2. What is phobia ?
Definition :
A persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or
situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it.
3. • The majority of phobias develop during early childhood,
teenage years or early adulthood.
• It is rather unusual for a phobia to develop ‘out of
nowhere’ after the age of 30 – 35.
4. Different Types of Phobia
Agoraphobia
• A fear of places or situations that you can’t
escape from. Ex (fear being in large crowds, they
get panic attacks)
Social
Phobia
• extreme worry about social situations. Ex
(ordering at a restaurant or answering the
telephone, can cause panic).
Specific
Phobias
• Many people dislike certain situations or objects,
but to be a true phobia, the fear must interfere
with your daily life.
5. Specific Phobias:
1. GLOSSOPHOBIA: The fear of speaking in front of an audience. People with this
phobia have severe physical symptoms when they even think about being in
front of a group of people.
2. ACROPHOBIA: The fear of heights. People with this phobia will avoid mountains,
bridges, or the higher floors of buildings. Symptoms include dizziness, sweating,
and feeling as if you’ll pass out or lose consciousness.
3. CLAUSTROPHOBIA: The fear of enclosed or tight spaces. It prevents the person
from riding in cars or elevators.
4. AVIATOPHOBIA: The fear of flying.
5. DENTOPHOBIA: Fear of the dentist or dental procedures.
6. HEMOPHOBIA: Fear of blood or injury. A person with hemophobia may faint
when they come in contact with their own or another person’s blood.
7. ARACHNOPHOBIA: Fear of spiders.
8. CYNOPHOBIA: Fear of dogs.
9. OPHIDIOPHOBIA: Fear of snakes.
10. NYCTOPHOBIA: Fear of the nighttime or darkness. This phobia almost always
begins as a typical childhood fear. When it progresses past adolescence, it’s
considered a phobia.
6. Causes of phobias
• It is unusual for a phobia to start after the age of 30; most of them
begin during early childhood, teenage years, or early adulthood. A
stressful situation or experience, a frightening event, or a parent or
household member who has a phobia, which the child becomes
progressively aware of, can cause them.
• Stressful situations
• certain experiences
• Frightening events
• It is also known that children can develop the same phobia one of
their parents suffered from if they were progressively aware of this
during childhood.
7. Types of causes:
1. Common causes for specific (simple) phobias
These usually develop when the child is aged 4-8. In some cases, it
may be the result of something that happened early in life. The
trigger might have been an unpleasant experience in a confined
space, which festered and developed into claustrophobia over time.
As mentioned above, witnessing a family member's phobia is a
common cause for phobias that started during childhood. A child
whose mother has arachnophobia is much more likely to develop the
same phobia.
Experts stress that phobias picked up from parents are learned fears
- they are not genetically inherited.
8. 2.Common causes for complex phobias
The causes of agoraphobia or social phobia are still a mystery; nobody is
sure exactly why they appear. Researchers believe they are caused by a
combination of life experiences, brain chemistry, and genetics.
Social phobias are more likely to be caused by an extremely stressful
experience than agoraphobia, researchers say.
Phobias and survival - there may be evolutionary explanations for many
phobias. In prehistoric environments, remaining in wide open spaces would
have increased the risk of being attacked and eaten by a predatory animal.
The instinct to stay at home, especially for young children, aids survival.
Young children in their caves and huts would have had to learn to avoid
dangerous snakes and spiders quickly.
Social phobia may have been a useful survival instinct during ancient and
prehistoric times. Being among people you do not know, from perhaps
another tribe, was much more dangerous than finding yourself among a
crowd of strangers in a shopping mall today.
10. SYMPTOMS:
• Pounding or racing heart
• Shortness of breath
• Rapid speech or inability to speak
• Dry mouth
• Upset stomach or nausea
• Elevated blood pressure
11. Psychological symptoms
In severe cases, you may also experience psychological symptoms,
such as:
• Fear of losing control
• Fear of fainting
• Feelings of dread (unlike a phobia, where your fear is connected
to a specific thing or situation, the anxiety of generalized anxiety
disorder is diffused—a general feeling of dread or unease that
colors your whole life.)
• Fear of dying (thanatophobia)
12. Can phobia be Hereditary?
New research out of Emory University shows the ways that phobia can actually
be passed down through our DNA — just like other inherited traits. They
conducted a research trained mice to fear a certain cherry-blossom-like scent.
They then looked at the mice's sperm. The ones scared of the floral fragrance
had produced sperm in which the DNA responsible for smell sensitivity was more
active than normal. The frightened mice's children and their grandchildren also
exhibited an extreme sensitivity to the smell, despite never being trained to fear
it.
This discovery shows the multigenerational effect of phobias, and other
disorders. Scientifically, this is known as "transgenerational epigenetic
inheritance," which essentially means that your environment can affect your
genetics in ways that can be passed to children.
13. Treating phobias
1. Self-help techniques:-
A self-help program could include:
Lifestyle changes
A course of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
Attending a self-help group
Using exposure therapy to overcome your fear
A combination of these
2. Talking treatments
3. Medication
14. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
• CBT is a type of counselling that can help you manage your problems by
changing the way you think and behave. It can be used to develop
practical ways of dealing with your phobia.
• One part of the CBT treatment process that's often used to treat simple
phobias involves gradual exposure to your fear, so you feel less anxious
about it. This is known as desensitisation or exposure therapy.
For example, if you have a fear of snakes (ophidiophobia), your therapist
may start by asking you to read about snakes. They may later show you a
picture of a snake. They may then arrange for you to visit the reptile
house of your local zoo to look at some real snakes. The final step would
be for you to hold a snake.
• Exposure therapy works by gradually increasing the level of exposure to
your fear, which allows you to gain control over your phobia. As the
treatment progresses, you should begin to feel less anxious about your
phobia.
15. Talking treatments Psychotherapy :
• Talking treatments, such as counselling and psychotherapy, are often
very effective methods for treating phobias. In particular, cognitive
behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness have been found to be very
effective methods of treating phobias
Medication :
Medication isn't usually recommended for treating phobias, because talking therapies
are usually effective and don't have any side effects. However, medication is
sometimes prescribed on a short-term basis to treat the effects of phobias such as
anxiety.
Three types of medication are recommended for treating anxiety. These are:
• Antidepressants
• Tranquillizers
• Beta-blockers: Any of a class of drugs which prevent the stimulation of the
adrenergic receptors responsible for increased cardiac action, used to control heart
rhythm, treat angina, and reduce high blood pressure.
17. 1. Identify your fear
• Really think about what you're afraid of. For example,
while you may hate going to the dentist, it might be the
use of needles that you're truly afraid of. In this case,
you'd want to focus on your fear of needles, not the
dentist.[1]
• If you're having trouble pinpointing your phobia, write
down a list of the things that scare you. You may be able
to isolate the true fear.
18. 2..Write down your goals
• Set tangible, achievable goals. It will also be helpful during
treatment to consider the benefits that come from these
goals. Write down a variety of goals at different levels. Having
small achievements will help you work towards tougher aims.
• The act of writing down your goals can actually help you succeed.
You're more likely to write down detailed, achievable goals, rather
than vague ones. You'll also be more committed to sticking with
them.
19. 3.Make a coping strategy
• It's naive to assume that you won't encounter any obstacles.
Instead, imagine how you want to react to what frightens you. You
could visualize something else, face the fear head on for a set
amount of time, or you could distract yourself by doing an activity.
• Realize that your coping strategy should change as you encounter
and achieve goals. While you might initially cope by distracting
yourself, you may eventually be able to face your phobia for small
periods of time.
20. 4.Know that being afraid is perfectly
normal
• After all, fear has helped humans survive in many situations. On
the other hand, fears may easily turn into phobias, also prevent
someone from accomplishing certain things. For example:
• It is normal to feel anxious if you look down from a skyscraper. On the other
hand, turning down a dream job just because it happens to be at the top of
a skyscraper, is not helping you achieve your goals/dreams.
• Many people feel anxious about getting shots or having blood drawn. Shots
can be painful. It is when someone starts to avoid medical examinations and
treatments just because he or she might get a shot, that the fear becomes
problematic.
