Emetophobia Support Video - Past
Fear of vomiting (emetophobia) support video: Its not about the past
The video below is a support video for people going through The Thrive Programme to overcome a fear of vomiting (emetophobia), using the Emetophobia-free Manual (available from our shop - there is also a version for young people in English and Danish - Young Person’s Edition, Teenager's Danish Edition)
This video below, from Thrive Programme creator Rob Kelly, describes why it's not about the past. A key area in which people often have an external sense of power and control is in relation to their beliefs about the significance of their past. Most people believe that their past has a big impact upon their lives today.
* People often believe that the past has a significant impact upon them today, for example fixing their personailty of forming their self-esteem.
* Individuals frequently think that a particular past event is causing their symptoms or problem today.
* They believe that past difficult or traumatic memories still have power over them and that they are responsible for their negative emotions currently.
Though many past events were significant and potentially traumatic at the time, they aren't a direct cause of peoples problems and anxieties later on, its NOT about the past. A person may be brooding about the past event, creating negative emotions about it in the present. Earlier life events, no matter how conflicting or traumatic, have very little, if any direct effect upon your life now. The event itself or the memory of the event isn't the important factor in a persons distress right now, its is their beliefs and thinking now that matter.
Memory - is entirely constructive. Memory is a reconstruction. We pile together different pieces of information when we recall events. Think back to your wedding day, or last birthday or any event. You can perhaps bring to mind snapshots or a video of the event? You have probably browsed through 'snapshots' or watched in your mind a video of the event dozens of times? We don't actually store pictures, snapshots or videos in our brain it feels like we do but we don't. Ochsner and Schacter have stated that "Cognitive psychology and neuroscience have impressively demonstrated that memory is an active process that involves interpretations and construction at all stages" so contrary to what it fees like, we don't have a photo or video vault in our brains that accurately stores all the events and experiences in our lives so that they can come back to haunt us at a later date. We reconstruct our memories. We can think of this a bit like constructing a memory as being rather like a jigsaw puzzle and filling in the blank spaces with what you think probably goes there. Factors affect how we encode and remember events. Firstly, how the person was feeling at the time of the experience what belief systems they href then, what thinking styles they were using the time, what sort of mood they were in, all affect how the event is encoded.
An example - if you have a phobia of dogs and race with panic and anxiety after being barked at by a dog today, your action stems from the beliefs you hold about dogs TODAY. Your psychological foundations TODAY and how well you are managing your mindset TODAY. Its not about the past!
