The ups and downs of phobiasThey can ruin your life and restrict your opportunities. Hugh Wilson on hang-ups and how to cope with them

Amanda is scared of lifts. It's not that she can't take them at all, but she doesn't like to. Unfortunately, her office is on the 10th floor. "I get a bit panicky in lifts," she explains. "I start to feel dizzy and have to take long, deep breaths to calm myself down. My colleagues and my boss don't know about it, so when I'm with them, or when I'm late or just don't have the energy to use the stairs, I take the lift and suffer it."

Amanda considers her problem to be "silly" and refuses to admit it to her boss. But her phobia has clear implications for her career. She keeps an eye out for opportunities for advancement, but won't consider another job above the fourth floor. In the meantime, she has learnt to live with the fleeting moments of fear, and to combine meetings out of the office and with colleagues on other floors so that several can be accomplished in one trip.

For office workers, what can seem at other times like quirky idiosyncrasies can make the ordinary working day an eight-hour struggle to stay in control. According to experts, more and more of us are suffering from phobias and irrational fears, a situation that has been made worse by the real or imagined terrorist threat. Unfortunately, many of the most common phobias are ones that we are likely to encounter at work, like fear of driving, public speaking, socialising and enclosed spaces. Unsurprisingly, fears of elevators, heights and flying have increased since the attacks on the Twin Towers. In fact, according to the National Phobics Society, one in four people in the UK are suffering from an anxiety disorder at any given time.

"People are more likely to experience high-anxiety states or panic attacks when their general stress levels are higher," says therapist Roger Elliott, managing director of self-help company Uncommon Knowledge. Unfortunately, stress levels in British offices have never been higher. "Phobias at their worst (that is when they are being triggered regularly) are crippling. Fear will pretty much take over your volition as you are 'hardwired' to avoid fearful situations. Public speaking phobia can dominate someone's life if there is even a possibility that they will be required to do some at work. Social phobia as well is a terrible condition and can quickly lead to depression as the person restricts their life experiences."

Specific phobias, like the fear of lifts or heights, can be a nuisance. Social phobias can be devastating, especially for someone trying to forge a successful career. According to the American Psychiatric Association, the most common social phobia is the fear of speaking in public. Many people have a generalised form of social phobia, in which they fear and avoid interpersonal interactions. This makes it difficult for them to go to work at all.

But American employees with phobias have somewhere to turn. While phobias rarely register with British employers, in America, where it is estimated that up to 6 million workers suffer from phobias that they are likely to face at work, sufferers are given some protection under the Americans With Disabilities Act. In theory, people with severe phobias can expect employers to make reasonable accommodations to their condition, and in practice, many more companies are taking employee phobias seriously since the US terrorist attacks.

What those accommodations amount to is still left to individual companies, but can include letting workers take the train rather than fly, work from home or avoid the tree-climbing exercise on team-building outward bound days. In the UK, severe phobias - those that affect day-to-day life and last for longer than a year - also come under disability legislation, and industrial tribunals can force companies to make reasonable accommodation for phobic employees. The problem, says Sue Pratt, a spokeswoman for the Disability Rights Commission, is that few phobic employees in the UK feel comfortable admitting they have a problem.

"Part of it is because they fear they will not be taken seriously," she says, "but a lot of it comes down to how comfortable employees feel talking to their line managers about such problems. If you talk to mental health charities, they will say that with any mental health issue, employees worry about being labelled and treated differently. They may worry it will hold back their careers. This creates a vicious circle, because if people don't talk about it, companies don't get used to the idea of dealing with it."

Similarly, many sufferers never seek treatment for their fears, preferring instead to simply avoid situations where they may occur. For workers wanting to climb the corporate ladder, however, public speaking, meeting new people and even flying can be unavoidable. Severe phobias may require professional help, and there's plenty out there. But milder anxiety disorders often respond well to self-help treatments. The mental health charity Mind suggests that self-exposure therapy (confronting your fears in small steps), relaxation techniques and visualisation can all be helpful. More information can be found on their website.

In addition, says Sue Pratt, modern technology can forge a compromise between companies and their phobic employees. "Email working, video conferencing and working from home are all becoming well-established," she says. "For a lot of common phobias, new technology can provide an answer."

Source: Guardian.co.uk