Any psychiatrist here i need some advice?

D

dannyjjang

Semi-Pro
Hello long time since i posted here umm im just curious about phobia and if it can be cured.

For some reason everytime i visit Korea I get darkness and ghost phobia, i cant turn of the light of fearing encountering a spirit and i gets panic attacks(those of you who experenced panic attack know the pain) during sleep.
Although being 17 1/2 at the time I was very scared. I understand why i had this phobia from, ever since i was 3rd grade I watched werid Korean shows where they discuss about ghostly beings and renacting the stories which show disturbing images.

Well so from 3rd grade to 6th grade i was terrified of night time literally staying up until 3am and it was hell for me top of that my dad was a screamer and violent to time to time.

Came to America everything was fine i calmed down was still scared of darkness but i managed to get thru. Went to Korea last summer coming back to the place i used to live brought back bad memories but not enough to bother me. however when i watched the rerun of the same show staying up for jetlag I start going crazy turning on lights wherever it was dark checking closets, closing bathroom doors. It was 6th grade once again a 18 year old scared of spirit revealing itself, for a month Korea has been hell for me I stayed up til 6am and when sun came back up i was revealed and went to sleep. For a month it was hell for me and now when i think of it i have no idea why i was scared. First day i came back to America I was perfectly fine had a 9 hour sleep and fine again.

This time im going to stay for 2 month I may visit a psychiatrist over there or here, i may not get it when i visit for summer but just incase.....anyone has suggestion of this crisis?
 
I agree, see a professional

Psychologists, abiding by the APA ethics code would not be able to ethically give you advice through the board.

I beleive psychiatrists are held to the same standard.

Your experience seems to be causing you distress, which is grounds for seeing someone.
 
It could be something in the food over there. Really-you may need to look at a more mundane cause of this phobia. Korean kimchee is much more spicier than most of the stuff sold outside of Korea.
 
^Suicide isn't the answer......... ;)

Seek professional help HERE, then if you can stand it there you have gotten over it. If you have the same problems over there, see someone there.
 
uh, stop watching the reruns! replace is with a happy Disney movie before bedtime, and um,sleep with someone else;)
 
Could be bad noodles?

I read that noodles have very long shelf dates. Even though the expiration dates on instant noodles are a few month off, they could be in crates or boxes for YEARS! Eghh. I can't type. I'll go to sleep, with my night light.
 
peanuts.jpg
 
OK, Danny, if you're still reading this thread ...

It's all in your head. I was **** scared of darkness and ghosts and all that like you. But I overcame it. How?

You have to re-program yourself, your thinking, your understanding of the reality.

It's strengthening your own spirit and that, in layman's term, is: "be brave".

What I did was I took a walk in a cemetry (during the day, of course). Why, they're dead. Will they get up like in movies? No. That's in a movie only. What you see in movies are not realities.

But you must accept that spirits exist.

Do that for a bout a week and you'll have the guts to walk by a cemetry at night. The key is to smile to yourself, understand that those dead people are resting. Just "don't disturb" them. (This "don't disturb" is something else and it has a meaning of its own.) Give them respect.

The thing is "Why are we scared of darkness? Why are we scared of spirits?" Because, by instinct, we're scared of things that we don't know, or have no knowledge of.

We know darkness, but we can't see in the dark, so we don't know what's in that darkness. We know there're spirits, but we can't see them, so we don't know where they are or what they look like. This creates fear in us.

Similarly, why some are so afraid of exams? Because they don't know what will be asked. Then comes the fear of failure. This fear will peak when the person didn't prepare properly for the exam. If he/she's properly prepared, the peson'll be brave to take the exam.

The key is "prepare" and "be brave". If you're prepared, you will be brave to face the odds. So, prepare your mind and spirit, and be brave to face things that you don't see.

Just remember that bad spirits cannot harm a strong-spirit person. This applies to humans too.

Good luck, mate.
 
anirut said:
OK, Danny, if you're still reading this thread ...

It's all in your head. I was **** scared of darkness and ghosts and all that like you. But I overcame it. How?

You have to re-program yourself, your thinking, your understanding of the reality.

It's strengthening your own spirit and that, in layman's term, is: "be brave".

What I did was I took a walk in a cemetry (during the day, of course). Why, they're dead. Will they get up like in movies? No. That's in a movie only. What you see in movies are not realities.

But you must accept that spirits exist.

Do that for a bout a week and you'll have the guts to walk by a cemetry at night. The key is to smile to yourself, understand that those dead people are resting. Just "don't disturb" them. (This "don't disturb" is something else and it has a meaning of its own.) Give them respect.

The thing is "Why are we scared of darkness? Why are we scared of spirits?" Because, by instinct, we're scared of things that we don't know, or have no knowledge of.

We know darkness, but we can't see in the dark, so we don't know what's in that darkness. We know there're spirits, but we can't see them, so we don't know where they are or what they look like. This creates fear in us.

Similarly, why some are so afraid of exams? Because they don't know what will be asked. Then comes the fear of failure. This fear will peak when the person didn't prepare properly for the exam. If he/she's properly prepared, the peson'll be brave to take the exam.

The key is "prepare" and "be brave". If you're prepared, you will be brave to face the odds. So, prepare your mind and spirit, and be brave to face things that you don't see.

Just remember that bad spirits cannot harm a strong-spirit person. This applies to humans too.

Good luck, mate.
Click to expand...

Whoa, dude. Pop quiz time: Which of these things is not like the others? 1) Darkness 2) Exams 3) Spirits. The first two definitely exist, whereas the third thing on the list, well...

Otherwise, the approach advocated here is a sound one, which is basically exposure therapy. You got some phobias, as many many people do. Either through professional treatment or self-help, you need to learn how to confront and deal with your fears. It's doable, so good luck and don't despair, but do seek help if ya can.
 
Serve 'em hard said:
Whoa, dude. Pop quiz time: Which of these things is not like the others? 1) Darkness 2) Exams 3) Spirits. The first two definitely exist, whereas the third thing on the list, well...

Otherwise, the approach advocated here is a sound one, which is basically exposure therapy. You got some phobias, as many many people do. Either through professional treatment or self-help, you need to learn how to confront and deal with your fears. It's doable, so good luck and don't despair, but do seek help if ya can.
Click to expand...

Thanks for complimenting my approach.

As for the existance of spirits ... well ... until you can sense one then you'll understand.

"What you don't see does not mean it doesn't exist." -- me.
 
Prescription: A sedative (e.g. Trazadone) and an anti-anxiety medication (e.g. Ativan) is all you need. Take the anti-anxiety medication when you feel anxious. Take the sedative before bed.

Problem solved.

The psychiatrist will prescribe the right one based on your medical history.
 
There are a couple ways to go about solving the proplem.

One would go something like this: Sit in a room, here, or in Korea, it doesn't really matter. Turn off the lights and wait a few minutes, then turn them back on. Check under the bed at in the closet. Repeat this over and over, until you become used to the idea that, as much as you look, you will not find ghosts/spirits, you will eventually begin to accept this as true and begin to relax and then go to sleep.

The other way would be to just accept the idea that there are evil spirits and find a person who will provide you with a charm that protects you from any harm. Once you are convinced that the charm works, you will relax and be free of worry.
 
anirut said:
As for the existance of spirits ... well ... until you can sense one then you'll understand.
Click to expand...

Bagumbawalla said:
The other way would be to just accept the idea that there are evil spirits and find a person who will provide you with a charm that protects you from any harm.
Click to expand...

Now we got two dudes talking about the existence of spirits! Fine. I gotta give up and switch sides here instead of fight. OP, get a lucky charm to ward off the evils spirits next time in your Korea and you should be fine. (Something like that talisman thing that Greg Brady found when the Brady Bunch went to Hawaii will probably do the trick nicely.)
 
a psychiatrist is a licencsed medical doctor, they will no doubt prescribe you some sort of drugs, be it anti-depressants, relaxants, etc.

What you need is a psychologist or therapist.

Yes, it can cured. It very well may be the traumatic images you saw coupled with the "violence" of your father, that cause you to associate this fear of beings and spirits with actual physical harm thus leading to panic attacks. But it could be something else entirely, or both for that matter. I know how asian parents can be with "discipline" and what may work over there doesnt fly here. So in that case, it may even be a dear of your father, his anger, or his disappointmnet, and you have merely subconciously masked it, or even coupled it, with the idea of spirits. This is all just speculation, and I don't mean to offend.

So what happened, from what i can tell, is that you essentially learned your fear (as a psychologist would put it), you aren't really afraid of the dark, but you are afraid of what your mind has autmatically associated it with. Whether it be a conscious decision or not the human mind tends to pair and associate things all the time. (A neutral stimulus is coupled with another stimulus that has been conditioned or given meaniing, thus when you are exposed to the (previously but no longer) neutral or unconditioned stimulus, the dark, you automatically and SUBCONSCIOUSLY think of the conditioned stimulus (violence/harm/fear/death) which can bring about anxiety and lead to your panic attacks.

You are fine in America most likely because you have learned to cope and deal with the idea of darkness IN AMERICA, however, your real fear is still there. You have merely told yourself there is nothing to really be afraid of (most likely because deep down inside you know the spirits, the harm, whatever is truly bothering you lies in Korea.)

As a psychology major there is a myriad of things I can appoint to the cause of your panic attacks, and often it is not one simple thing. You seriously need to see a therapist or psychologist, and not a psychiatrist, because they will actually try to solve the problem and not surpress it.

From what I have learned you have a very extreme case, and it is not likely to be fixed quite so easily. There are many methods that psychologist use to try and find what causes anxiety, fear, what have you, and the solutions for them. For you I would try what is called gradual desensitivity.

Essentially you must teach your self that there is nothing to fear, but little by little. Once you master and conquer your fear in one smaller situation, then you move to the next and the next. Goining up in intensity and "scaryness" factor with each step.

Remember I am not a doctor or professional by any means, merely an aspiring college student, and I still highly recommend that you seek proper professional help.

I sincrely hope this was of some help to you Danny. I have a few panic attacks in the past and I know how it can be.
 
It watched some local TV soap operas with ghosts in it when I was little. I was scared of ghosts back then, but I wasn't scared of ghosts anymore since my junior high school time because I was so convinced that ghosts don't exist.
 
vokazu said:
It watched some local TV soap operas with ghosts in it when I was little. I was scared of ghosts back then, but I wasn't scared of ghosts anymore since my junior high school time because I was so convinced that ghosts don't exist.
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Why did you have to bump this thread?
I was sleepless, but now I am scared, and even farther from the possibility of falling asleep again.
 
Don't be in a rush to see a doctor in the U.S. Compared to other countries, American doctors are mostly interested
in grabbing all your money. You might get results just as good, by seeking advice from a homeless guy on the street.
At least then, you can feel more satisfaction when you give him a few dollars and a donut.
------ So Be It ⚜️ ------
 
Sentinel said:
Guys, don't take Suresh's advice. He is not a licensed psychiatrist.

He is an unlicensed proctologist. There's a big gaping difference between the two.
Click to expand...
I attended a 1-hour Introduction to Recreational Proctology lecture by Professor Assman of the Deep Probe Medical Center.

Then I traveled to India to witness a live demo by Dr. Buttacharya at the Rectal Scan Institute.
 
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