Fear of balloons: what is the name of the phobia?

It has always been believed that the fear of balloons is a childhood problem. Research has revealed that many adults are prone to this type of phobia. The problem may seem comical, but looking at it from a psychological point of view, it can be noted that the fear of balls hides serious mental problems.

Globophobia - fear of balloons

Brief information about the phobia

A phobia never appears just like that; it is preceded by a strong emotional shock, which subsequently leads to mental disorder. What is the fear of balloons called? This is globophobia.

Balloons should be associated with the holiday and evoke positive emotions. The problem becomes relevant if, in childhood, a person received psychological trauma associated with loud banging. If a child heard the sound of popping balloons and was afraid of it, then he can retain his anxiety for a long time. In adulthood, sudden bangs, explosions of firecrackers and other similar sounds can cause a feeling of fear.

Causes of globophobia

A phobia can have various manifestations.

A person may experience a feeling of fear while inflating a balloon. The problem may be associated with a negative experience when the process of filling the balloon with air was not successful: it burst from excess air and hit the face painfully.
The phobia of flying away with a bunch of balloons also comes from childhood. The child may be frightened by the impressive size of the ligament.
A helium-filled balloon flew away and never returned. An incident that impresses a small child so much can develop into a feeling of fear in adulthood.

Flying away balloons can scare a child and provoke globophobia

Helium

If we held our breath (for example, under water), the body would receive a signal to economically use up the supply of oxygen accumulated in the blood and tissues. But when we inhale helium, the lungs seem to fill with air. The brain has no formal reason to turn on the self-preservation mechanism - and the body quickly burns oxygen, the reserves of which are not actually replenished.

In a matter of seconds, an effect comparable to prolonged oxygen starvation occurs. Many people experience typical signs of this condition - headache, dizziness, nausea, difficulty breathing. Frequent and deep breaths of helium can also provoke the appearance of helium bubbles in the blood, which, when they reach the brain, can cause a stroke and even, sadly, lead to death.

Symptoms

It is very easy to recognize a person who suffers from a fear of balls. The symptoms of such disorders are pronounced. People are terrified of balls and everything connected with them. People with such psychological disorders may experience the following problems with the body when they see the object of fear:

tachycardia;
heavy sweating;
chills;
stiffness in movements;
dizziness or fainting.

There is also an irresistible desire to hide away from the object of your fear. People try to suppress such desires, but there are times when they behave inappropriately:

close in on themselves;
sit on the floor and begin to sway from side to side;
hiding;
Cover your ears with your hands.

Such symptoms require urgent consultation with a specialist.

"ISLANDS"

Following this technique, you need to present an image of your past, present and future on a piece of paper. In the process of work, a visual confirmation is created that grievances, fears and pain are left behind, the time has come to let them go and not be allowed onto the “island of the present.”

You will need:

a sheet of A3 or A4 paper, pencils/markers/paints, scissors.

Instructions

Place a piece of paper horizontally. Draw three small islands - one on the left side of the sheet, one in the center and one on the right. Now sign their names. Let's call the first island "Past", the second - "Present", and the third - "Future". On the island of the past, symbolically depict your offenders and the grievances themselves, feelings of guilt, mistakes, traumatic events. Remember everything that makes you feel unpleasant, and try to portray the “enemies from the past” as best you can.

Let's move on to the middle island. Draw yourself in the center, and around it place all the good things that exist in the present and bring joy: home, relationships, family, work, hobbies, pets, health, and so on. This is the world in which you live now. On the island of the present there is no place for old experiences; they cannot get there. Look, be glad that there is so much good in your life.

On the third island, draw what you dream of bringing to life. Please note that here there is no room for self-criticism and painful memories; the world of the future is full of prospects, luck and joy.

After the drawing is completely ready, you can separate its left part and tear it into small pieces. You don't need it anymore. You can place the remaining part on your desktop and periodically look at the drawing to get a boost of joy and self-confidence.

Diagnosis of the disorder

The disease is paroxysmal in nature, many do not attach importance to it. The only exceptions are cases with panic attacks, which haunt a person with every contact with a phobia. Diagnosis of such a disorder is necessary to ensure that globophobia does not lead to other mental disorders.

A fear of balloons is easy to diagnose in childhood and easy to eradicate. If treatment is not carried out at an early age, then over the years the problem will lead to neuroses and stress.

“Balls” and “cubes” Confessions of an “experienced”

One young woman at the training was sincerely surprised during the constellation that the same problem that she had worked on several times before surfaced again.

- Yes, as much as possible! - she cried, - it’s like I’m marking time in the same place! Maybe there is no point in getting out of this, but we need to live with it somehow?

Yes, this option is possible, and many choose this twist of fate. Participants who stubbornly “scratch” to get out of the problem, out of the dead end in which they find themselves, deserve all the more respect.

But why do some manage to change the course of events the first time and irrevocably, while others require not one, not two, but a dozen trainings? To answer this question, I’ll give you one famous image that I like for its accuracy: there are ball people and cube people. You push the ball once, give it the right direction, and it rolls all its life completely independently. And you push the cube, it will jump a few faces and stand up, you push again, again a few “steps”, and again – a stop.

At Lyudmila Popova’s trainings, both of them meet. “Shariki” sometimes, having attended one single training, immediately moved through life in the right direction, and now they call her to thank her for that training and report on their successes. They call or Skype her from Tomsk, Moscow, Alma-Ata, Israel, Germany, etc., and send greetings from different parts of our country and from abroad. Someone found a life partner, someone, after many years of fruitless attempts, finally gave birth to a child, someone found their calling, a prestigious job, someone realized an old dream. There are many of them, but since we usually meet other people at trainings (often these are the same people), there is a false impression that trainings only help for a while. In fact, they help everyone move forward by leaps and bounds, and what we felt and experienced during the constellations in two days, in real life we could experience for years, and, unlike the training, without learning any lessons from it!

Alas, no matter how offensive it is to admit it, most of us are “cubes”. This is neither bad nor good, it is so. Therefore, I will allow myself to share the experience of the “experienced” for those who are desperate to part with long-standing problems.

Relatively recently, an old friend came to visit me without prior agreement, put a bottle of wine on the table and began to share her troubles. For me, the bottle was never a table decoration, I just grew up in a family where it was rejected. But I remember that in the nineties, girlfriends often came to me exactly like this: they poured out drunken revelations to me, and I listened and tried to somehow help them. But now, having completed training using the Hellinger method, I became wary: what is the uninvited guest unknowingly showing me? Am I turning back into that “vest” who took on other people’s troubles? During the trainings, I had already practiced the right to my inner space, but perhaps I turned back onto the old path again? Sometimes some everyday, seemingly trivial event helps you understand how much you have progressed after the training or whether you are returning to your old habits.

Or another example - a “clip” with money. In our country, a lack of money is generally a “birthmark” that almost everyone has, but in addition, each family has its own “clip.” Fear of losing money, fear of spending it, fear of being left without it - this has been going on in my family since pre-revolutionary times. And it leads to the fact that there really aren’t enough of them, and when they appear, suddenly a situation arises when you have to spend them on anything other than yourself. It happened twice that, for reasons beyond my control, the lower neighbors were flooded, and I had to compensate them for repairs. And both times this happened when I, having earned a certain amount, wanted to spend it on myself. Something inside me (some kind of entity?) literally attracted situations to me in which I was forced to part with money.

When I started going to family constellations, I didn’t immediately, but I noticed that situations (pah-pah) when money was simply stolen from me disappeared from my life. Previously, they were stolen on the bus, in the store, on the train, at work - no matter how carefully I hid them. And it’s been almost ten years now (after the first training) since I stopped attracting thieves!

I still work with this topic in trainings; twice I was chosen in other people’s constellations for the role of Cash Flow - this is a good sign! Perhaps the day is not far off when my relationship with money will become harmonious and friendly.

Solution

The sooner you start fighting the disorder, the easier it is to achieve the desired result. If a child is afraid of a bursting balloon, then you should gradually instill in him trust and love for the toy. You can suggest making balls from plasticine or drawing them on paper.

Try to avoid such a problem: if a balloon bursts next to your child, be sincerely surprised and laugh, then the child will perceive the incident as a game. Children copy their parents' behavior, so don't focus on fear.

It is more difficult to cure an adult from a phobia. The main emphasis to solve the problem is on contact with the irritant. The patient himself must recognize the pettiness of his fear and let it go.

The treatment method is that a person must let go of his fear. To do this, take a bunch of balloons and release them into the sky, symbolizing parting with the phobia.

You can be brave and pop the balloon with a needle. Don't close your eyes, seeing the mechanism in action will make it easier for you to perceive what is happening.

To treat a phobia, an adult needs contact with balls

Existing methods

After consulting a psychotherapist or neurologist, you may be prescribed medication. Sedatives in combination with sports and meditation have a positive effect. The cognitive method of therapy allows the patient to independently solve the problem with globophobia. The treatment is carried out in sessions: the person is mentally sent to a situation where he experienced an incident that led to fear.

Another method of therapy is to put the patient into a hypnotic state. This technique is considered the most productive and allows you to identify and eradicate the problem in just a few sessions.

Tips for participants

At the end of the training (or master class), the trainer gives participants tips on effective teamwork:

Let's speak to everyone. Don't finish your colleagues' thoughts and sentences. They have a voice and they should use it.
Consider all ideas. Don't exclude anyone from the discussion who you don't like for whatever reason.
Formulate alternative solutions in the form of questions. Don’t say: “I think you shouldn’t do this because it’s stupid.” Try to say this: “It seems to me that it is better to do differently. For example…"
Give up your pride. Instead of calling someone's idea "Maxim's Idea", give it a code name. For example, “Staircase”.
Maintain morale. Even in difficult situations (such as a falling balloon), remain calm.

To develop all these skills and learn about other team building games, we suggest taking our Team Building course. Let this game become a starting point and a good addition to everything you learn from the course.

We wish you to create a truly united team! Good luck!

Nitrous oxide

The effect of laughing gas is comparable to mild alcohol intoxication and taking painkillers. It occurs very quickly after inhalation, because the gas immediately enters the blood from the lungs. The head becomes airy, thoughts are crazy. Many laugh wildly and make erratic body movements after just a couple of breaths (“I’m a cloud, a cloud, a cloud, I’m not a bear at all”). This state lasts from 30 minutes to several hours, and even if the fun didn’t have any side effects, during this time you can manage to make a mess (“some wrong bees…”)

The first thing a novice drug addict encounters is hypercapnia - a violation of the removal of carbon dioxide from the body. Nitrous oxide quickly “squeezes” oxygen out of the lungs, and it becomes difficult for a person to breathe - sometimes to the point of suffocation, and respiratory arrest may occur. In a club or at a private party, there is a danger that they simply will not be able to provide assistance in a timely manner - and even the first experience of inhaling “laughing gas” can be fatal.

After just a couple of “gas” parties, the fun-loving person will get a whole bunch of diseases. Consumers of laughing gas, as a rule, suffer from frequent sore throats and chronic tonsillitis due to the fact that “Ibiza Air” is very cold - in the cylinders from which the balloons are inflated, the gas is in a liquefied state. And no one, by the way, guarantees that one of them will not be defective (such precedents have already taken place in Russian cities).

With prolonged use of “laughing gas”, chronic heart failure and brain hypoxia develop, which can lead to deep disability (deterioration of hearing and touch, micro-strokes, partial paralysis, etc.) It has been proven that nitrous oxide forms compounds in the body that accumulate in the bone marrow. Its harmful side effects also include inhibition of cellular DNA synthesis, disruption of the metabolism of vitamin B12 and folic acid.

Like any narcotic substance, nitrous oxide gradually becomes addictive, leading to psychological dependence. The psyche is destroyed: there is short-term amnesia, emotional instability, disturbance of thought processes, slurred speech, depression, as well as insomnia, which develops into aggression and is accompanied by hallucinations. The occurrence of mental illness cannot be ruled out. So make sure your children are aware and understand what they may encounter at home, at school, or with friends.

Business game "Balloon"

The game is played under the guidance of the organizing coach.

Participants must imagine that they have gone on a long journey in a hot air balloon. Here they are flying over the ocean. The nearest land is still about 500 kilometers away.

It seems that everything is fine and there is nothing to worry about, but an unforeseen situation happens - an eagle lands on the ball. One of the participants reacts to this in an unexpected way - he shoots the bird, which causes a hole to form in the ball, which releases air. The ball begins to fall.

Participants throw out all the ballast to slow their fall. But the ball continues to fall. This means we need to throw away something else: food, a gun, a dog and other items. In what order this will happen is up to the participants of the game to decide.

There are two options for the development of events:

If the participants can agree and make a common decision, most of the team will survive.
If the participants begin to argue and sort things out, they will crash against a rock or drown.

The game itself follows certain rules.

"A MAGICAL TALE WITH A GOOD ENDING"

The first method is to write your own fairy tale. It is based on events from real life, but they must be transformed into a magical story that can be adjusted at will. The creative process releases emotions and helps to transfer them to paper. In this case, as a rule, it is possible to more accurately express your thoughts, understand what exactly is troubling you, and draw a positive meaning from what happened.

You will need:

sheet of paper, pen.

Instructions

Sit at the table, relax. Recall the episode that bothers you and retell it. Give the characters and objects fictitious names, endow them with magical properties and come up with a “happy ending” in which the characters of the fairy tale will be reconciled, the spells will be lifted, and the good fairy, in return for understanding the wise lesson and the sincerity of the main character, will give his soul joy and peace. You can complicate the scenario and introduce unknown ill-wishers who will try to cause you much more harm than in reality, and your mistake or offense caused by a loved one will prevent misfortune. If you wish, you can add illustrations to the fairy tale with funny faces of the main characters.

Re-read your literary work. What do you see on its pages? Is it only negative? Mentally thank the heroes of the fairy tale for the invaluable experience.

The fate of Polygraph Sharikov

No matter how hard the professor tried to educate and remake his brainchild, Sharikov turned out to be beyond the influence of convictions and moral teachings. Even violence (or the threat of it from the professor's assistant) has no effect on Sharikov. The hero continues to lead an immoral lifestyle, use foul language, scare residents, and drink. The characters are too intelligent to change anything. Sharikov and others like him understand only brute force, they live according to the principle of existence in the animal world.

The most amazing thing is that after the professor corrects the mistake, the hero comes to an important conclusion. In the creature that resulted from the experiment, all the worst things come from humans, the dog is a kind and noble animal

It turns out that there are people who are worse than dogs - this metaphorical nature is emphasized by the author several times. Fortunately, the professor was able to correct his mistake in time. He has the courage to admit that his philosophy of nonviolence does not always work without fail. Bulgakov hints that the new political system will not be able to repeat the professor’s step. The course of history cannot be stopped, and retribution for interfering with natural processes will inevitably overtake society.

Our article contains a detailed description of Sharikov from “Heart of a Dog”.

Strange gift

Why is this happening to us?

It must be said that any commercial offer is always a response to people’s requests. As they say, “if there is demand, there will be supply.” Vulgar jokes below the back, flat comedies, such black balls with offensive and obscene inscriptions - this is also a reflection of shortages.

Why do we need such evil and humiliating laughter? To relieve tension, to reduce the degree of hostility that we feel towards each other because we are not able to truly enjoy life, to get what we want most: love and admiration, friendship and what we love, meaningfulness in life and a sense of stability. In a word, everything that will allow us to say: “Life is good!” Desires and dreams roam within us, but we do not hear them, or we hear them, but cannot bring them to life.

Why? Are others interfering? Boss, neighbor, girlfriend, parents, system? Well, yes, I’m not the one who cuts off my dreams in the bud?!

We have reached a dead end in our inability to get from life what we so desperately want. Unfulfilled dreams, unheard desires bubble within us with emptiness and irritation towards each other, and sometimes towards ourselves. Unable to withstand this boiling, we begin to ridicule and devalue what could fill life with joy. So that it wouldn't be so painful and sad. Love? I don't need her! Friendship? Yes, I saw her... And again we do not achieve what we want, the circle is closed.

As a result, this is life: suffering anesthetized by evil jokes instead of the joy of realizing what was planned. Swearing and vulgarity instead of love, “chicks” instead of beautiful ladies, “co...” instead of beloved men, “loot” instead of a salary for a job well done, black balloons instead of sincere congratulations...

Is it possible to avoid the bad conditions that we are forced to ridicule and belittle? How to live not a dull “half-life”, but happiness to the fullest? How to realize the best version of yourself? Understanding yourself and other people gives you a chance for change.

By understanding ourselves—our talents and shortcomings—we can finally understand ourselves and realize our potential. A new state of understanding inspires and gives a feeling of limitless possibilities!

By understanding ourselves and others, we become able to build relationships with parents, loved ones, children, and in the team on a completely different level. And people in return are drawn to us, because they become much more comfortable around us, they feel understood. A happy person does not experience hostility himself, and he wants to respond in kind, to give flowers and smiles, and not black balls and ambiguous evil jokes.

"BALLS OF FEELINGS"

This technique, developed by Glenda Short, will also help you become aware of your feelings related to events from the past and let them go.

You will need:

felt-tip pens, a sheet of A4 paper, multi-colored balloons, a needle.

Instructions

Draw a large balloon on a piece of paper. Inside it, write all the emotions and feelings you know. On the next sheet of paper, draw another ball. Fill it with only those feelings that a specific memory evokes in you. After this, you need to paint the ball with your favorite color, removing unnecessary emotions.

If you have real balloons on hand, choose one for each troubling feeling. As you inflate the balloons one after another, imagine that they are expanding due to the experiences that fill them. Tie the balloons and write the name of their contents on them. What to do with them? Arm yourself with a needle and pierce them or stamp on them with your foot. Just throw the remaining balls into the trash can, this way you will say goodbye to all the emotional garbage.

By creating a drawing, a scroll or a fairy tale, we can reimagine it. The language of symbols will help you express your memories, grievances, unrealized dreams and get rid of their negative influence.

Causes of the disease

Self-development - where to start, what it is and why it is needed

This type of phobia is considered “young”, discovered relatively recently, which is the reason for the frequently asked question: kumpunophobia - what is it? It is quite rare; representatives of kumpunophobia for the most part know only one thing: it began in childhood. We have to remember what exactly influenced the development of the phobia. One of the eyewitnesses recounted a certain moment that happened during kindergarten when he began to develop a terrible aversion to buttons. During lunch, he saw another kid's button fall into his porridge. Since then, this boy, already an accomplished grown man, still cannot stand the sight of buttons.

The phobia develops due to unusual events seen and experienced in childhood.

There are many unpleasant things that can happen with buttons in childhood. For example, a child might inhale a small button or swallow a large one. In addition to the most unpleasant sensations from the fact of what happened, the baby could also remember further manipulations by parents and even doctors aimed at removing the button from the body. Another option is that a child playing scattered or lost his mother’s and grandmother’s equipment, for which he was severely punished. This stuck in my memory as a memory: “buttons are bad.” Finally, the cause may be toys that have large and small buttons sewn into them instead of eyes and noses. The threads lose their elasticity and the eyes “hang” in an unpleasant way. For children's imagination, buttons become taboo.

What is team building

First, let's define the concept of team building.

Team building is activities aimed at uniting the team and increasing its effectiveness. Most often they take place in the form of games and exercises.

In the process of these actions, participants get to know each other better, learn to unlock their potential and improve. All this helps strengthen relationships and leads to improved workflow.

Team building exercises should be not only educational, but also entertaining. Otherwise, it will be difficult to achieve a relaxed state of participants.

Below we will look at one of these exercises. It is often used in team building trainings and promotes the development of:

⦁ communication skills;

⦁ leadership qualities;

⦁ ability to negotiate and work in a team.

That is, it develops exactly those qualities that entrepreneurs so want to see in their subordinates.

The nature of laughter

They say that “laughter prolongs life.” But is it? You will be surprised to learn that not every laughter carries with it the life-giving and health-improving value that is attributed to it.

At the “System-Vector Psychology” training we will learn about the other side of laughter. By its origin, laughter is animal in nature, because monkeys laugh too. Laughter relaxes people and relieves stress. From what? From being limited by culture, which restrains the animal nature of man. Laughter devalues feelings: relieves fear, anxiety, reduces awkwardness, removes shame, drowns out conscience. This is why, for example, a good joke is so valued in war. But laughter doesn't solve the problem. He only muffles it, but such a disguise does not last long.

It's a completely different matter when we have to empathize and sympathize. Even if such feelings are mental labor and emotional costs, they give an amazing feeling of flight and inspiration. Try to observe - and you will see that this is so. Where there is laughter, there is no place for deep feelings: the one who laughs all the time is less sensitive, less loving. If there are strong, deep feelings, it’s not funny at all: the one who loves with all his heart never laughs when someone else feels bad.