Treatment Advice from a Psychologist!!!

With an opportunity to interview Dr. Wolfe regarding my friend’s phone phobia, I ventured into Cowell Health Center at Santa Clara University and had an interview with the Director of Health and Psychological Services, Larry Wolfe.

Dr. Wolfe offered insight as to why people have phobias. He said, “The nature of a phobia is that for whatever reason, the thing gets associated with anxiety and in order to avoid anxiety you avoid the thing. And that relieves the anxiety.”

If you fear of telephones, when you ignore calls and choose not to pick up, you strengthen your phobia. By not answering, you reaffirm your phobia and allow it to grow. This is as comparably bad as handing over your cookie jar to the mice family living in your kitchen; the family will strengthen.

Wolfe suggested treatment as a solution for my friend, but while warning its difficulty said a willing and determined mind can self-treat. Wolfe mentioned two ways that psychologists treat phobias. First is the visualization process. This appears to be something that a telephonophobic or anyone suffering from a phobia can do by him or herself. You stay relaxed while simultaneously going through the process of imagining yourself answering the phone. Wolfe explained that this process of imaging works well because our brains work the same whether we are imaging it or it is really happening. This website show you how to visualize.

Another solution that Wolfe proposed for my phoneaphobic friend, Alyssa, was using her cognitive thought process to overcome her fear. Wolfe said people who are afraid allow their phobias to live through self-talk.

Because Alyssa fears saying something stupid on the phone, Wolfe challenged this and asked, “So what if you appear dumb? What does that mean? Does it really mean that you’re dumb?” If Alyssa tells herself it’s going to be awful if someone thinks she’s stupid, the brain will believe it even if the statement is not true. Wolfe pointed out that if someone thinks you’re dumb it may be unfortunate, but it’s far from extremely terrible. However, when our self-talk tells ourselves that it is terrible, it becomes a matter of life or death where the only foreseeable solution becomes avoiding it at all costs. The cognitive thought process works by challenging negative self-talk.

I am pretty sure that I will not be able to convince my friend into taking advantage of the free Counseling and Psychological Services SCU offers to its students. Wolfe cautions doing treatment solo, but I am working with my friend primarily through friendly harassment to encourage her to answer and make calls from her phone.