobia: fear of thunder and lightning"
Strange how they come up with these names, this one sounds more like an aversion to Wuthering Heights, or maybe to dinosaurs.
Though when you think about it, a fear of heights is actually quite sensible.
It is... a lot of people don't know this, but agoraphobia isn't just the fear of going outside, it's the fear of open spaces. Even when I'm home, I have to grab onto the walls to walk. I have bad days where I really can't get up at all, just barricade myself on all sides for as long as I can.
Have you always had these phobias ?
In some form or another since I was 8. Um. I don't know if this is too much to say, but I have PTSD. My father tried to murder me. A couple times. And it sucks to have so many phobias resulting from it, because it's like even though I lived, he technically lost, but I feel like he actually won, in the end. Because I can't get over this stuff...
I take it you have had some form of assistance from mental health professionals over the years...So what do you do to try to alleviate/reduce their impact ?....Have you found any Buddhist techniques that have helped ?
Oh, yes, I've been in therapy since I was a kid. I've been on various medications.
I swear by The 5-5-5 Method. It's a grounding technique where you examine your surroundings carefully, in which you look at 5 things, then touch 5 things, and then hear 5 things (listen and discern the sounds around you, you know). I have my mantras. I do "Om mani padme hum" though not as much as I used to. I say a root chakra affirmation a lot -- "I am a divine being of light; I am peaceful, protected, and secure". I envision that red cord from the base of my spine to the ground. I also remind myself I'm safe. Even if it doesn't help at the time, it builds up in your system, I think. For every negative thought I have about myself, I make myself think two positive things.
My therapist got me into Buddhism. He always tells that story of the guy running from lions and then slipping and falling, clinging to the cliff, seeing the Bengal Tigers below him. And on the vine he's holding onto, he sees a strawberry. So with danger above and danger below, he takes the strawberry and simply falls and the only thought in his head is, "This is the best strawberry I've ever tasted."
I'm sure I botched that in some way, but his point is that you should always be like that guy falling to his death, focusing on the strawberry. I try so hard to hold onto the good.
I think exposure probably works in a lot of circumstances, but definitely not in all. For example, I have a couple of friends who have a strong fear of flying, but they love to travel. So they get prescriptions anxiety drugs to help them deal. I am more like that. I don't have to take meds, but I have my own processes I go through to feel ok with things that I'm afraid of or that cause me anxiety. They are not strong enough to cause me to miss out on things I really want to do, but they certainly produce a lot of sleepless nights.
City driving is one of them. This week my husband had to go to Minneapolis for work, and I was super stressed on his behalf even though I didn't even go with him! He checks in and lets me know when he arrives so I can stop worrying until he is on his way home, lol. He handles my neuroses well. But we sometimes go there to go to baseball games, or other events, and I refuse to allow that fear to keep me from things i want to do. But it's not a phobia, and like I said, not strong enough to stop me, thankfully. However, multiple exposures have not helped to reduce my fears. When we were in FL, we missed a turn due to the amount of cars in the 6 lanes of traffic outside of Miami, and ended up going into downtown. I'm pretty sure that hour of stress probably cost me 10 years of my life. But I love to travel. But, I know people from the city who cannot drive up here because they get utterly claustrophobic from how narrow the roads are and how close the trees are to the roads. While those same roads make me feel safe.
My ex had such a strong fear of needles that he had to notify them in advance so they could have appropriate measures there to help him, including medication. There were times he passed out completely when he had to get a blood draw. But I think in his case it was more the blood part and less the needle. He never passed out from flu shots or anything like that, just had to have intervention set up ahead of time. My oldest son is terrified of hair cuts. When he was 4, a lady at a salon clipped his ear and it bled a little. He has not been for a haircut since, and cuts it himself.
Can you expand on this? I can't find where the reference is from, and would love to know
It's a good thing that they are making strides in experimental PTSD treatment. I hear of quite a lot of advanced work with VR with soldiers, doctor-accompanied sessions of Ayahuasca or Psilocybin, treatments with screen-based avatars and so on. Lots of work being done in the field, maybe eventually some of it will benefit you.
This isn't the exact site I got this from, and I'm not even sure if this one is Buddhist, but the idea is the same: http://www.cristinasenergycenter.com/3.6.3.red.html
Ohhh, thank you! I should ask about these; I haven't heard of them.
@Bunks
Arachnophobes "DON"T READ BEYOND THIS WARNING !" (enter at your own risk)...
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Funnelweb spiders have a nasty habit of taking shelter inside shoes and gumboots left outside, they also crawl into items of clothing left laying around outdoor swimming pools ....Take it from someone who had spent many years working in urban pestology in Sydney...Snakes also have a habit of going under the subfloor of houses (especially in the outer city suburbs) seeking out rodents and lizards ie, a food source...And as you know the Redback (in the US Black widow and here in NZ the Katapo) spiders are common through out Oz...Young children and the sick or elderly people are most at risk when it comes to Redback bites....
I remember one of the company managersI worked for back in the late 70s early 80s, telling me about the time he was bitten by a Sydney Funnelweb spider, however he survived, he puts his survival down to the fact it was early in the morning and quite possible the spider had just made a killing (they are mainly night hunters) and its venom count was low....
I wonder if it's more a fear of 'falling' ... For example a common fear is when falling in a dream which be quite terrifying for some people...However what if one could develop enough 'awareness' to turn their 'falling' dream into 'free falling' eg, the thrill felt by parachutists before they pull on the ripcord....or better still like this guy.... sky diving WOW what a mind trip
Yes, being high up is potentially quite dangerous, which is why the adrenalin junkies do stuff like skydiving and hang-gliding ( ahem ). I think a phobia is defined as an irrational fear, but it seems like at least some of them have a rational basis in evolutionary terms.
Interesting. I do something similar when re-establishing mindfulness, though I start with bodily sensation and then move on to sights and sounds. It's an effective way of returning to the present moment.
Cool! Yeah, mindfulness is grounding. I also do it while meditating, but without the counting. Just being aware of every sensation, starting with being aware of the surface you're sitting on.
Here is a video of Intensive exposure therapy, it works for some.
A lot of people return regularly to the sensation of breathing, but I prefer "feeling your weight" which is just feeling the bodily sensation of pressure due to gravity.
This might be of interest for some
Mingyur Rinpoche on "Panic Attacks" (approx eight and half minutes)