A fear of rodents, mainly rats and mice is not uncommon. Some statistics show about 10% of the population is affected. It’s often a socially conditioned response because of the association of rats and mice with the disease. Both rats and mice are constantly urinating and defecating, so having mouse droppings around suggests poor hygiene standards and the possibility of catching salmonella poisoning.
If you live in cities, you will be in close proximity to rats, especially if you live close to restaurants or railways. In the country mice and rats are often found around stables where oats are used to feed horses. Being careful around food disposal is critical to whether you are likely to have problems.
But it doesn’t even have to be mice or rats, for often people are scared of shrews, voles, hamsters, gerbils, squirrels and guinea pigs. If you own a cat, then their offererings of small mammals can be quite off putting.
Using either hypnotherapy, Human Givens and NLP we can help scramble the triggers and change the template so that you can deal with any small critters and become friends with your cat again.
Case Study for fear of mice
Gen was restoring an old barn in Western France and was overwhelmed by the fear of mice. As each part of the build progressed she encountered more and more mice until she wouldn’t go back. Coming back to the UK to stay with her mother, she looked into ways to overcome the problem. She chose hypnotherapy and NLP.
The first session was all about learning ways to calm herself down. The sesond session dealt with rewinding the situations which were on her mind most. When I explained about turning the whole thing into a cartoon with music, she laughed her way through it. After she explained that the moment I asked her to imagine a cartoon she saw Tom and Jerry. The music that went through her head was “A windmill in old Amsterdam”.
The third session we reframed the whole senario about restoration and expecting the unexpected and included seeing mice. After the third session I asked her to find a pet shop and see how she faired around the small rodents. By the fourth session she was proad of herself for keeping calm whilst talking to a woman in a pet shop whilst she took out and handled a rat. She herself didn’t want to hold it, but managed to stroke it’s back.
Also see: A-Z of Phobias