Complete Idiot's Guide to Conquering Fear and Anxiety

Levinson maintains that 90 percent of all phobic behavior is the result of an underlying malfunction within the inner­ear system. Though the phobia is set off by an actualtrauma, this physiological malfunction predisposes the person to react excessively, and for the panic attacks and phobias to persist.Although his contention may seem far out, many of the symptoms of panic attacks, like anxiety, dizziness, disorientation, fainting, and nausea, directly relate tofunctions controlled by our inner­ear or cerebellar­vestibular system (CVS). These include:Our sense of balanceOur orientation in spaceThe tuning and fine­tuning of all the sensory information entering the brain: light, sound, motion, gravity, temperature, barometric pressure, chemicals, and so onThe regulation of our internal time clock, giving us a sense of time and rhythmThe coordination of our movements in time and spaceIf your CVS is damaged in some way, one or more of these functions can be thrown off and result in any of the following:Loss of balance and coordinationProblems with vision and hearingProblems with sense of directionCompromised sense of timeMotion sensitivityProblems with memory and concentrationHyperactivity and overactivityObsessions and compulsionsIncreased anxietyPage 35Furthermore, anxiety gets arbitrated through the cerebellar­vestibular system (CVS), or the inner­ear system. Throw off your CVS functioning, and your anxietycontrolnetwork can misfire: mild anxiety can erupt into intense fear, or total panic.Levinson believes that more than twenty percent of the population has some kind of inner­ear dysfunction. Not all people get phobic because dysfunction depends onthe extent of the damage and many people learn to compensate by developing and strengthening mechanisms that counter or neutralize phobic symptoms. But certainthings