Phobias

Phobias
What is a phobia?
A phobia is an identifiable and persistent fear that is excessive or unreasonable and is triggered by the presence or anticipation of a specific object or situation.

Phobias Are Common, But Treatable
Maybe you've had sweaty palms before a first date. Or, you've stayed awake worrying all night before a big meeting. Most of us worry or get nervous every now and then.

Phobias
A phobia is strong fear or dread of a thing or event, which is out of proportion to the reality of the situation. The most effective treatment is cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Antidepressant medication also helps in many cases.

Phobias
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Phobias
What is a phobia?
According to the American Psychiatric Association, a phobia is an uncontrollable, irrational, and persistent fear of a specific object, situation, or activity.

Phobias
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Phobias
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Phobias
Fear or phobia? Find out the difference between the two and the treatment options that can help you overcome them.
A phobia is an anxiety disorder. It is an extreme or irrational fear of: ...

Phobias
By Paula Ford-Martin, Rebecca J. Frey PhDThe Gale Group Inc., Gale.. Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine, 2005more »
Definition ...

Phobias
Anxiety disorders in which the essential feature is persistent and irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that the individual feels compelled to avoid.

Phobias - Cause
The MedicineNet physician editors ask:
What was the cause of your phobias?

About phobias
Fear is a form of anxiety triggered by something in your surroundings. If the situation is a real threat - for example, you're being attacked - fear is a completely sensible and appropriate reaction.

Simple phobias. These include a fear of: enclosed spaces (claustrophobia); animals, particularly spiders, snakes or mice; heights (acrophobia); flying (pterygophobia); water (hydrophobia); storms; dentists (odontiatophobia); tunnels; bridges; ...

Phobias can range from mild fear to terror that can affect a person's everyday life. Phobias are medically defined as irrational fears of a situation that is harmless. The sufferer's reaction to a phobia is uncontrollable.

Phobias often occur along with other disorders and so your psychologist will also try to rule out other problems such as another category of anxiety disorder, depression or substance abuse before a diagnosis of a specific Phobia is made.

Phobias: What Are You Afraid Of?
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Simple phobias can be treated by graded exposure therapy. The person exposes themselves to their feared stimulus or cue in a gradual and controlled way, and gradually acquires desensitisation therapy to it.

Symptoms of PHOBIAS
View symptom groups below that present with PHOBIAS
Overview and causes of PHOBIAS - click here ...

Phobias
Phobias are extreme and irrational fears that interfere with daily life. People with phobias have fears that are out of proportion to real danger.

Phobias are irrational and involuntary and include overwhelming fears that lead a person to avoid common objects, events or situations, or become excessively anxious as they approach them.

Phobias
Phobias are ongoing fears about or avoidance of a situation or object. People with phobias usually experience intense anxiety and avoid situations that may frighten them. Cancer patients may fear needles.

animal phobias (eg, dogs, snakes, spiders): the start of these phobias is often in childhood, usually before the age of seven years.
blood and injury phobias: the fear of blood tests or the sight of blood that results in fainting.

Phobias Slideshow Pictures
Generalized anxiety disorder: Abbreviated GAD. A condition characterized by 6 months or more of chronic, exaggerated worry and tension that is unfounded or much more severe than the normal anxiety most people experience.

Phobias are intense, excessive, irrational fears provoked by a situation or object.

Phobias. Phobias often precede the onset of the eating disorder. Social phobias, in which a person is fearful about being humiliated in public, are common in both types of eating disorders.
Panic Disorder.

Phobias
Introduction
Giving a public presentation makes many people nervous. But perhaps it makes you so nervous that you worry for weeks before the event, and you may even start to feel sick if you just think about it.

Phobias
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Phobias
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Panic disorder
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Social anxiety disorder
Generalized anxiety disorder ...

phobias " An anxiety disorder in which a person suffers from an unusual amount of fear of a certain activity or situation.

Phobias tend to be chronic, but respond well to treatment.
Complications
Some phobias may affect job performance. People with this disorder may become housebound for years, which is likely to hurt their social and interpersonal relationships.

PHOBIAS and PANIC ATTACKS (Irrational Fears; Anxiety Disorder; Agoraphobia; Claustrophobia, etc.) ...

Most phobias will last indefinitely until the patient decided to overcome their specific fear of an object or social situation. Certain phobias such as the fear of spiders (arachnophobia) is quite easily managed by the complete avoidance of spiders.

Common phobias include the fear of:
Blood, injections, and other medical procedures
Certain animals (for instance, dogs or snakes)
Enclosed spaces
Flying
High places
Insects or spiders
Lightning
Pictures & Images ...

Specific phobias are a type of anxiety disorder in which exposure to the feared stimulus may provoke extreme anxiety or a panic attack. Specific phobias are among the most common of all psychiatric disorders, affecting up to 10% of the population.

Like all phobias, the cause of claustrophobia is not well known, though it can run in families. The signs of claustrophobia usually develop early in life during childhood or the teenage years. Claustrophobia can disappear in adulthood.

What are phobias?
Reducing anxiety
Anxiety, fears and phobias in children
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Specific phobias
A specific phobia is an intense fear of a specific object or situation, such as snakes, heights or flying. The level of fear usually is inappropriate to the situation and might cause the person to avoid common, everyday situations.

Some other phobias, borne from anxiety, include social phobia - fear of embarrassing yourself in front of others - and agoraphobia, which is the fear of open spaces.

Specific phobias--an intense fear of something that poses little or actual danger, such as heights, closed-in places, flying, dogs, or tunnels. The phobia is not just fear, but irrational fear of a particular thing.

Phobias
Phobias in Children and Adolescents
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Physical Abnormalities
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Many times social phobias have a lot to do with negative self talk so the patient learns to recognize what they are telling themselves in a social setting.

People with social phobias fear and avoid situations in which they may be subject to the scrutiny of others. It may begin in adolescence and may be associated with overprotective parents or limited social opportunities.

Phobias Phobias are irrational fears that lead people to altogether avoid specific things or situations that trigger intense anxiety.

phobias
Specific phobias ... Irrational fear, Anxiety
Specrophobia ... feeling of panic, feeling of terror, anxiety, feeling of dread
Spectrophobia ... feeling of panic, feeling of terror, anxiety, feeling of dread
Spermatophobia ...

Chronic stress may develop into more serious problems, such as an acute situational anxiety\ \generalized anxiety disorder\ \ panic disorder \ \ post-traumatic stress disorder \ \phobias\ \ obsessive compulsive disorders \ ',CAPTION, ...

Phobias, the most common type of anxiety disorder, involve specific situations which cause irrational anxiety attacks. For instance, an individual with agoraphobia (fear of open spaces) may be too anxious to leave their house.

Traditionally, acrophobia has been attributed, like other phobias, to conditioning or a traumatic experience involving heights.

The cerebral form is sometimes termed psychasthenia, and is liable to present morbid fears or phobias, e.g.

Mind-Body Medicine and Phobias
Cognitive behavioral Therapy is another method of training your mind. This technique is most useful when dealing with phobias but you can also use it for illnesses.

Phobias are a relatively common type of anxiety disorder. Phobias can be treated with cognitive behavioral therapy using exposure and fear reduction techniques.

Sufferers with this most puritanical of phobias typically feel guilty about experiencing pleasure even though they usually realize rationally there is nothing at all wrong with taking pleasure.

The majority of people who exhibit selective mutism appear to have some type of acute situational anxiety\ \generalized anxiety disorder\ \ panic disorder \ \ post-traumatic stress disorder \ \phobias\ \ obsessive compulsive disorders \ ',CAPTION, ...

Phobias
Feelings of extreme shyness
Stress
Panic disorders
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
Eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa , bulimia nervosa , and obesity
Insomnia and other sleep problems ...

Anxiety, depression, insomnia, phobias, and emotional and behavioral problems frequently coexist with drug abuse or result from the substance use. Drug abusers are two to four times more likely than non-drug users to have a psychiatric disorder.

In specific phobias, the feared situation or object is avoided or endured with intense anxiety and distress. Exposure to the feared object or situation almost always causes anxiety.

Anxiety disorders refers to a wide range of disorders where anxiety is the main symptom ( Generalised anxiety and panic disorders ) or is experienced when the individual attempts to control certain maladaptive behaviours ( phobias and ...

Frequent behavioral issues include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), phobias, obsessions and compulsions, tantrums, and impulsive behaviors. Problems with speech and language are also common.

Aggressiveness or withdrawal may develop, as may phobias or sleep disturbances. Some sexually abused children act in ways that are sexually inappropriate for their age.

flooding (implosion) A behavior therapy procedure for phobias and other problems involving maladaptive anxiety, in which anxiety producers are presented in intense forms, either in imagination or in real life.

The individual may have a history of phobias. Family, friends, or the affected person may tell the health care provider about agoraphobic behavior.
Signs include:
High blood pressure
Rapid pulse (heart rate)
Sweating ...

Panic disorder
Social phobia
Specific phobias
Agoraphobia
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Acute Stress Disorder
Separation Anxiety Disorder ...

See also: Symptom, Anxiety, Stress, Depression, Anxiety disorder