3 mins

Are You Letting a Phobia Hold You Back?

We all have our likes and dislikes and even things that scare us. What makes that different from a phobia is the debilitating nature of the fear. Do you have something that truly frightens you or fills you with dread? Phobias are more common than most people realise and they are nothing to be embarrassed about. What you don’t want to do is let your phobia hold you back.

Perhaps you’ve had this fear so long you don’t even realise how much it impacts your life. Do you avoid going to the park because you’re afraid of dogs? Is your perfectly good loft left unused because of its potential to harbour spiders? Is your fear of the dentist keeping you from getting the dental care you need? These types of phobias can be impeding your life and the lives of your loved ones, too. If you can’t go to the beach because of your fear of sharks, is your family also missing out on holiday adventures and memories they’d cherish forever?

Is it a phobia?

You may be accustomed to your fear or think your fear is justified. Realising your fear is a phobia is the first step in resolving the problem.

A phobia is a debilitating fear. This fear can be of an animal, place, situation, or object. For example, most of us are nervous at the thought of speaking in public. A phobia of public speaking would be more intense and include an unrealistic perception of danger. There are different types of phobias and a phobia can be directed toward anything.

You may feel that your phobia is under control because you are arranging your life in order to avoid what you fear. In reality, avoidance is usually not an answer. It can lead you to miss out on many opportunities in your life. You don’t want to live your life never being able to travel where you want to go or do the things you want to do. You don’t want the regret of not spending special moments with your loved ones.

Phobias can also have an impact on your overall health. The stress of worrying can be a strain on you. This can, in turn, hurt your ability to get a good night’s sleep which can cause additional strain on your health.

As you age, an unresolved phobia can expand to other phobias as other things become associated with your original fear. For example, a phobia about crowded spaces could make it hard to be in a place of strangers. Worry about this could inhibit you from going out for drinks or meals. This could cause you to develop a phobia about going outside, leaving you confided to your home. This is one of the reasons why it is important to seek help for your phobia now.

Treatment

The good news is that phobias are normally quite treatable. Psychological therapy can help you resolved your phobia. Our personalised psychology clinic in London offers experienced experts in treating a broad range of disorders including different types of phobias. Our private clinic makes it easier to get confidential treatments to help improve the quality of your life. While it can be a big step to seek help, it is important to consider how positive an impact successful treatment could have on your life.

Dr Elena Touroni

Dr Elena Touroni

9 March 2018

"Dr. Elena Touroni is a skilled and experienced Consultant Psychologist with a track record of delivering high-quality services for individuals with all common emotional difficulties and those with a diagnosis of personality disorder. She is experienced in service design and delivery, the management of multi-disciplinary teams, organisational consultancy, and development and delivery of both national and bespoke training to providers in the statutory and non-statutory sector."

You may like these...

1 min

How do psychologists differ from psychiatrists?

1 min

How do you treat sleep disorders?

2 mins

How regularly should patients attend therapy?

1 min

How long does it take to diagnose a personality disorder?

Start your journey

Today

Dr Elena Touroni

Dr Elena Touroni is a skilled and experienced consultant psychologist with a track record of delivering high-quality services for individuals with all common emotional difficulties and those with a diagnosis of personality disorder. She is experienced in service design and delivery, the management of multi-disciplinary teams, organisational consultancy, and development and delivery of both national and bespoke training to providers in the statutory and non-statutory sector.

Having obtained a first degree in Psychology (BSc) at the American College of Greece, she completed her doctoral training at the University of Surrey. Dr Touroni is highly experienced in the assessment and treatment of depression, anxiety, substance misuse, personality disorder, eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, adjustment disorder and relationship difficulties. She works with both individuals and couples and can offer therapy in English and Greek.

She is trained in several specialist therapeutic approaches such as Schema Therapy for individuals and couples, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness-based approaches and Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT).

Dr Touroni has held a variety of clinical and managerial positions including as Head of Service in the NHS. Further she has held academic positions for the University of Surrey and the Institute of Mental Health lecturing on specialist postgraduate Masters and Doctorate programmes. As well as holding a variety of NHS positions, Dr Touroni is the co-founder of a private practice in Central London that has been a provider of psychological therapy for all common emotional difficulties including personality disorder since 2002.

Dr Touroni has a keen interest in developing preventative approaches for psychological well-being and has been involved in the co-creation of bespoke wellness retreats for transformative change for the past 5 years. She is the founder and one of two directors of The Chelsea Psychology Clinic.