UPDATED July 31st, 2018
The interesting thing about fear and phobias is that so many people share the same ones. The top five are public speaking, death, spiders, the dark, and heights. We’re guessing it won’t be long before nomophobia — fear of being without your cell phone — tops the list. Of these, the only real potential dangers are death and heights so it should be easy to get over them right? Nope. According to PsychCentral, “Phobias are persistent, irrational fears of certain objects or situations. Phobias occur in several forms; the fear associated with a phobia can focus on a particular object (specific phobia) or be a fear of embarrassment in a public setting (social phobia),” and, “Approximately 4 to 5 percent of the U.S. population has one or more clinically significant phobias in a given year.”. There is no one-size-fits-all method for overcoming fear. Everyone’s different so naturally certain methods work better for some people than others. The key is to keep trying until you find one that works.
We’ve all been told that you can conquer any phobias if you face them head-on. This is also known as exposure therapy and it’s usually done incrementally over a long period of time. A new British reality show called Fright Club challenges 60 people to do this in just three days. How has this not been done before? We’re betting it’s only a matter of time before there’s an American version. Exposure therapy is also widely used to treat PTSD but recent studies have suggested that it may not be very effective unless you have a positive attitude. Then again, when is that not true?
Read Related: Tips to Overcome Your Fears
