Go Beyond Fear to a life free from Dental Anxiety, Dental Fear or Dental Phobia
"There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them." —Denis Waitley
In order to go Beyond Fear you must accept responsibility for changing the conditions that enables your dental anxiety, dental fear or dental phobia to control your life. Whatever started your dental anxiety, dental fear or dental phobia is irrelevant, it really doesn't matter, but what you do need to understand is that that event, whatever it was, still controls the way you think and what you think controls how you feel. This leads to need to know point number one.
| It is not the event that gives rise to the feelings of anxiety, fear or phobia, it is the way the event is appraised. |
This means that the way you think, or thought, about the experience that started your dental anxiety, dental fear or dental phobia will directly affect how it makes you feel.
On what basis do we appraise a situation?
1) Setting the seed
If the dental experience was good then the emotional consequences could be:
- Pleasure
- Relief
- Satisfaction
The physical consequences could be:
- Release from pain
- Health teeth and gums
- Happy, healthy smile
As a result the stored memory would be good.
On the other hand if the dental experience was bad the emotional consequences could be:
- Depression
- Fear
- Anger
The physical consequences could be:
- Pain
- Unhealthy Smile
- Bleeding
WIth the result of a bad stored memory. How extreme the stored memory would be is proportional to the severity of the experience.
So, how does this "stored memory" affect my thinking?