Talk:Casadastraphobia/@comment-34455581-20180124152341/@comment-108.14.227.21-20180210023903

Hey there, I am both a former sufferer of this phobia, and the phobia's coining author. Yes, it is possible to overcome this phobia, but you have identified several key components to your situation which will have to be resolved first. It is /extremely/ common for generalized anxiety to develop into phobic thinking. When the mind experiences an unexpected throe of anxiety, it seeks to rationalize it. Without the root cause of the anxiety 'in front of it' it tends to latch onto unrelated stimuli, which become triggers for phobias. In order to effectively treat this phobia, the underlying causes first need to be treated. Therefor, my recommendation, based on my psychological studies and my own experiences with this phobia, is first to tackle your generalized anxiety disorder and obsessive thinking, which are intimately tied. At that point, once you are at a relatively neurotypical level of anxiety, exposure therapy is extremely effective at treating phobias. The thing is, I don't think it is usually very effective to attempt to treat generalized anxiety on one's own. As a pre-med psych and neuroscience student, it is my strong recommendation that you seek out a psychotherapist, preferably one who is attached to a good psychiatrist. You don't want to take an anti-anxiety prescription for the rest of your life, but a take-as-needed clonazepam or similar drug, to reduce the effects of panic, can help to offset both the generalized anxiety and the phobic thinking, as well as to act as a rescue medication for when it causes a full blown panic attack. It will also make your talk therapy more effective, and they will likely recommend the same course of treatment as me -- first, tackle the generalized anxiety, and then the phobic thinking. Given that, it is certainly 100% within the realm of probability that you can overcome this disorder, and you will go on to enjoy your life and the beatiful places the world has to offer.