Home Health “I was so afraid of fish that I couldn’t even watch Finding Nemo with my son.” Lynsey is one of millions who suffer from strange phobias, but now medical experts are testing a radical new 3-step treatment to cure even the most serious anxieties.

“I was so afraid of fish that I couldn’t even watch Finding Nemo with my son.” Lynsey is one of millions who suffer from strange phobias, but now medical experts are testing a radical new 3-step treatment to cure even the most serious anxieties.

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Lynsey Chalmers, 30, on the beach with her two-year-old son Leo, screamed and ran when she saw a fish - until she underwent a radical new treatment in Amsterdam.

For much of her life, 30-year-old Lynsey Chalmers couldn’t stand being by the sea. Aquariums were also prohibited, as were ponds. A fish tank would cause cold sweats.

Even walking down the seafood aisle of a supermarket left her shaking and breathless, and she could forget about a fish and chips dinner.

Because, strangely enough, Lynsey suffers from ichthyophobia: fear of fish.

She believes it all started when she was about three years old, when she almost choked on a fish bone.

“I know people find it funny, but for me, fish is my worst nightmare,” he told The Mail on Sunday. ‘Any form, dead or alive, in a tank or on a plate, even toys, scare me.

‘If I see a fish I feel instant panic, like I’m going to get sick; I can’t eat or drink for hours afterwards.

‘It may seem strange, but a lot has changed in my everyday life. I couldn’t even watch Finding Nemo with my son.’

Lynsey Chalmers, 30, on the beach with her two-year-old son Leo, screamed and ran when she saw a fish – until she underwent a radical new treatment in Amsterdam.

'I've even been able to sit with my son and watch Finding Nemo! I never could have imagined how far I've come

‘I’ve even been able to sit with my son and watch Finding Nemo! I could never have imagined how far I’ve come,” says Lynsey

Lynsey is among the more than 10 million people in the UK who suffer from a phobia, an extreme form of fear that interferes with their daily functioning. But undergoing a pioneering treatment in the Netherlands has transformed this mother’s life.

Now, Paisley’s administrative assistant can swim in the ocean, take her two-year-old son, Leo, to the aquarium and even cook fish fingers, though she stops short of eating them herself.

“I had tried many things over the years to try to get rid of the phobia on my own, from watching fish in a tank to trying to sit in a restaurant while my family ate seafood, but this was the first time it really worked.” . ‘ she says.

“The progress I’ve made has been incredible.” Lynsey’s story will feature in Channel 4’s new six-part series The Fear Clinic, which starts on Tuesday. It follows patients with debilitating phobias who are offered a radical phobia cure developed by Professor Merel Kindt, a Dutch neuroscientist who has studied the psychology of fear for more than 20 years.

WEIRD SCIENCE: Burning reaction to a spoonful of wasabi

A woman at a wedding in Israel was rushed to hospital with symptoms of a heart attack, but doctors could not find the cause.

However, tests eventually revealed that the 60-year-old man suffered from takotsubo cardiomyopathy, a condition that mimics the chest pain and numb arms of a heart attack, but is not life-threatening.

Also known as “broken heart syndrome,” it can be triggered by emotional experiences and allergic reactions. The woman revealed that minutes before she got sick she had mistaken the spicy Japanese condiment wasabi for avocado… and had swallowed a spoonful.

The British Medical Journal reported that this had altered his heart function, which took a month to return to normal.

Since 2018, Professor Kindt’s team has treated more than 2,000 patients suffering from extreme fear disorders ranging from phobias of spiders, mice and closed spaces to baths, eye contact and even dachshunds.

Their brutal treatment, called Memrec, consists of three steps. First, the patient must be exposed to their phobia in some way, briefly triggering their anxiety response to activate all the brain connections associated with it.

They are then given a medicine called a beta blocker. Commonly used to treat high blood pressure and anxiety, the medication blocks the effects of the stress hormone adrenaline, causing the heart to beat more slowly and less forcefully.

Finally, the patient returns the next day for a test where he once again faces his fear, to see if the treatment was successful.

In 85 percent of cases, Professor Kindt says, a single round of treatment is enough to permanently alleviate even the most serious fears.

Meanwhile, traditional treatment for phobias, which involves repeatedly exposing patients to their fear until their anxiety subsides, has a relapse rate of about 60 percent.

“This high relapse rate is what inspired me to develop a treatment that targets the fear memory itself rather than forming new memories,” says Professor Kindt.

“When the fear memory is activated and the patient is given a medication that interferes with saving that memory, that feeling of fear is weakened.”

In the documentary, viewers watch Lynsey being presented with dishes of raw seafood, which makes her cry. But, with trembling hands, they finally guided her to touch the plates. “I knew I had to do it for my son,” he says. “I don’t want to pass on my phobia to him and I think it will be good for him, as he gets older, to know that his mother overcame his worst fear.”

The next day, after taking a beta blocker and getting a good night’s sleep, Lynsey says she was prepared for another traumatic session. However, to his surprise, he was able to enter the room almost effortlessly and even dipped his hands into a tank full of fish.

“I couldn’t believe the difference 24 hours made,” he says. “It was almost easy to face my fear again.”

Now, more than a year later, Lynsey says her parents and husband Scott are happy with the progress she’s made.

‘I have been able to stand in the sea with fish swimming around my legs. I’ve even been able to sit with my son and watch Finding Nemo! “I could never have imagined how far I’ve come.”

Other surprising stories featured in The Fear Clinic include Ollie, who is afraid of balloons. The phobia arose in childhood after Ollie became trapped in a room filled with inflatable party decorations.

Another patient featured on the show, Nina, suffers from amaxophobia: the fear of being a passenger in a car.

There’s also Jamaican-born Devreaux, who discovered he had a phobia of dachshunds when he moved to the UK. Meanwhile, Gary confronts his phobia of frogs, which has left him struggling to continue his job as a gardener.

The fear clinic is transmitted Tuesdays at 8pm on Channel 4.

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