One of the most frightening aspects of phobic behavior is the way it sometimes appears so suddenly and unexpectedly. One day you're perfectly healthy, happy, and normal. The next day you're phobic. The sudden onset of phobic symptoms is often more frightening than the phobias themselves. Patients wonder: Am I sick? Am I dying? Am I going crazy? Do I have a brain tumor? What is happening to me?

IT'S ALL IN YOUR EARS!

More than 20 percent of the population has some form of inner-ear dysfunction. Some of these individuals are phobic all of their lives. Others never suffer from a single phobia. And some live phobia-free lives for twenty, fifty, or even eighty years before problems suddenly surface. Yet all of these observations can be easily explained and understood once the culprit, the inner-ear system, has been identified. Let me explain.

Even though an impaired inner-ear system is a necessary prerequisite for the development of most phobias, the presence of such a problem does not necessarily lead to phobic behavior. Basically, there are two factors that determine whether or not phobias ever surface:

1) The nature and extent of the dysfunction.

The inner-ear system has millions of cells and circuits. The presence or absence of phobic behavior depends to a large extent on how many of these cells or circuits are malfunctioning and which are malfunctioning.

2) Your ability to compensate.

The brain is often capable of compensating for an impaired inner-ear system, adjusting to it, in a sense, by developing and strengthening mechanisms that counter or neutralize phobic symptoms. If your brain is successfully compensating, you may never be more than vaguely aware that anything is wrong.

In fact, more than three-quarters of the phobic patients never realized they had any inner-ear problem until they learned about the many symptoms that characterize inner-ear dysfunction.

But an impaired inner-ear system is a vulnerable system. If your inner-ear dysfunction is aggravated or your ability to compensate for it is reduced, phobic symptoms may suddenly surface. A wide variety of factors are capable of destabilizing your inner-ear system and bringing on phobic behavior. These factors include:

• Severe or repeated ear infections

• Mononucleosis

• Sinus infections and various other infections known to affect the inner-ear system

• Concussions and/or whiplash

• Degenerative disorders

• Old age

• Tumors or blood clots (or other lesions that put pressure on the inner-ear system)

• Prolonged or turbulent air travel

• Surgical procedures

• Temporomandibular joint syndrome

• Chemical changes in the brain due to:

a.  drug use or abuse

b.  menopause

c.  allergies

d.  birth control pills

e.  changes in diet

f.   emotional stress

g.  pregnancy

h.  fluctuating hormone levels

i.  menstruation

j.  anesthesia

Now You Feel It, Now You Don't?

When phobias suddenly surface, one or more of the aforementioned destabilizing factors are usually responsible. In addition, these factors can make preexisting phobias worse. But some persons have noticed that the reverse is also possible: phobias may improve or disappear when destabilizing factors lessen or disappear.

Unfortunately, this does not always happen. Once your fears have been imprinted within the memory banks of your brain, they often take on a psychological life of their own that has little or nothing to do with their inner-ear origins. But this seemingly spontaneous improvement is possible and is clearly related to inner-ear functioning.

Although the sudden appearance, disappearance, and intensification of phobic symptoms has always been noticed by phobics and clinicians, no one has ever offered an acceptable explanation, and for one very good reason.

All previous phobic theories have overlooked the vital importance of the inner-ear system. As a result, they have necessarily overlooked the importance of various factors that can destabilize that system.