Phobias and anxiety

I’ve noticed that visiting the dentist causes me far more anxiety than it ever did when I was younger. This isn’t a case of dreading the twice-yearly dental appointment. I am generally fine right up to my arrival at the dentist’s office. But once I get into the chair I find I am anxious. I think this started when our dentist started using an ultrasonic scaling machine instead of the traditional tools because I almost always experience some nerve pain while this procedure is taking place. So now I find myself tensing up on my regular visits and often catch myself gripping the arms of the chair. I wouldn’t call it a phobia though.

While I wouldn’t call my dental anxiety a phobia, I would apply that term to my anxiety about magpies. I was swooped four or five times in a row while cycling through a local park a few years ago and since that time I’ve become quite anxious when I see one. This is especially true if it’s particularly big and also if it’s during what is locally called magpie season (from August to November when males are protective of babies). My traumatic incident didn’t occur during magpie season so I don’t feel particularly safe at any time. My anxiety was made especially obvious about a week ago while I was out on my bike again. I usually wear a heart rate monitor while riding and I came across a particularly large magpie and my heart rate spiked about 20 bpm at the same time.  I’ve not actually been bothered by one since that one incident years ago (which wasn’t the first but the worst incident). I hope I find some way to overcome this anxiety since magpies are some of the most common birds we find around here.