Phobia is fear of a particular stimulus. This stimulus can be an object, a living being, or a specific situation. Psychological science knows a huge number of phobic disorders.
Most phobias stem from childhood fears, while a smaller percentage arise from the stress experienced. In the first case, it is much more difficult to recover from a phobia, so it is important to work out the phobia immediately after it occurs.
Types of phobias
With social phobia, a person becomes inadequate when they are being judgmentally observed. At the same time, he realizes that his fears are far-fetched. Most often, this phobia appears during adolescence, when a person is most sensitive to criticism. A person suffering from social phobia avoids public speaking, eating in public. The constant avoidance of these kinds of situations can lead to complete social isolation.
With agoraphobia, it is anxious to be in an open space and the inability to return to a safe place. A panic attack is triggered by fear of losing consciousness, losing your mind, or dying in a crowded place. As a result, a person tries not to leave his home without urgent need.
In contrast to agoraphobia, claustrophobia has a fear of confined spaces. A person avoids being in a small room with the door closed; the absence of windows aggravates the situation.
There is a large group of phobias, limited to a strictly defined situation. This includes the fear of a specific animal, a natural phenomenon, a specific disease. Most of them may seem absurd to a healthy person. For example, a person may be terrified of bird feathers, long words, beautiful women, mirrors. And believe me, it has nothing to do with simple dislike or disgust.
Phobic Disorder Symptoms
Anxiety levels in phobic disorders can range from mild discomfort to anxiety. Starting to imagine an alarming stimulus, a person is already experiencing anxiety. At the same time, the disturbing stimulus does not objectively pose a mortal danger.
The arrival of an attack of fear is evidenced by a number of specific somatic symptoms. Heartbeat increases, discomfort in the gastrointestinal tract increases, there is a feeling of squeezing in the chest, hyperventilation of the lungs. Visual impairment, dizziness, tremors of the limbs, tinnitus, numbness may occur.
Phobias are often treated with highly paradoxical methods related to behavioral therapy. The most common of these is placing yourself in a fearful situation.