Fast phobia cure - does it work?

[Stokiegirl]

Hi. I wonder if anyone can give me any advice? I have seen a website, phobiaclinic.co.uk, which claims in one or two sessions of 1 and a half hours they can use some fast phobia cure to remove the trigger of your phobia, including social phobia. The website is very convincing. They describe all of my symptoms so well and have testimonies of people who have used their service and apparently been cured. I am so tempted to try it but its expensive and I'm worried it might not be all its made out to be. I have been trying to do research on the web and see that CBT is the most recommended treatment. Any advice would we great, before I waste my money. Thanks.

[AxelFendersson]

That does strike me as a little too good to be true, especially for a complex phobia like social phobia. A simple phobia like spiders or something I could see a short intensive course like that being helpful, but for SA I'd be fairly suspicious.

[sparky10]

The fast phobia cure can be very good for simple phobias like fear of heights, planes , et al. It wont cure social phobia and anyone claiming to will just be after your money im afraid.
I have had tons of hypnotherapy by several different hypnotherapists and it
never had any lasting benefit.
Sorry i am sceptical but sometimes you need to try it to see for yourself.

[Candyman]

Sounds too good to be true. I wouldn't waste my money.

[Ashtray88]

Are any of the testimonies from people who have had social phobia? Do they mention how they treat people so quickly? My guess is, it is through some sort of shock therapy, like throwing you in the deep end, putting you in some really intense social situation. I would recommend you don't waste your money on it. It would be nice if someone could wave a magic wand and make SA disappear, but unfortunetly, it involves hard work.

[tallyn78]

THey probably do some sort of flooding technique or gradual exposure which wouldn't work with most social phobics as we are exposed to our fears all of the time.

[Hynam]

From my experience of social anxiety, it isn't just a phobia; that is only one part - it's the resulting underlying negative thought cycles and a huge lack of self worth and self esteem which are the real problem.. As long as they are there, your anxiety is going nowhere.

I haven't personally had hypnotherapy, I've only looked into it briefly, but I'm convinced you would just end up entering back into the negative cycle where you left off and any work would be undone.

Obviously I can't speak for anybody else - but for me the only way of getting any better seems to be to through working hard on building inner strength, which slowly and gradually begins to break down the outer anxiety and related phobias / behaviors. I think Hypnotherapy just puts a patch over the hole, and perhaps for some people fixes the problem superficially; but doesn't really get to the core / root of the problem and just ends up adding to the frustration a few months down the line.

[danielv]

ive downloaded programmes like this before. They're a complete waste of time. Its the type of thing you could read in a book that you could get from amazon for a tenner. The info is ok, but just because you know the techniques needed to release a phobia because you read about them in a book, doesnt mean you can easily apply them

[Terence]

Originally Posted by Stokiegirl

Hi. I wonder if anyone can give me any advice? I have seen a website, phobiaclinic.co.uk, which claims in one or two sessions of 1 and a half hours they can use some fast phobia cure to remove the trigger of your phobia, including social phobia. The website is very convincing. They describe all of my symptoms so well and have testimonies of people who have used their service and apparently been cured. I am so tempted to try it but its expensive and I'm worried it might not be all its made out to be. I have been trying to do research on the web and see that CBT is the most recommended treatment. Any advice would we great, before I waste my money. Thanks.

If it worked as well as they claim the NHS would be using it because it would save money and they don't have time to muck about wasting time with inferior remedies. If this was it then CBT would be considered an alternative not the main cure.

Probably you can cure things like spider or dog phobias quite quickly because they are just things that only crop up when you meet a dog or spider whereas 99 percent of the time you don't have a problem. But social phobia is a far more complex problem and it's difficult to pin it down to one situation. It's harder to treat I think because in lots of cases it involves coming from some type of dysfunctional situation or undergoing abuse or maybe even neglect.

I mean did you ever hear or somebody getting a height phobia because they got abused by a height for all their childhood or something.

The price makes it suspect to me right away. That made me think these people are just out to make a killing financially. Too many bastards out there will prey on sick or ailing people because they have no shame.

I never read testimnials as anybody can write them there is no way to prove they are genune. It's a marketing ploy that they use so frequently it has lost it's effect on me.

Ask them for a freebie and also if they will sign a document that gives you your money back and see what they say if they are so good at this they won't mind the risk but I doubt it. I'd read the small print if they do agree though.

[R1chy]

I have every NLP book out there and none have really helped me. The one to get is "get the life you want" by Bandler which also contains a hypnosis cd in the back cover.

Fast phobia cure is (you will find more detailed in the above book):

1. THink of phobia.
2. Imagine watching yourself on a cinema screen going through the phobia.
3. Imagine yourself in the projector room of the cinema looking at yourself watching yourself in the cinema screen going through the phobia.
4. Run the film until the end when you have successfully gone through the phobia and survived and then imagine floating inside yourself at the end of the movie.
5. As you stand inside yourself at the end of the movie, imagine running it backwards so that everything goes backwards. Then think of the phobia and notice how you feel different.
6. Repeat the above a few times.

I have to say I tried a lot of this NLP stuff and still the same chemical reactions or whatever trigger off in my brain to lead my into a socially inept state. I actually think that "thinking" is a large part of the problem. If I could shut down mind chatter clearing my mind, I could enter any social situation with ease.

[innerchanges]

It sounds like the usual marketing over-hype. Social phobia is far to complex to be 'cured' by the Fast Phobia Cure. The NLP Fast Phobia Cure does work, but it is best suited to very simple phobias. Social Phobia is really more of an anxiety and needs to be treated as such.

[lostsol]

Originally Posted by Stokiegirl

Hi. I wonder if anyone can give me any advice? I have seen a website, phobiaclinic.co.uk, which claims in one or two sessions of 1 and a half hours they can use some fast phobia cure to remove the trigger of your phobia, including social phobia. The website is very convincing. They describe all of my symptoms so well and have testimonies of people who have used their service and apparently been cured. I am so tempted to try it but its expensive and I'm worried it might not be all its made out to be. I have been trying to do research on the web and see that CBT is the most recommended treatment. Any advice would we great, before I waste my money. Thanks. wave:

Hi Stokiegirl,

I dont know if this message is too late for you, i hope not because i have come across a very good site which is helping me at this moment to handle my anxiety and panic attacks. It's free and i believe it can help with all kinds of anxiety and phobias, give it ago.

http://www.selftherapy.org/