Bizarre phobia of stairs cured with hypnotherapy
43-year-old Louise Wilson suffered from a curious fear of stairs for 38 years before a hypnotherapist helped her discover it was the result of a childhood fall.
‘Bathmophobia’ is the official name used to describe a fear of steep slopes or steps. Louise Wilson suffered from this phobia for 38 long years and told the Daily Mail that she turned down various jobs simply because she would be expected to climb stairs inside the offices.
Louise has suffered from bathmophobia since she was five years old and has spent many years struggling to even get to the first floor of her own house, which she can only do by clinging onto the wall.
After she found that she could no longer even bring herself to take her son on day trips because she may encounter stairs, Louise decided it was time to seek help.
‘I would get panicky and full of adrenaline – I didn’t know what it’s like to not be frightened. It was a true phobia – I would just freeze when faced with stairs, specially open-slatted and open sided staircases.’ She said.
‘I’d feel dizzy and sick, and just want to grip the floor or the walls.’
Bathmophobia can be triggered by a variety of factors but specialists believe the most common cause is a previous negative experience involving either stairs or a steep hill.
Louise decided to seek help from a hypnotherapist in a bid to cure her phobia, where she discovered that an early suppressed memory of falling off the top of a slide as a child was likely to be the underlying cause.
‘Her parents told her the incident had happened, and we believe that is where her fear stems from.’ Said her hypnotherapist.
Louise’s hypnotherapist used a combination of both hypnotherapy and a specialist technique known as Neuro Linguistic Programming – a psychotherapy approach which looks at how the way we think influences our behaviours. A few months on and thought Louise still doesn’t feel 100% comfortable around stairs, she is able to control her phobia enough to walk up and down them.
‘It just goes to show that however long you have been suffering with phobias for, it’s never too late to get help.’ Said Louise’s hypnotherapist.
To find out more about how hypnotherapy could help you to overcome any phobias, visit our fact-sheet to find out more.
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