It is an excessive and irrational fear reaction. If a person has a phobia, you may experience a deep sense of dread or panic when you encounter the source of your fear. The fear can be of a certain place, situation, or object. Phobias are common type of anxiety disorder.
Three Main Types of Phobia : – agoraphobia, social phobia (also known as social anxiety disorder) and specific phobias.
Specific phobias have an excessive and unreasonable fear in the presence of or anticipation of a specific object, place, or situation. Common specific phobias include animals, insects, heights, thunder, driving, public transportation, flying, dental or medical procedures, and elevators.
Social phobia is also known as social anxiety disorder. There is extreme worry about social situations and it can lead to self-isolation. A social phobia can be so severe that the simplest interactions, such as ordering at a restaurant or answering the telephone, can cause panic. People with social phobia often go out of their way to avoid public situations.However, for people with social phobia (sometimes known as social anxiety disorder), performing in front of others and social situations can lead to intense anxiety. They may fear being judged, criticised, laughed at or humiliated in front of others, even in the most ordinary, everyday situations.
A phobia is usually defined as the severe, unrelenting fear of a situation, activity, or thing that makes one to want to avoid it. The definition of agoraphobia is the severe anxiety about being outside or otherwise being in a situation from which one either cannot escape or from which escaping would be difficult or embarrassing.
Symptoms of agoraphobia include anxiety that one will have a panic attack when in a situation from which escape is not possible or is difficult or humiliating. Examples of such situations include using public transportation, being in open or confined places or being in crowds. The apprehension or panic attacks that can be associated with agoraphobia, like all panic attacks, may involve.
Glossophobia: This is known as performance anxiety, or 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.
Acrophobia: This is the fear of heights. People with this phobia avoid mountains, bridges, or the higher floors of buildings. Symptoms include vertigo, dizziness, sweating, and feeling as if they’ll pass out or lose consciousness.
Claustrophobia: This is a fear of enclosed or tight spaces. Severe claustrophobia can be especially disabling if it prevents you from riding in cars or elevators.
Aviophobia: This is also known as the fear of flying.
Dentophobia: Dentophobia is a fear of the dentist or dental procedures. This phobia generally develops after an unpleasant experience at a dentist’s office. It can be harmful if it prevents you from obtaining needed dental care.
Hemophobia: This is a phobia of blood or injury. A person with hemophobia may faint when they come in contact with their own blood or another person’s blood.
Arachnophobia: This means fear of spiders.
Cynophobia: This is a fear of dogs.
Ophidiophobia: People with this phobia fear snakes.
Nyctophobia: This phobia is a fear of the nighttime or darkness. It almost always begins as a typical childhood fear. When it progresses past adolescence, it’s considered a phobia.
1)Life-Limiting and Severe Anxiety
It is life-limiting in nature. Depending on what your phobia is, you might find it a real struggle to run errands, go out with friends, or even make it to work every day. In other words, a specific phobia can significantly impair your education, your career, and your overall quality of life.
2)Isolation
Limitations associated with phobias can make you experience social isolation. You may wonder why you are not like everybody else. This can affect your relationships with family and friends, which can contribute to you becoming reclusive and depressed.
3)Embarrassing
Social phobia can be especially difficult to manage because the underlying fear is of humiliation. Having a phobic reaction can make you feel embarrassed.
4)Feeling out of Control
one of the worst emotional components of a phobia is the out of control feeling.
You may understand that your phobia is irrational and/or excessive, but no matter how hard you try, you cannot get it under control.
5)Helplessness
Helplessness may appear when you realize that your phobia has affected several or even all aspects of your life, like your job, social life, and general happiness. You may feel that there is nothing you can do to heal. You may assume that you will always have your phobia. You may wish things were different, but feel that they never will be.
Fear is a human emotion that is triggered by a perceived threat. It is a basic survival mechanism that signals our bodies to respond to danger with a fight or flight response. As such, it is an essential part of keeping us safe.
However, when people live in constant fear, whether from physical dangers in their environment or threats they perceive, they can become incapacitated.
Fear prepares us to react to danger. our body releases hormones that:
1)Slow or shut down functions not needed for survival (such as our digestive system)
2)Sharpen functions that might help us survive (such as eyesight). Our heart rate increases, and blood flows to muscles so we can run faster.
Our body also increases the flow of hormones to an area of the brain known as the amygdala to help us focus on the presenting danger and store it in our memory.
