Now I Know I'm Neurotic

After reading through all the comments from my last post, I've found that I share virtually 90% of all of your phobias. I might not suffer to the extent you do, but they are all on my list of what I like to avoid. From dentists to flying, from freeway driving to spiders, not to mention {{shudder}} doctors, we all share similar stories - at least one thing in our lives that really gives us the willies!

Since I share so many, I think that makes me thoroughly neurotic, LOL!

Phobias

Phobias are one of those things that I think everyone has - at least one. In my case it's doctors, doctor's offices, medical equipment, nurses, or anything that has to do with messing with my body, short of having a hot stone massage. I find myself either surly, or worse in my opinion, desperately insecure, whenever I have to visit the doctor. My blood pressure rises and I have a hard time sitting still while waiting. And waiting is something you do when visiting the doctor. My phobia even as a name - Iatrophobia - a fear of doctors.

At any rate, I am of the age where one has to have preventative tests. The usual mammogram, blood tests, and colonoscopy. Somehow I have managed to dance around not getting any of these tests for two years. I've had good excuses. At one point we were not sure when our insurance would be canceled from a company that had merged with my husband's company and had a contract to pay our insurance for two years. Unfortunately that company went bankrupt six months after the merge. So for the next year we waited to be canceled. Not a good time to have tests that might preclude being able to get insurance at all. We all know insurance companies would like nothing better than to exclude you from any policy for a pre-existing condition. Our health care is now in corporate hands, not doctors.

The dreaded colonoscopy I've managed to avoid for six years. Each year I visit the doctor and the doctor writes an "order" to have it done. I would put it off and, lucky for me, I would move and then have to start all over again. But now I'm back to my original doctor, the one I had six years ago that first sent me  to have it done. I ignored last year's, telling her our insurance had been canceled, which was true, just not at the time she wrote the order. But this year I had absolutely no excuse. I was caught with no way out. I had put it off long enough, and with colon cancer in the family, it was just plain irresponsible.

Phobias are debilitating. They often have absolutely nothing to do with reality, but they keep us from doing things that are in our best interest. And there are many, many different types of phobias, from a phobia of erect penises, Medorthophobia, to gaiety, Cherophobia. You can find a complete list here. Chances are you have a problem with something on the list.

Phobias are treated in a number of ways, some listed here. But I have found from my own experience that using relaxation techniques, combined with actually facing the fear, works well for my phobias. Simply put yourself in a relaxed state and walk through the fear. Do it over and over. In my case, I walked myself through the entire colonoscopy procedure in my mind. I watched myself get up, shower, get dressed, get in the car, etc., all the while feeling relaxed and free of fear. Did it work? Yes. It worked enough to get me there and do what I needed to do without freaking out.

My point is that fear is something that is constructed in the mind, and the mind can help you release the fear. It's more a matter of controlling the thoughts and programming our brains to think the thoughts we want it to be thinking. The body's autonomic nervous system will follow the directions from the brain, and the brain will follow directions from the mind. Does that make any sense?

What about you - any phobias?

Children's Past Lives

I mentioned before that I will be giving a brief review of those books that I think might be of interest to some of you. I just finished Children's Past Lives by Carol Bowman. A densely-spaced book, it not only explores past-lives, but how we have been led away from belief in reincarnation through such events as the Second Council of Constantinople in A.D. 553. It was at this time all ideas under the banner of "pre-existence of the soul," along with other concepts and ideas, were decreed a crime worthy of excommunication and damnation.

Her book examines the healing that takes place when children, who are often dealing with specific issues unrelated to anything they have experienced in this life, can remember past life events that are affecting quality of life in this one. She uses quantitative, qualitative, first-person and anecdotal evidence to back her claims. Her book is interesting and well-written.

This book could be of interest to those exploring the idea of reincarnation, past-life regression, unexplained phobias, anxieties, night terrors, or disturbing dreams. It could be helpful for those searching for the meaning of life, and why bad things happen to good people.

She has a second book out about children reincarnating into same families that I will read another time. For now, she has given me plenty to think about.