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Category: Fear & Phobia

Overcoming Dental Fear

Hypnae
Overcoming Dental Fear 1

Dental fear is another common fear shared by many individuals. Despite the importance of dental care, there are quite many who despise the idea of going to the dentist for a visit. For some people, the pain associated with any type of dental problems is tied up with the fear of that dreaded visit to the dentist. Statistics reveal that dentists are the most feared out of any type of doctors.

It is no surprise as to why dental fear is so prevalent given the different situational causes to it.

Cause of Dental Fear

The fear of dentists vary in their intensity such that some people are afraid of undergoing intricate dental procedures while others dislike the idea of seeing the dentist at all. Due to the importance of dental care as part of taking care of your body, it is also important to assess your level of fear so you can undertake the necessary steps to overcome it.

If you examine the causes for dental fear, these are quite familiar. Therefore, you need to be able to identify them before you can think of ways to eliminate them.

  • Previous terrible experience with a dentist.
  • Fear of being embarrassed or ridiculed for your dental condition. This is quite problematic since your own fear is also the reason for your dental neglect in the first place.
  • Fear of certain dental procedures, specially intricate ones that you might perceive as painful.
  • Others own scary or terrible experiences with the dentist that impact your own perception about dentists and having a dental check-up on a whole.
  • Fear of the anesthesia shots and needles registered by the dentist before proceeding to any dental procedure.

Behavioral Techniques To Overcome Dental Fear

As with any other types of fear, dental fear mostly takes place in the mind. Therefore, you can try to combat it with a few psychological methods that will enable you to confront this fear. By following them, you are not entirely guaranteed of being able to let go of that fear altogether. However, it can help you understand that this type of fear can be illogical and enable you to appreciate the importance of having frequent dental care.

The Comfort Zone

This is an important concept associated with psychological fears involved with your dental fear. Undergoing dental procedures can be scary, but you can get over that by re-learning the emotional responses solicited by the experience. This is most common among children. For example, you can try doing basic check up wherein the doctor examines the teeth using a mouth mirror. If a child shows no signs of fear from that, then you can proceed to a more elaborate test. Taking this step by step process and moving in slowly will enable the child or individual to remain in their comfort zone. This is a more useful approach among adults given that they can voice out their experience so that you remain as relaxed about the entire dental visit.

Knowing You’re In Control

This one is related to the idea of the “comfort zone”, which is basically about letting your dentist know whether or not you are comfortable about the dental proceedings. It is important that you learn how to effectively communicate with your dentist so they remain aware about your state throughout the entire procedure. If at some point you become quite anxious about the situation, then it is best to send out warning signals so your dentist know when to stop or proceed.

Also, you need to keep it in mind that dental procedures are not going to hurt. That is what the numbing agent is for, which is also another reason why you should not fear those shots administered before any procedure. Once you have motivated yourself enough to dismiss all these thoughts of fear and anxiety, then you’d be able to come out of the procedure with a healthier dental condition.

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Relieve Social Anxiety with Hypnosis

Hypnae
Relieve Social Anxiety with Hypnosis 2

We know for a fact that hypnosis can help certain problems and one example happens to be social anxiety. With a little help from a hypnotist that will perform individual hypnosis, you will be able to interact with people which you were unable to do in the past.

But interacting with others is just one of the levels of social anxiety. Some individuals have this problem speaking in public while others are not able to do anything with others around.

The reason why hypnosis could be the answer to their problems is that if nothing is done about it, things could get worse. The person with that disorder could go into a depression or try taking drugs to escape this reality.

But how does individual hypnosis accomplish that? Well by addressing the issues which create such fears in the person and after several sessions hope things turn out for the better.

This is where the different stages of hypnosis come in which is the same if this is done on an individual or group basis.

The first stage is known as preparation because the hypnotist and the patient have never met before and this will be their first encounter. Because the patient is thinking of undergoing hypnosis, he or she has already made the first move to get better and the only thing to do now is for the specialist to probe deeper.

This is done by asking the patient exactly what is their problem and determining if that person is susceptible to hypnosis. If they are, it is time to proceed to the second stage known as induction.

During induction, the patient will be told either to sit down comfortably on a chair or lie down on a sofa. Once he or she is relaxed, the patient must now block everything out and only focus their attention towards the hypnotist.

When the hypnotist feels the patient is comfortable, it is time to move on to the third stage known as the deepening. Here, the hypnotist will find out what events caused the social anxiety disorder because it is only by understanding it will hypnotic suggestion work in making the patient reach their desired goal.

The hypnotic suggestion will be imparted to the patient in the fourth stage known as circulation.

Naturally, the session has to end which goes to the fifth stage called termination. Here, the patient will be brought back to reality by counting the numbers, simply being told to open their eyes or by following an authoritative command like “open your eyes.”

The results of the hypnosis will only be seen when the situation presents itself. Since you won’t see the improvement overnight, patients will have to come back and have a few more sessions.

Individual hypnosis is just one of the many alternatives now available to cure social anxiety. You have to remember that not everyone who tries this will have the same result which is why if this doesn’t work, they have to be open to other options such as social cognitive restructuring, social skills training, symptoms management skills and supportive therapy that will require the help of family and friends.

You don’t lose anything by trying individual hypnosis. To succeed, you just have to be open to the idea of what this technique can accomplish.

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Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking

Hypnae
Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking 3

One of the most common fears that people have is making a speech before an audience. Although this task appears to be rather straightforward, there are several factors that could come into play, which makes this a legitimate type of fear instead of being an irrational one.

Even those people whose job requires them to speak before a group of people are not exempted from this fear, which is surprising knowing that they do it often. So you might as well picture those individuals who only get to perform public speaking on given occasions and the amount of fear that is entailed with the task. In fact, the fear is so massive that it can result to stress for some people. This requires some attention knowing that some people who experience fear of public speaking end up not delivering a quality speech since they are overtaken by that fear. Indeed, the feeling of fear can cloud one’s ability to focus on the task at hand. After all, an effective public speaking produces a satisfying experience for both the public speaker and its audience.

Steps to Overcome Fear of Public Speaking

Public speaking isn’t an activity to be feared about. If this does not do the trick for you, then you might want to consider applying the following perspectives and behavior towards this and hopefully be able to overcome this type of fear.

Public Speaking Isn’t Supposed to be Stressful

Fear of public speaking is quite common that some people think it is inherently stressful. Well, it is time you know it is not! Communicating with others is an activity with which humans do everyday, so why should public speaking be any different? Therefore, one way to overcome the fear of public speaking is to imagine this activity as any regular communication that you do everyday. The only difference with public speaking is that you are addressing more people than you normally would.

Acquiring this new perspective is not something that you can achieve overnight, though. However, just focus on what you need to share during your public speaking and less on the actual delivery process to lift off the burden.

Give Up The Idea of Delivering a Perfect Speech!

This is another major culprit as to why people fear the idea of speaking in public. Indeed, the idea of embarrassing yourself in front of many people is frightening. But the content of your speech is what is these people will remember, not how you flawlessly delivered the speech. Once you are able to get rid of this anxiety, then you will find that you become less frightened with the idea of making public speeches or talking in front of large groups.

Focus on the Purpose of the Speech!

One of the most common “hidden” causes of stress associated with public speaking is related to the cause above, which is trying to impress the audience with your delivery. Focus on what value the audience can get from your speech delivery instead of trying to make an impression on them. Although delivery will boost your success at a public speaking activity, the most important thing is to communicate effectively with them. If it offers any consolation, not all public speakers get 100% approval from their audience anyway.

Becoming a Good Public Speaker

Now that you have recognized the major cause of fear that most people experience when public speaking, here are factors that are important in not just overcoming this fear but also doing a good job at your speech.

• Study your subject matter thoroughly so you can be confident when its time to deliver it.
• Polish your speaking skills. This will enable you to relay the information clearly and authoritatively.
• Prepare all of your presentation materials so you can deliver an organized speech.
• Practice your delivery. Even the best public speakers do this.

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