Phobias: Everything You Were and Were Not Afraid to Know

Phobias are a fear of a specific object or situation. When one has a phobia, he or she will go to desperate measures to avoid it. In extreme cases, one with a phobia will not be able to accomplish daily tasks because of the phobia. Some common phobias are the fear of spiders, heights, and public speaking, all having similar symptoms.

All phobias have similar symptoms and some have specific symptoms. General symptoms are that one will panic when they are put in a situation where their phobia is involved. Along with the panic they will have a rapid heart beat and a shortness of breath.

More severe symptoms of phobias are going outside alone. Because one can not go outside alone, they can not perform daily tasks such as going grocery shopping or getting their hair cut etc. People with phobias will go to great lengths to avoid facing their fears. If someone had a fear of tunnels, they would drive over the mountain to get to the other side. Different categories have different symptoms
(www.mayoclinic.com , www.psych.org ).

There are two main categories of phobias, Agoraphobia and Social phobias. The rest of the phobias are specific phobias that do not have a category. Agoraphobias are the fear of crowed public places. Social phobias are the fear of embarrassing themselves so they avoid interpersonal interactions. Public speaking goes in the social phobias category. The specific phobias are mostly the fear of animals and heights. These phobias start in child hood and are most of the time out grown by adulthood. These are also the least severe phobias(www.psych.org).

There are a variety of treatments for phobias which get rid of the problem completely. The most common and most
effective treatment is to slowly get the patient to get used to the idea of their phobia. A cure for a fear of spiders (Arachnophobia) is that doctors show the patient pictures of spiders, and then have them touch the picture. After they are comfortable looking and touching the picture, they look and touch a jar with a spider in it. The last step is to actually take the spider out of the out of the jar and have the patient hold it. In some cases the doctor has the patient hold a very large spider in his or her hands. Generally in cases like this, doctors slowly ease their patients into their feared situation where their patient feels comfortable (www.psych.org). This makes the patient realize that there is nothing to fear and nothing bad happened to them when they interacted with the spider. But for extreme cases the subjects take Beta Blockers which block the adrenaline. Sedatives are also used to make the subject calm in a situation that they fear (www.mayoclinic.com).

If you are scared of a certain thing and have a shortness of breath, then you most likely have a phobia of some sort. All
phobias are curable in one way or another. If one has a phobia, they should not worry too much because all phobias are curable (www.psych.org).