Specific phobias are prevalent worldwide.
While you may experience common fears such as heights or snakes, you may also become phobic of something less familiar. Avoidance may be typical for you if you’re dealing with a phobia. While avoidance means you don’t have to face the anxiety, avoiding may only make confronting the object you’re afraid of more anxiety-provoking when you have to confront it. The standard treatment for phobia is psychotherapy, as many types of therapy are effective in helping reduce symptoms associated with phobias. Medications aren’t yet as helpful in treating phobias. Remember, if you’re dealing with a phobia, you aren’t alone and can get help.
Antidepressants are commonly used to treat depression. However, they also help to reduce the symptoms of phobias (particularly agoraphobia and social phobia), even if you are not depressed. There are different types of antidepressant. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (ssri) antidepressants are the ones most commonly used for anxiety and phobic disorders.
A specific or simple phobia is an unreasonable fear caused by the presence of a particular situation or object. This type of phobia is known to cause mild or no danger, and it often develops during childhood and become less severe as the individual get older. Common types of simple phobia include: animal phobia also known as zoophobia, this is the irrational fear that happens when a person faces an animal (other phobias associated with animal phobia are cynophobia, apiphobia and orithophobia) environmental phobia: environmental phobias occur when an individual is involved in a specific natural situation or event (this phobia consists of other phobias like acrophobia and astrphobia).
Who is affected by phobias?
A phobia is an anxiety disorder defined by a persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. Phobias typically result in a rapid onset of fear and are usually present for more than six months. Those affected go to great lengths to avoid the situation or object, to a degree greater than the actual danger posed. If the object or situation cannot be avoided, they experience significant distress. Other symptoms can include fainting , which may occur in blood or injury phobia , and panic attacks , often found in agoraphobia and emetophobia.
What are phobias? phobias are an extremely strong fear that a person has of something – for instance an animal, a feeling, an object, situation or place (often known as the ‘trigger’). A phobia associates the trigger with extreme feelings of danger, and can cause huge restrictions and anxieties around a person’s life, as they try to avoid it. Some people may not be distressed by their phobia unless they are physically near it or in the situation at the time, while others can be affected just by thinking about their phobia. How are you feeling? it is good to understand and to monitor how you are feeling.
There are both physical, behavioural and emotional symptoms associated with a phobia – when faced with the source of the phobia, it’s common for someone to feel intense panic and fear. A desire to run away from the situation absolute terror when faced with the fear inducing object or situation avoidance behaviour such as not going out, not touching objects in public or not socialising physical symptoms including trembling, heart palpitations, feeling sick and dizziness, panic attacks obsessing about the fear and not being able to think of anything else anxiety at the thought of the fear whilst we might all have fears, phobias can be overwhelming and distressing to live with and for many affected with fears of common situations, such as public spaces or flying, can have a serious impact on their lives and those of their family.
What are the main types of phobias?
Obtaining a diagnosis of a phobia can often be straightforward; speak to your gp or you can contact: tommy’s for information about tokophobia – fear of childbirth. Young minds – 08088025544. No panic (help line for phobia sufferers) – 0800 138 98889. One risk if phobias are left untreated is the worsening of symptoms and the development of another mental health problem/s. Many phobias can be resolved naturally without the need for formal treatment, however, even if this is the case there is a risk of relapse. Living in a world of fear can be lonely, demanding, emotional and tiring if left untreated.
Phobia treatment at nightingale hospital can take place as an outpatient , day patient or inpatient. Our approach to treating phobias combines individualised programmes with treatments based on current clinical evidence. There are two types of treatment for phobias.
Phobia, unlike fear, is defined by: intense and excessive anxiety about a feared object or situation feeling as if fear of the object or situation is holding you back avoiding the feared object or situation though plenty of people would be startled or even shriek at the sight of a snake slithering across their foot, not everyone would feel this fear holds them back or impairs them. Someone with a true phobia of snakes would feel intense anxiety when snakes might be present or avoid the situation altogether. If you have a phobia, you could experience physical symptoms like: rapid heartbeat
a phobia is a type of anxiety disorder. It is a strong, irrational fear of something that poses little or no real danger. There are many specific phobias. Acrophobia is a fear of heights. Agoraphobia is a fear of public places, and claustrophobia is a fear of closed-in places. If you become anxious and extremely self-conscious in everyday social situations, you could have a social phobia. Other common phobias involve tunnels, highway driving, water, flying, animals and blood. People with phobias try to avoid what they are afraid of. If they cannot, they may experience:.
A specific phobia is an intense, persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, situation, or activity, or person. Usually, the fear is proportionally greater than the actual danger or threat. People with specific phobias are highly distressed about having the fear, and often will go to great lengths to avoid the object or situation in question. According to the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fifth edition (dsm-5), the year-long community prevalence estimate for specific phobias is approximately 7%-9%. Some examples of phobias: a teenager with a dog phobia avoids going to the houses of friends and family who own dogs.
A phobia is a persistent, excessive, unrealistic fear of an object, person, animal, activity or situation. It is a type of anxiety disorder. A person with a phobia either tries to avoid the thing that triggers the fear, or endures it with great anxiety and distress. Some phobias are very specific and limited. For example, a person may fear only spiders (arachnophobia) or cats (ailurophobia). In this case, the person lives relatively free of anxiety by avoiding the thing he or she fears. Some phobias cause trouble in a wider variety of places or situations. For example, symptoms of acrophobia (fear of heights) can be triggered by looking out the window of an office building or by driving over a high bridge.