Fear act as a defence against any perceived threat. It alerted us against the impending danger and warned to stay away from that seemingly dangerous situation. A phobia is an intense fear of something that is perceived as hazardous and is often associated with external event or object, such as height, social situation or insects. However, people who have been subject to a traumatic experience may develop a phobia within themselves. This trauma-based phobia acts as a defence to prevent the trauma survivors from remembering the past traumatic experience to protect their ability to perform the daily function. The trauma-based phobia causes the trauma survivors to dissociate from their emotion, block new information that might bring a reminder of the past, and live in constant alert of perceived threat.
While avoiding their past painful memories was helpful for a while, this coping mechanism is not beneficial eventually. Living in fear causes the trauma survivors to be suspicious of others and the world around them. It also robbed them of self-confidence as they live in fear of being harm.
Trauma-focused therapy helps you gradually reduce the trauma-based phobia and strengthen tolerance towards the traumatic stimuli so that you can live without constant fear. It will help you to have a better relationship with others and with yourself.