If you are afraid, you're afraid, right? Fear is something which you feel. It's simply there, and logical thought just doesn't seem to be strong enough to banish the instinctive and debilitating symptoms of fear. Most often you know that your fear is illogical, and yet this knowledge doesn't help one iota.

If you suffer a fear of any description you have probably tackled it in various ways. Most people with a fear of heights, for instance, approach their fear primarily by avoidance. If you don't go "up there" you won't be afraid. But there are many times when you would dearly like to be able to climb up to the top of whatever landmark it may be, or to drive over a bridge, or to use a ski lift.

Similarly, it is rare for those who are afraid of public speaking, or who suffer from a touch of social phobia to not have tried a "wee dram" in an attempt to "settle their nerves". If you have a fear of flying you have probably tried both of these approaches and also that of forcing yourself to get onto that plane and simply "grin and bear it".

None of the approaches mentioned thus far are actually focused upon getting your mind to overcome your fear. They are simply coping mechanisms; ways in which you try to live with your fear. And this is the most common way in which people attempt to deal with fear. If your problem was that of a sore throat or a broken leg you would know what to do; you would take medicine or visit the doctor and let him or her sort it out for you.

But fear is a different "animal". Fear is an instinctive emotional reaction, as opposed to a physical illness. The cure cannot come from outside of yourself; no-one else can cure fear for you. They can, however, guide you in the right direction by showing you the best way in which to begin your search for a cure.

The first step in the process of finding a cure for fear is to change your focus from that of merely coping (in a sense of "damage limitation") to that of focusing upon a complete cure. Whatever you focus upon tends to come to fruition. If you do not look for a fear cure, you will not see one; rather, you will remain blind to the cure.

The next step is in understanding what fear is. The physical symptoms of fear are experienced due to a release of adrenalin - known as the "fight or flight" response - which is triggered instinctively whenever threat is perceived. If you are experiencing fear in situations where you know at a logical level that no real fear exists, then you know that your fear is being triggered from a subconscious part of your mind.

If your fear is perceived and triggered by your subconscious, does it makes sense to you to seek a cure for fear from within your subconscious? With hypnosis you gain access to your subconscious mind, and so you can retrain your mind to no longer create these erroneous perceptions of threat. Fear is something which is learned; it is the result of an erroneous belief which has become stored within the subconscious mind. Beliefs can be changed. Fears can be changed. In fact, fears can be eliminated with hypnosis help.

Roseanna Leaton, specialist in phobia hypnosis to help overcome fear.