What are phobias?
phobia is a term that refers to a group of symptoms brought on by feared objects or situations.
People can develop phobic reactions to animals (e. G. , spiders), activities (e. G. , getting on an airplane), or social situations (e. G. , eating in public or simply being out in public at all). Phobias affect people of all ages, from all walks of life, and in every part of the country. The national institute of mental health has reported that 5. 1%-12. 5% of americans have phobias. They are the most common psychiatric illness among women of all ages and are the second most common illness among men older than 25.
Most phobias develop in childhood and are commonly passed down by a family member. However, the main cause of phobias is still unknown. Frequent causes of phobias include: traumatic experience involving object of fear experiencing a panic attack in specific situation or around an object witnessing someone else being harmed by specific activity or object hearing a tragic story involving a specific activity or object having phobias and fears is common, and often rational. However, if these fears begin to interfere with daily life, consult with a doctor. For example, a phobia of driving on the freeway should not be so strong that it keeps a person from driving to work or school.
High bridges, new places, needles, or old elevators may make us a bit uneasy or even frightened. We might try to avoid things that make us uncomfortable, but most people generally manage to control their fears and carry out daily activities without incident. But people with specific phobias, or strong irrational fear reactions, work hard to avoid common places, situations, or objects even though they know there's no threat or danger. The fear may not make any sense, but they feel powerless to stop it. People who experience these seemingly excessive and unreasonable fears in the presence of or in anticipation of a specific object, place, or situation have a specific phobia.
Phobias and Irrational Fears
If you have a specific phobia, you probably realize that your fears are irrational. However, facing or even thinking about facing the object or situation can bring on a panic attack or intense anxiety. The symptoms of specific phobias usually first appear in adolescence or adulthood, with an average onset of 7 years old. Children’s fears often disappear by themselves, but in some, they persist into adulthood. According to the latest edition of the diagnostic and statistical manual for mental disorders (dsm-5), the symptoms associated with specific phobias — fear, anxiety, and avoidance — persist for.
Without treatment, they can persist for years or decades.
Common fears for children include: loud noises and strangers (babies) imaginary creatures and the dark (preschool) natural disasters and animals (early primary school) illness and death (upper primary school). Learning to manage these fears is a normal part of growing up. However, children can develop specific phobias. They’re often too young to understand that their fears are irrational or exaggerated. They may even experience panic attacks.
Specific phobias are persistent fears of specific situations, objects, people or activities that are considered irrational and excessive (e. G. The sight of blood, insects, flying, heights). Unlike experiencing brief fear, anxiety, or discomfort provoked by certain situations (e. G. Giving a presentation) or objects (e. G. Seeing a spider), specific phobias are long lasting, produce intense psychological and physical reactions and can even trigger excessive anxiety by just thinking about the source of the phobia. These phobias can often be accompanied by a sense of danger that is irrational or exaggerated. Individuals with specific phobias will often go to great lengths to avoid situations where they may have to face the source of the specific phobia in a way that can severely restrict and impact their daily life.
What is specific phobia?
Everyone’s afraid of something—or a lot of somethings. But fear isn’t the same thing as a true phobia. “a phobia consists of a persistent fear or avoidance of a specific stimulus,” says kate wolitzky-taylor, phd , an associate faculty member with the anxiety and depression research center at ucla. “usually the stimulus is a thing or a situation—like bees or heights. ” but there’s a second component to phobias. “in addition, the fear causes significant distress or somehow impairs the person’s life,” wolitzky-taylor says. So maybe you get creeped out by snakes or tight spaces—both of which are common, she says.
(see also overview of anxiety disorders overview of anxiety disorders everyone periodically experiences fear and anxiety. Fear is an emotional, physical, and behavioral response to an immediately recognizable external threat (eg, an intruder, a car spinning on. Read more. )a specific phobia is fear of and anxiety about a particular situation or object (see the table some common phobias some common phobias* ) to a degree that is out of proportion to the actual danger or risk. The situation or object is usually avoided when possible, but if exposure occurs, anxiety quickly develops. The anxiety may intensify to the level of a panic attack panic attacks and panic disorder a panic attack is the sudden onset of a discrete, brief period of intense discomfort, anxiety, or fear accompanied by somatic and/or cognitive symptoms.
A specific phobia is a type of anxiety disorder which causes an overwhelming and unbearable fear and avoidance of whatever is causing the fear (e. G. An animal, situation, activity, etc. ). It is estimated that between 5% and 10% of children have a specific phobia which impacts on their everyday lives and lasts for an average of about 20 years. Despite this, fewer than 10% report asking for help with their phobia. Specific phobias can cause distress and considerable problems at home and school and interfere with day-to-day activities. The most common treatment for specific phobias in the uk is cognitive behavioural therapy (cbt), a type of talking therapy that uses different techniques to help people to change unhelpful patterns of thinking around specific phobias.
Choy, y. , fyer, a. J. , & lipsitz, j. D. (2007). Treatment of specific phobia in adults. Clinical psychology review, 27, 266-286. Antony, m. M. , & grös, d. F. (2006). The assessment and treatment of specific phobias: a review. Current psychiatry reports, 8, 298-303. Pull, c. B. (2005). Current status of virtual reality exposure therapy in anxiety disorders. Current opinion in psychiatry, 18, 7-14.
The best treatment for specific phobia is called exposure and response prevention. This means that the child is slowly exposed to the thing they are afraid of over and over, until their fear is not as bad. This treatment works very well for most kids with specific phobia. For example, a child who is afraid of dogs would first look at a picture of a dog, then play with a stuffed dog. Eventually they would spend a few minutes with a real small dog. Cognitive behavioral therapy (cbt) that teaches skills to deal with anxious thought patterns can also help older kids with specific phobia. Medication is not usually used to treat specific phobia.