How to Overcome Lifts Fear and Phobia Easily

by JJ Seymour

Anyone who's seen one of those little notices posted in many American elevators knows what it's like to experience a fear of lifts. Many elevators have little placards inside that say something to the effect of, "If this elevator gets stuck, don't panic: there's no danger of being remaining in the elevator forever, of the elevator falling to the ground uncontrollably."

Most people don't know enough about elevators' suspension and hoists about how elevators are actually built--to know whether or not to trust the placard completely. For many people, those little notices only increase their fear, by putting them in mind of specific terrible scenarios. Every elevator is also required to have a notice stating its maximum lifting capacity. These only worsen people's phobias: who knows whether the elevator's lifting capacity has been exceeded? What would happen if it does? Is there a better way to stop fear of elevators than these ineffectual little signs?

Phobia Of Lifts Interferes With Life

If you live in a big city, you probably don't have a choice about whether to use the elevator or not. If you live on the 10th floor and you're in a hurry, you can't be expected to run up 20 flights of stairs. Yet, if you're nervous around lifts, you can never feel "at home" in your own building. For some people, using the elevator repeatedly can lead to desensitization. However, for others, the fear only gets worse every time they enter that dread chamber. If you have a severe phobia of lifts, you're probably worried about what would happen if, suddenly--somewhere between the 16th and 17th floors--you were to snap. What if you had a full-blown panic attack, suspended in an elevator shaft hundreds of feet above the ground?

Lift Phobia On The Job

Office buildings, of course, are even worse. Most people who work in the city have to use the elevator to ascend a 50-story building every day. What's worse is, you have to face that which you dread most whilst in your formal "business" clothes, in front of all your co-workers. What if you panicked and embarrassed yourself in front of the boss, or in front of that cute cubicle-mate? Do you quit your job? Should you try to get yourself relocated somewhere closer to the ground? Not in today's economy.

Techniques To Conquer Your Fear Of Lifts

Fortunately, if you suffer from an acute, uncontrollable phobia of elevators, there is help. You don't need get hopped up on pills to conquer your fear. Neither do you need to go to a traditional therapist and undergo years of psychoanalysis, trying to find out whether you're afraid of elevators because your mother weaned you too quickly. Best of all, you won't even need to force yourself to do what you dread, hoping to somehow eradicate your fear through brute force (you may have tried to do this, and it didn't work).

NLP And Hypnotherapy Can Help

More often than not, phobias are conditioned responses. In the case of elevator phobia, somehow your mind has formed an automatic association between elevators and panic. This condition is easily treatable through a combination of NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) and hypnosis. Treatments like Stop Anxiety Now can re-condition and re-train your mind, so that instead of associating elevators with fear, you'll start to associated them with joy, confidence, and calm. Then, after just a few sessions, you'll be able to conquer your fear of lifts for good.

J J Seymour is a writer with Self Help Recordings. Hypnotherapy and NLP can be very useful in handling Fear Of Lifts - one good source of experienced hypnotherapists and NLP practitioners is Just Be Well. If you are unable to visit a practitioner in person you may well benefit from a good and guaranteed talking cure recording such as Stop Anxiety Now, by experienced hypnotherapist JIm Brackin.