How to stop being afraid of your dog?
Roslyn Franecki
2025-07-30 05:30:14
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: 15
Several types of therapy can help people with this phobia. Phobias are anxiety disorders that cause people to be afraid of a situation or object that is usually harmless. They involve excessive fear of an event or situation that won’t necessarily cause harm in reality. People with specific phobia disorders have extreme reactions to a certain object or situation. They do whatever they can to avoid the thing that causes discomfort, concern or fear — in this case, dogs. Around 9% of adults in the U.S. have a specific phobia disorder. Anyone can get specific phobia disorders, but women are more likely to get them.
Zackery Okuneva
2025-07-30 03:35:55
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: 25
In the end, what worked best for me was actually exposing myself to my phobia in a process called ‘flooding’. Flooding is when you expose yourself to something that causes you anxiety, until your anxiety calms down and you see there is no real threat. For me, this happened at Christmas. I summoned all my courage and took the big step of allowing myself to be in the same room as the dog. Trust me, at first I was crying inside, but after some time I realised the dog didn’t want to hurt me, it just wanted a quick little sniff, smell and lick and to say hello! It’s difficult, but you have to face your fear and learn to sit with it, when and where necessary. I promise you will be okay and you will get through it. Now, I still avoid dogs when and where possible, but I suppose I have learnt how to manage my phobia so that it doesn’t affect my life as much.
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