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Phobia
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For other uses, see Phobia (disambiguation).
A phobia (from Greek: φόβος, phobos, "fear"), is an irrational,
intense, persistent fear of certain situations, activities, things, or
persons. The main symptom of this disorder is the excessive,
unreasonable desire to avoid the feared subject. When the fear is
beyond one's control, or if the fear is interfering with daily life,
then a diagnosis under one of the anxiety disorders can be made.
[1]
Phobias
Phobias (in the clinical meaning of the term) are the most
common form of anxiety disorders. An American study by the
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) found that between
8.7% and 18.1% of Americans suffer from phobias. [2] Broken
down by age and gender, the study found that phobias were the
most common mental illness among women in all age groups
and the second most common illness among men older than 25.
Causes
It is generally accepted that phobias arise from a combination of
external events and internal predispositions. In a famous
experiment, Martin Seligman used classical conditioning to
establish phobias of snakes and flowers. The results of the
experiment showed that it took far fewer shocks to create an
adverse response to a picture of a snake than to a picture of a
flower, leading to the conclusion that certain objects may have a
genetic predisposition to being associated with fear[3]. Many
specific phobias can be traced back to a specific triggering
event, usually a traumatic experience at an early age. Social
phobias and agoraphobia have more complex causes that are not
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entirely known at this time. It is believed that heredity, genetics,
and brain chemistry combine with life-experiences to play a
major role in the development of anxiety disorders and
phobiasor iroticle panic attacks.
Other uses of term
Phobia is also used in a non-medical sense for aversions of all
sorts. These terms are usually constructed with the suffix phobia. A number of these terms describe negative attitudes or
prejudices towards the named subjects. See Non-clinical uses of
the term below.
The anatomical side of phobias
Phobias are more often than not linked to the amygdala, an area
of the brain located behind the pituitary gland in the limbic
system. The amygdala secretes hormones that control fear and
aggression, and aids in the interpretation of this emotion in the
facial expressions of others. When the fear or aggression
response is initiated, the amygdala releases hormones into the
body to put the human body into an "alert" state, in which they
are ready to move, run, fight, etc.[4]
Studies have shown a difference between the response cycles of
those facing an object of a phobia and those facing a dangerous
object that does not trigger phobia-like responses. In one case,
patients with arachnophobia were shown pictures of a spider
(the object of fear) and a snake (a control picture, intended to
induce the normal response). When flashed up, the
arachnophobe responded with brief fear to the snake, but the
amygdala quickly shut down when the logical areas of higher
thought analyzed the threat and ruled it out as unimportant.
However, when shown the spider, the arachnophobe's amygdala
reacted, and then did not stop secreting 'alarm' hormones, even
after they had rationalized the situation they were in.[4]
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For this reason, a phobia is generally classified as a panic
disorder by most psychologists, since it involves an unnatural or
illogical functioning of the brain.[4]
Clinical phobias
Most psychologists and psychiatrists classify most phobias into
three categories: [1] [2]


Social phobia, also known as social
anxiety disorder - fears involving
other people or social situations
such as performance anxiety or
fears of embarrassment by scrutiny
of others, such as eating in public.
Social phobia may be further
subdivided into
o generalized social phobia, and
o specific social phobia, which
are cases of anxiety triggered
only in specific situations. [5]
The symptoms may extend to
psychosomatic manifestation
of physical problems. For
example, sufferers of
paruresis find it difficult or
impossible to urinate in
reduced levels of privacy.
That goes beyond mere
preference. If the condition
triggers, the person physically
cannot empty their bladder.
Specific phobias - fear of a single
specific panic trigger such as
spiders, snakes, dogs, elevators,
water, flying, catching a specific
illness, etc.
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
Agoraphobia - a generalized fear of
leaving home or a small familiar
'safe' area, and of possible panic
attacks that might follow.
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), social phobia, specific
phobia, and agoraphobia are sub-groups of anxiety disorder.
Many of the specific phobias, such as fear of dogs, heights,
spiders and so forth, are extensions of fears that a lot of people
have. People with these phobias specifically avoid the entity
they fear.
Phobias vary in severity among individuals. Some individuals
can simply avoid the subject of their fear and suffer only
relatively mild anxiety over that fear. Others suffer fully-fledged
panic attacks with all the associated disabling symptoms. Most
individuals understand that they are suffering from an irrational
fear, but are powerless to override their initial panic reaction.
Phobias in children
Severe fears are present in about 10-15% of children and
specific phobias are found in about 5% of children. Children
with specific phobias experience an intense fear of an object or
situation that does not go away easily and continues for an
extended period of time. Children often have specific phobias of
the dark, varieties of insects, spiders, bees, heights, water,
choking, snakes, dogs, birds, and other animals. For many
children, these fears and phobias interfere with their
participation in and enjoyment of various activities. It may also
interfere with their education, family life, or their social life.
However, effective treatment is available for children who
experience phobias.
Treatments
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Some therapists use virtual reality or imagery exercise to
desensitize patients to the feared entity. These are parts of
systematic desensitization therapy.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can be beneficial.
Cognitive behavioral therapy lets the patient understand the
cycle of negative thought patterns, and ways to change these
thought patterns. CBT may be conducted in a group setting.
Gradual desensitisation treatment and CBT are often successful,
provided the patient is willing to endure some discomfort and to
make a continuous effort over a long period of time.
Hypnotherapy coupled with Neuro-linguistic programming can
also be used to help remove the associations that trigger a
phobic reaction.
Anti-anxiety or anti-depression medications can be of assistance
in many cases. Benzodiazepines could be prescribed for shortterm use.
Emotional Freedom Technique, a psychotherapeutic alternative
medicine tool, considered to be pseudoscience by the
mainstream medicine, is allegedly useful.
These treatment options are not mutually exclusive. Often a
therapist will suggest multiple treatments.
Non-psychological conditions
The word "phobia" may also signify conditions other than fear.
For example, although the term hydrophobia means a fear of
water, it may also mean inability to drink water due to an illness,
or may be used to describe a chemical compound which repels
water. Likewise, the term photophobia may be used to define a
physical complaint (i.e. aversion to light due to inflamed eyes or
excessively dilated pupils) and does not necessarily indicate a
fear of light.
Non-clinical uses of the term
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Main article: -phobIt is possible for an individual to develop a phobia over virtually
anything. The name of a phobia generally contains a Greek
word for what the patient fears plus the suffix -phobia. Creating
these terms is something of a word game. Few of these terms are
found in medical literature. However, this does not necessarily
make it a non-psychological condition.
Terms indicating prejudice or class discrimination
A number of terms with the suffix -phobia are primarily
understood as negative attitudes towards certain categories of
people or other things, used in an analogy with the medical
usage of the term. Usually these kinds of "phobias" are
described as fear, dislike, disapproval, prejudice, hatred,
discrimination, or hostility towards the object of the "phobia".
Often this attitude is based on prejudices and is a particular case
of general xenophobia.
Class discrimination is not always considered a phobia in the
clinical sense because it is believed to be only a symptom of
other psychological issues, or the result of ignorance, or of
political or social beliefs. In other words, unlike clinical
phobias, which are usually qualified with disabling fear, class
discrimination usually has roots in social relations.
Below are some examples:




Chemophobia, prejudice against
artificial substances in favour of
'natural' substances.
Christianophobia, fear or dislike of
Christians or Christianity.
Ephebophobia, fear of youth or
adolescents
Islamophobia, fear or dislike of
Muslims or Islamic culture.
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


Xenophobia, fear or dislike of
strangers or the unknown,
sometimes used to describe
nationalistic political beliefs and
movements. It is also used in
fictional work to describe the fear
or dislike of the space aliens.
Homophobia, fear of, aversion to, or
discrimination against homosexuals
Zardariphobia,
See also: List of anti-ethnic and
anti-national terms
See also






Angst
Anxiety
Disability
List of phobias
Panic
Panic attack
Notes and references
1. ^ Edmund J. Bourne, The Anxiety &
Phobia Workbook, 4th ed, New
Harbinger Publications, 2005, ISBN
1-57224-413-5
2. ^ Kessler etal, Prevalence, Severity,
and Comorbidity of 12-Month
DSM-IV Disorders in the National
Comorbidity Survey Replication,
June 2005, Archive of General
Psychiatry, Volume 20
3. ^ Phobias: Causes and Treatment in
AllPsych Journal
4. ^ a b c Winerman, Lea. "Figuring
Out Phobia," American Psychology
7
Association: Monitor on
Psychology, August 2007.
5. ^ Crozier, W. Ray; Alden, Lynn E.
International Handbook of Social
Anxiety: Concepts, Research, and
Interventions Relating to the Self
and Shyness, p. 12. New York John
Wiley & Sons, Ltd. (UK), 2001.
ISBN 0-471-49129-2.

Lynne L. Hall, Fighting Phobias,
the Things That Go Bump in the
Mind, FDA Consumer Magazine,
Volume 31 No. 2, March 1997 [3]
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