We have nothing to fear but fear itself

Jun 13 2008 by Valerie Hill, Liverpool Daily Post

WE ALL have them, even if we’re frightened to admit to them. Fears, that is. As they say, tell us your phobias and we’ll tell you what you’re afraid of. Friday the 13th? Oh, don't be so irrational.

Bizarrely, often our fears are compounded by the fear of other people finding out about what we perceive to be personal weaknesses.

Yet, as I say, nobody is without an Achilles’ heel of some kind. Often people very strong in certain traits can be found wanting in others for no apparent reason.

It appears that four out of five of us suffers from phobias and a quarter claim it affects their daily lives.

Agoraphobia (fear of open spaces), arachnophobia (fear of spiders) and acrophobia (fear of heights) – they’re all common enough.

God forbid that I should have to cross an open field of grazing spiders to climb a dizzyingly tall haystack.

Heights (28%) and spiders (22%) are the most common fears, but irrational aversion to open spaces, not to mention flying and public speaking afflict millions, according to a new survey.

It also revealed that there are dozens of more obscure conditions, from the fear of the sound of paper being torn to swallowing tablets.

There are even those who wilt at the very thought of garden peas or baked beans. My husband’s love of peas and my sons’ passion for baked beans means that I have every irrational right to never want to see these vegetables again.

As strange as some of the fears are the words used to describe them, although I’m not entirely convinced by the definition of Frisbeetarianism as an anxiety that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck.

I’m always intrigued by those members of the acting profession who claim they can’t bear looking at themselves, in a job that involves exhibitionism.

Taking it somewhat to an extreme is the former Baywatch beauty Pamela Anderson, who stated: “I have this phobia: I don’t like mirrors and I don’t like to watch myself on television. If anything comes on, I make them shut it off, or I leave the room.”

Perhaps if the poor love took a bit more notice of herself she wouldn’t be playing pass the parcel so often with her on/off breast implants.

That old Broadway broad Tallulah Bankhead was, I feel, being rather more honest when she confessed: “I have three phobias which, could I mute them, would make my life as slick as a sonnet, but as dull as ditchwater: I hate to go to bed, I hate to get up and I hate to be alone.”

Whatever Tallulah’s problems, expressing herself in poetic prose was not one of them.

Can you imagine any actress today using mute as a verb and talking of life as “slick as a sonnet”? What a marvellous way to describe your maladjustments.

Of the 1,000 people surveyed by hypnotherapist Joseph Clough, more than 82% regard themselves as having at least one phobia, with some saying they have two or more.

Frightening for females is that women are more likely to fall victim to a phobia than men, at a total of nearly 87% as opposed 79%.

Some 27% said their condition impacted on their daily lives, and although 20% said they attempted to deal with their phobias by facing up to what they feared, almost two- thirds admitted they tried to avoid confrontation.

To add to my difficulties, I’m not big on slugs, so isn’t it quite rational not to pick one up? I find running away from them the most effective strategy, as none have yet managed to outpace me (even with my bad foot, which still isn’t mended, since you ask).

Surely it’s irrational to want physical contact with the said slimy beast? And if you do overcome your fear, why would you want to find pleasure in stroking a slug?

However, experts claim that almost all phobias can be controlled, if not conquered, by admitting the problem, having therapy and engaging easy self-help strategies.

Mr Clough alleges that he can help those afflicted by fears by “offsetting” or counter-acting their phobias in a few minutes.

Apparently, we have nothing to fear but fear itself. He says: “A phobia is our body’s sub-consciously round-about way of trying to protect us.

“It is a mix of hypnotism and neuro-linguistic application that enables me to help my clients.”

Neuro-linguistic programming describing a technique for restructuring how the brain reacts to scenarios by altering the way our senses response to specific words and phrases.

No, I’ve not the foggiest idea what that means either, but in a totally inexplicable way it sort of scares me.