Understanding Phobia Treatment

Anxiety and phobia disorders can be very difficult to handle alone. Phobias may cause someone to struggle with fear related to different aspects of life. Often these disorders require therapeutic intervention to help someone work through their phobia. Leaving anxiety disorders like phobias untreated can greatly affect a client's quality of life. If someone struggles to do day-to-day tasks due to avoidance or fear, they may be limiting themselves in their life. It is important to get treatment so that phobias and other anxiety disorders do not rule your life. At West Coast Recovery Centers, we offer phobia treatment from qualified providers that can make a difference in establishing client safety and security in recovery. Understanding phobia treatment is something that makes us qualified to help the mental health needs of all of our clients.

The treatment for phobias may be at times overwhelming. Therapy forces you to make difficult internal changes and often encourages you to confront your fears. While treatment can be difficult, it can make large differences quickly in relieving phobias. Therapeutic interventions such as exposure therapy allow you to make slow progress toward lowering your response to your triggers. Talk therapy will also allow you to get to the root of other issues and build your life back up after having struggled with phobias and anxiety disorders. 

What Are Phobias?

As MedlinePlus.gov states, "A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder. It is a strong, irrational fear of something that poses little or no real danger.” There are many different things that someone can have a phobia of. People who have phobias will try to avoid the things they are afraid of. If they are not able to avoid it, they may experience symptoms of anxiety like panic, fear, rapid heartbeat, and trembling. Nevertheless, these disorders can be treated with therapy and if necessary a combination of therapy and medication. 

Many different forms of phobias have different names and fears. For example, acrophobia is the fear of heights. Agoraphobia is a fear of public places, and claustrophobia is a fear of enclosed spaces. Other common phobias include a fear of flying, animals, blood, driving, and other experiences that may cause someone to experience anxiety. 

There is no specific known cause of phobias. One of the things that may cause someone to develop a phobia is genetics. There is some evidence that phobias can be passed between family members, either from genetics or from learned behaviors from your parents. Other things may include brain structure or formation which affects the existence of certain phobias. Finally, negative experiences and trauma can cause a phobia to form from negative memories. 

The Risks of Untreated Anxiety and Phobias

Leaving anxiety disorders untreated can cause a lot of difficulty in someone's life. As anxiety grows, it can become unmanageable. If anxious thoughts. and actions are controlling your life, you must recognize the need for treatment. The fear that comes from phobias may make someone avoid parts of their life and not live as fully as they need to. Sometimes people with phobias isolate so much that they pull away from their loved ones or the hobbies that they enjoy.

Phobias can exacerbate symptoms of other illnesses. Heightened anxiety and levels of fight or flight can make anxiety grow and get worse. If your phobia is a result of a trauma or negative experience, avoiding and not working through this trauma will make things worse overall. Mental health gets worse in isolation. If someone pushes away from their loved ones, it can make the symptoms of mental illness worse. Isolation can cause someone to get worse, and make anxiety heightened. 

Phobias are fears of things that do not pose any danger. Being in this heightened state of anxiety all the time is not good for your brain or body. Getting treatment for anxiety disorders and phobia will allow you to take control of your life, and get your mental health under control.

Understanding Phobia Treatment

Many different treatments can make a difference when dealing with phobias. The most common form of treatment for phobia is exposure therapy. This form of therapy involves being exposed to your fear or phobia in a safe environment with a therapist. This slow exposure to your trigger will over time make your response of fear lower until you can handle it better on your own. Other forms of therapy include cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness therapy. 

All of these treatments involve working with a provider to make a therapeutic difference. As you make slow changes in personalized treatment, you will get better at handling your overall mood and anxiety. At West Coast Recovery Centers, our therapists are trained to work with someone who deals with an anxiety disorder. Personalized treatment plans will work to make a difference in your mental health as you work to achieve lasting recovery from phobias in your life. 

Anxiety disorders and phobias can be very disruptive to day-to-day life. If you spend a lot of energy avoiding situations or things that make you feel fear, you may be losing experiences in your life. It is important to get treatment for phobias and make a difference in your quality of life. Exposure therapy can help you lower your fear response to your phobias, and work to manage them on your own. Therapy helps with problems that are affecting you and work through your anxiety. Not treating anxiety disorder and phobias will cause the issues to grow until they are unmanageable. To learn more about our treatments for phobias, call West Coast Recovery Centers today at (760) 492-6509.