What is a Phobia?

A phobia is an irrational, intense and persistent fear of certain situations, activities, things, animals, or people.

There is a very thin boundary between a phobia and not liking something.

• Dutchaphobia - Fear Of The Dutch

• Pogonophobia- Fear of beards

• Ventriloquist’s dummy, fear of - Automatonophobia

• String, fear of — Linonophobia

What do you think the most common phobia is?

The most common phobias are!!!• Arachnophobia- Spiders• Aviophobia- Flying• Claustrophobia- Small, enclosed spaces• Acrophobia- Heights• Carcinophobia- Cancer• Necrophobia- Dead people and dying.• Brontophobia- Thunder/ Lightning• Emetophbia- Vomiting

How Phobias are diagnosed

Phobias are diagnosed by a mental health professional, they must cross check all symptoms with a diagnostic criteria. Phobias can sometimes be linked to mental disorders.

There are 3 different types of phobias:

1. Specific Phobia e.g. one or more objects or situations are the cause of the phobia

2. Social Phobia e.g. interacting with strangers in social situations

3. Agoraphobia e.g. being trapped in situation where help or escape is not easily available in the event of a panic attack

Why we have phobias

The reason we have phobias can be split into 3 main reason:

1.Evolution

2.Cognitive/irrational thoughts

3.Classical conditioning

Evolution

Evolution is a helpful way to understand how we have developed our phobias.

Many centuries ago man would have discovered dangerous things, e.g. snakes, spiders etc, these would have been considered deadly and generations born after the discovery of these would have been warned that they were dangerous and to stay well away, the warning of them could easily have spiraled out of control and led to modern day phobias like the fear of snakes. The phobia of snakes is unnecessary as snakes should not be feared but respected.

Cognitive/Irrational thought

Cognitive and irrational thoughts can bring on phobias in people almost instantaneously.

Cognitive thoughts can trigger a phobia by linking together different things that wouldn't usually be linked like if they were harassed by someone with a white beard like Santa Claus at a young age they may develop a phobia of Santa Claus at a different time in their life.

Irrational thoughts can trigger a phobia by making the person fear something that wouldn't usually be feared by linking it to something completely irrelevant, e.g. A fear of the Dutch and their way of life because their grandparents have told them countless times that Dutch people are different.

Classical Conditioning

Classical conditioning helps us understand how phobias can be imprinted onto people by linking something that’s usually good with something that may be alien and scary to them, e.g. in the study of Little Albert (Watson and Rayner) Albert had a white rat placed near him, on certain occasions they would hit a suspended steel bar with a hammer when he reached out for the rat. After this was carried out over a few months he showed hesitation towards interaction with the rat, when the steel bar was hit Albert would give off violent reactions which could be from bursting into tears to crawling away from the rat as quick as he could. By linking the rat and the loud noise, Albert then acquired a phobia of white rats.

Treatments for Phobias

A common treatment for phobias is systematic desensitisation.

Psychologists such as Bandura, Adams and McGrath have used systematic desensitisation in their studies.

Bandura and Adams used it to help people with a phobia of snakes.

It helps break down the phobia and make it easier for the sufferer to cope with the main cause of the phobia, e.g. In Bandura and Adams study they used items of snakes ranging from pictures of the snake up to actual contact with the snake, at the same time they would deploy methods of relaxation to help the sufferer remain calm and eventually overcome their phobia of snakes.

Further reading of Phobias

• Phobias: The Way of the Worrier

• How to Master Anxiety: All You Need to Know to Overcome Stress, Panic Attacks, Trauma, Phobias, Obsessions and More

• Coping with Shyness and Social Phobias: A Step-by-step Guide Using CBT

• All books are available in waterstones.

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