Phobias- What You Need To Know!

If you’ve noticed your anxiety has soared in midlife, you’re not alone. Time to free yourself from your fears…

- Charlotte Haigh

Always been confident and taken things in your stride – but recently started noticing you’re irrationally anxious in certain situations? Amanda, 51, can pinpoint exactly when a new fearfulness began to grip her. “Last year, my first significant post-divorce relationship ended and I was stressed at work. I flew to Berlin for a weekend with an old friend. When I got on the plane to come home, I became convinced we were going to crash.

“The flight was actually uneventful but I spent all of it hyperventilating and crying. I know heartbreak and stress were probably behind it but I haven’t been able to get on a plane since. In the rest of my life, I’m a very self-assured person. This new flying phobia just doesn’t make sense.”

Actually women are twice as likely as men to experience phobias, according to research from the Karolinska Institute, Sweden – and scientists think our fear responses are sharper, perhaps because of our innate desire to keep our families safe.

Why now?