For most people, spotting a dog – ears flopping, tongue hanging and nose wet – while out and about, is enough to turn a bad day into a good one.
For Gabriella Cummins, though, the sight of a tail-wagging pup could be enough to completely derail her day. She joined Philip Boucher Hayes on Today with Claire Byrne to talk about her once-debilitating fear of dogs.
"My family and friends try their best to protect me but usually a severe panic attack ensues, bringing with it a racing heart, sweaty palms, flowing tears and the inevitable evaporation of any logic", she told Hayes.
It's been something she's had to live with for years, she said, adding that "honestly I can't remember a time when I didn't have a phobia of dogs".
"I remember going to a friend's birthday party, she was six years old and she had a dog and they knew to make sure to have the dog away from me. The dog got into the room at the party and I distinctly remember leaping up onto the windowsill to get away from the dog."
As a mother of two young children, she wanted to overcome the fear to save her kids seeing her as frightened as she would get. "I would love to not be scared of dogs. I love dogs and think they're beautiful animals and really wanted to tackle this phobia."
It was once a near constant worry for her, as she said she feels like she has a "dog-dar that I pretty much am constantly thinking of where there might be a dog when I'm leaving to go outside". And the phobia has led to some truly "bizarre scenarios".
"I've jumped over shop counters, jumped over walls of people's houses. I just need to get away as quick as I possibly can."
Her fear isn't that she'll be jumped and attacked by the dog, though, she said. "I don't believe the dog is going to attack me, I believe the dog is just going to invade my personal space and that's the issue, that I don't want the dog to come over excited jumping all over me."
After an attempt at hypnotherapy, which didn't work for her, Cummins was eventually introduced to human givens therapy, a form of solution-based therapy that has helped her enormously. By trying to find the barriers in the phobia, and having Cummins write out a list of her worst case scenarios, Cummins and her therapist were able to work through the fears.
As Cummins said, it relies on theatre of the mind, which Gabrielle is very comfortable with as she works in radio. "By no means have I overcome my phobia but I'm doing much better now."
Listen back to their chat above or click here.
