BBC Breakfast viewers have expressed repeated complaints about a segment they’ve branded as “ridiculous”. On Wednesday’s (January 22) episode of the programme, presenters Jon Kay and Sally Nugent facilitated a talk about phobias.
Ollie Gibbs, a guest known for tackling his intense balloon phobia on Channel 4’s The Fear Clinic, joined them. Reflecting on his experience, Ollie mentioned: “Watching it back is a bit of an out of body experience now.
Looking back, so much has changed since travelling out to Amsterdam. It was almost a light relief watching it back.”
Audiences were less than enthusiastic about the conversation, with many airing their feelings on X (formerly Twitter). Displeased comments surfaced such as: “One lad was scared of balloons #BBCBreakfast ridiculous,” “Frigging hellfire. Makes you wonder how some people manage in life,” and another viewer critiqued: “#BBCBreakfast the things people makeup to get on television.”
Ollie further delved into his apprehensions about balloons, sharing: “I think it’s just that thing of them being able to pop at any point. I think it’s been any balloon, whether it’s inflated, over inflated or anything in between.”
He confessed that he had steered clear of social events for the past two decades fearing balloons might be there but indicated his life improved post The Fear Clinic visit in Amsterdam, reports the Express.
“I don’t worry about leaving the house anymore and seeing balloons. I’ve got two young kids and picking them up from parties, I always refused to do that because you might walk in and see balloons. But now I can go into situations like that and not be worried,” he explained. “I wouldn’t actively seek out rooms full of balloons again, but in that situation, it’s fine.”
The innovative new series, The Fear Clinic, features 18 patients including Ollie, who checked into a specialist centre in Amsterdam for a pioneering treatment boasting an 85% cure rate within 48 hours using the Memrec method.
Later on in the interview, Jon turned the conversation to Professor of Clinical Psychology Dr Merel Kindt, the mastermind behind the therapy. She detailed her choice to deploy confrontational techniques to tackle phobias rather than the more traditional exposure therapy, which is widely advocated by professionals.
“If the treatment has been effective, we see a huge change in the fear behaviour, almost a transformation,” she noted.
Dr Kindt didn’t shy away from acknowledging the complexity of altering ingrained fears. “It is a habit and it goes together with a lot of avoidance behaviour. It is really difficult to change that, even though people are fully aware that it’s an irrational fear. It’s still not easy to change,” she recognised.
BBC Breakfast airs daily on BBC One at 6am