There are three main types of phobias: specific phobias, social phobias, and agoraphobia. Specific phobias involve an irrational fear of a specific object or situation, like heights or insects. Social phobias involve a fear of social situations where one may be judged. Agoraphobia is a fear of being in places away from the safety of home or where escape may be difficult, like crowds. Phobias are treated with therapy and medication to help reduce anxiety and change irrational thoughts that cause the fears.

1. PHOBIAS

2. A phobia is an unreasonable fear
of a specific object, activity or
situation.

3. THERE ARE THREE TYPES OF PHOBIAS:
1. Specific Phobias
2. Social Phobias
3. Agoraphobias

4. SPECIFIC PHOBIA
Irrational fear of a specific
living thing, object or
stimulus.

7. Examples
 Acrophobia-fear of heights
 Hematophobia- blood
 Claustrophobia- closed places
 Gamophobia- marriage
 Insectophobia- insects
 AIDS phobia- AIDS
 Zoophobia- animals
 Algophobia- pain
 Microphobia _ germs
 Thanatophobia_ death

8.  Ailurophobia: cats
 Algophobia: pain
 Anthophobia: flower
 Anthrophobia: people
 Aquaphobia: water
 Arachnophobia: spider
 Astraphobia: lightning
 Belonephobia: needles
 Brontophobia: thunder

9.  Cynophobia: dogs
 Dementophobia: insanity
 Equinophobia: horses
 Gamophobia: marriage
 Herpetophobia: lizards
 Murophobia: mice
 Numerophobia: numbers
 Ochophobia: riding a car
 Ophidiophobia: snakes

10.  Pyrophobia: fire
 Trichophobia: hair
 Thanatophobia: death
 Scoleciphobia: worms

11. SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS
 Irrational and persistent fear of object or
situation
 Immediate anxiety on contact with feared
object
 Loss of control
 Fainting
 Avoidance of activities involving feared object
 Anxiety when thinking about stimulus
 Impaired social and occupational function

12. SOCIAL PHOBIAS

13.  Irrational fear of performing activities
in the presence of other people or
interacting with others
 Patient is afraid of his own actions
being viewed by others critically.

14. SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS
 Hyperventilation
 Sweating
 Palpitations
 Blushing
 Confusion
 G I symptoms
 Trembling hands and voice
 Urinary urgency
 Muscle tension

15. AGORAPHOBIA
Irrational fear of being in places away
from familiar setting of home, in
crowds, or in situations that the
patient can not leave easily.

16. SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS
 Fear of open or public places
 Avoidance of public places and
confinement to home.

17. CAUSES

18. PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY
 Anxiety is usually dealt with
repression
 When repression fails to function
other secondary defense mechanism
come in to action
 In phobia, it is displacement
 By displacement anxiety is
transferred from a dangerous object
to neutral object

19. LEARNING THEORY
 Direct learning experiences- can begin
following a traumatic experience
 Observational learning experiences- learn
to fear a situation by watching others show
signs of a fear in the same situation
 Informational Learning- learning to fear an
object or situation by hearing or reading
that the situation is dangerous

20. COGNITIVE THEORY
 Anxiety is a product of faulty
cognition
 Some people engage in negative and
irrational thinking that leads to
anxiety reactions.

21. ATTENTION AND MEMORY
 People with specific phobias tend to
pay more attention to threatening
information that relates to the fear

22. BELEIFS AND INTERPRETATIONS
 People with specific phobias tend to
hold beliefs and to interpret situations
in a way that increases anxiety

23. BIOLOGICAL
 Sometimes a phobia may run in the
family and genetics may play a role
 When exposed to fear biological
changes occur in the body and these
can increase physical symptoms

24. COURSE
 More common in women
 Onset is sudden with out any cause
 Course is usually chronic
 Spontaneous remission

25. TREATMENTS

26. PHARMACOTHERAPY
 Benzodiazepines
Eg; alprazolam
 Antidepressants
Eg; imipramine

27. BEHAVIOR THERAPY
 SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION
 Technique for assisting individuals to
overcome their fear of a phobic stimulus.
 There is a hierarchy of anxiety producing
events through which the individual
progresses during the therapy.
 As each of these step is attempted , it is
paired with relaxation exercise.

28.  Relaxation training
 Hierarchy construction
 Desensitization of the stimulus

30. FLOODING

31. COGNITIVE THERAPY
 Learning to identify one’s anxious
thoughts and to replace them with
more realistic thoughts

32. NURSING MANAGEMENT
 Fear related to specific stimulus as
evidenced by behavior directed
towards avoidance of feared object
 Social isolation related to fear of
being in a place from which one is
unable to escape as evidenced by
staying alone.