Thunderstorm Phobia and Effective Treatment for Specific Phobias

Introduction

You’ve probably heard of common phobias such as claustrophobia; fear of enclosed spaces, fear of thunderstorm, or arachnophobia; fear of spiders which result in anxiety and panic attacks. According to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual Volume 5 (DSM-V), a specific phobia is defined as having a marked fear or anxiety about a specific object or situation. The criteria to meet a specific phobia are as follows: the phobic object or situation almost always provokes immediate fear or anxiety which is out of proportion to the actual danger posed by the specific object or situation, the phobia object or situation is endured with intense fear and anxiety, causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning which typically lasts 6 months or more (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, pg. 197). Also, according to the DSM-V, the disturbance is not better explained by symptoms of another mental disorder, including fear, anxiety, and avoidance of situations associated with panic-like symptoms (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, pg. 198). An individual suffering from a specific phobia can experience troubles as it interferes with many aspects of their life and can cause one to feel anxious, alone, embarrassed, or frightened. Luckily, there have been effective treatment methods to reduce anxiety and fear to help people manage their reactions to the object(s) of their phobia.

Understanding Specific Phobias

Some individuals fear their surrounding environment although the phobia is limited to a specific feature of that environment, for example, thunderstorms or heights. As stated in the article The Place of Hypnosis in Psychiatry Part 6: Treatment of Specific Phobias – Natural Environment Type, Blood-Injection-Injury Type, and Other Types By David Kraft , “Some patients become housebound for periods of time and this can lead to full-blown agoraphobia” (pg. 3, 2016). Many individuals who suffer from a natural environment phobia develop safety behaviors to limit the chance of experience the feared stimulus. These avoidant behaviors tend to become more complex over time if left untreated, and the individual can develop anxiety disorders in which they avoid places or situations that cause panic (Kraft, 2016).

Treatment of Thunderstorm Phobias

Michael Heap (as cited by Kraft, 2016), was able to successfully treat a 47-year-old individual who had a life-long fear of thunderstorms. This case study shows how a patient’s ability to experience the feared event can play a significant role in the treatment process (Kraft, 2016). This counterconditioning process is known as systemic desensitization, in which a patient is exposed to anxiety-provoking stimuli and taught relaxation techniques. If there are two competing emotions, the stronger inhibits the weaker and relaxation training is done in imagination or video to make the fear weaker and relaxation stronger. As Kraft writes, “And yet, she had the feeling that she was actually experiencing a thunderstorm, and even sensed a ‘cooling sensation’ which signified a drop in temperature as the storm progressed” (pg. 3). During the beginning stages of this patient's treatment, it was revealed that she had corresponded her fear of thunderstorms to the sounds of bombs during the Blitz War. These sounds brought feelings of loneliness and a fear or abandonment (Kraft, pg. 4). The patient would constantly check the weather reports, so Heap insisted that she keep a record by writing down her feelings and experiences with regards to the weather. The purpose of this, according to Heap, was for the patient to experience different scenes in weather conditions which ranged from calm and sunny to an extreme thunderstorm.

The patient’s next six sessions consisted of her continuing to desensitize by imagining herself in fearful situations of storms. Heap focused on her fear of thunderstorms at night and asked the patient to lay comfortably and relaxed in bed. He then played tape recordings of rain and thunder and gradually increased the volume and intensity during each session. As Kraft writes, “Further, lightning was simulated using two Xenon-filled flash tubes” (pg. 4). The more realistic you make the fearful situation seem to a client when they are in a safe place, the more effective it becomes to lessen the anxiety and panic.

Heap reported that early on in this phase of treatment, the patient reported that she had reduced her obsessive checking of the weather reports. Although she continued to experience and show some anxiety during thunderstorms, the effect they had on her were brief and did not limit her daily activities as much as they did before. Kraft writes, as reported by Heap, “The patient, Sarah, also commented that it was helpful for her to be able to re-frame frightening sounds to noises that comforted her: for example, she imagined changing the sound of the wind near her home to a sound of a waterfall” (pg. 5). We see here that the hypnotic systematic desensitization was effective in getting rid of some of the anxiety and fear Sarah had, and she was able to visualize and vividly experience being in the imaginational situation which were key components in the success of the treatment.

Conclusion

Above we saw that systematic desensitization is an effective treatment of certain phobias, but how are certain specific phobias acquired? Why do a minority of individuals with specific phobias unable to recall events that may have precipitated their fears? The book Mastering Your Fears and Phobias: Therapist Guide by Michelle G Craske, Martin M. Antony, and David H. Barlow explains it all.  

Works Cited

1. American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). American Psychiatric Publishing.
2. Craske, M. G., Antony, M. M., & Barlow, D. H. (2006). Mastering Your Fears and Phobias: Therapist Guide. Oxford University Press.
3. Kraft, D. (2016). The Place of Hypnosis in Psychiatry Part 6: Treatment of Specific Phobias - Natural Environment Type, Blood-Injection-Injury Type, and Other Types. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 64(3), 367-380.
4. Heap, M. (as cited by Kraft, D.). Systemic Desensitization in the Treatment of a Thunderstorm Phobia. Unpublished manuscript.