Phobias Introduction
(Phobia Variations Defined and Explained)
All Kinds of Phobias Exist
The affixes phobo-, phob-, -phobia, -phobias, -phobe, -phobiac, -phobist, -phobic, -phobism, -phobous come from Greek meaning “an irrational, intense fear or terror of a person, object, situation, sensation, experience, thought, or stimulus event that is not shared by the con-sensual community and is thus out of proportion to any danger.
The victim can’t easily explain or understand the phobia, has no voluntary control over the anxiety response, and seeks to avoid the dreaded situation or stimulus in every possible way;” however, there are times when this Greek element means “a strong dislike or hatred for something or someone” based on one’s fear.
The term phobia comes from the Greek element phobos (terror, panic, irrational fear, and angst), from phobein, “to put to flight”.
- Phobos was the son of Ares (Greek god of war) and Aphrodite.
- Phobos (Panic) and his brother Deimos (Fear) were constant com-panions of their father and they often drove his chariot into battle.
- These brothers represent the personifications of two emotions commonly felt in war.
- Some phobias are recognized as physical or mental disorders while others are considered to be categories of nonce words and contrived euphemisms.
- Nonce words are coined [invented] and occur or are used only for what is considered to be a “present or particular occasion”.
Phobias for Every Season and Situation
Simple phobias are defined as persistent, irrational fears of, and compelling desires to avoid certain objects or situations.
- They are characterized by relatively specific fears of objects or situations and so they are sometimes referred to as specific phobias.
- Commonly recognized specific phobias include certain modes of transportation; such as, driving across bridges, or flying.
- Public speaking seems to be the most common phobic situation in the population.
- Heights and darkness appear to be the most common causes for simple phobias.
- Other common phobic objects or situations include harmless animals such as dogs and cats, thunderstorms, crowded places, and closed rooms.
- People with animal phobias usually only have symptoms in the presence of, or anticipated presence of, their phobic objects.
- Snakes, spiders, and birds have been the most reported animal phobias.
- Animal phobias are more prevalent among women.
- Blood and injury phobias are special types of simple phobias.
- Unlike other phobias, that cause increased pulse and other physiological signs of arousal, blood and injury phobias produce lower pulse and blood pressure and bring on fainting spells.
There is a time to take counsel of your fears, and there is a time to never listen to any fear.
Social phobias include people who have excessive anxiety in social situations:
- Parties, meetings, interviews, restaurants, making complaints, writing in public, eating at restaurants, and interacting with the opposite sex, strangers, and aggressive individuals.
- They often fear situations in which they believe they are being ob-served and evaluated; such as, when eating, drinking, speaking in public, driving, etc.
- Unlike specific or simple phobias, that tend to diminish as the individual grows into puberty and young adulthood, social phobias persist.
- Many of these people have traits that interfere with social and marital adjustment.
- Some have ongoing problems with generalized anxiety, dependence, authority, and depression.
- Phobias of internal stimuli consist of those fears within the person with no external stimuli that can be avoided to reduce fear.
- Examples: fears of cancer, heart and venereal disease, and death.
- Anxieties in this category are often characteristic of depressive illnesses; in such cases, they improve when the depression improves.
- Illness phobias occur in both male and female genders.
- Some of these fears may be regarded as an extreme form of hypochondria.
Obsessive phobias include fears that are unequal to the demands of the situations, can’t be explained by the individual, and are beyond voluntary control.
- Examples consist of a fear of harming people or babies, fears of swearing, and fears of contamination that lead to obsessive hand-washing.
- Such phobias usually occur along with other obsessive-compulsive disorders.
The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of Hell or a hell of Heaven.
Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.
Psychiatrists define a phobia as a type of anxiety disorder that consists of a morbid and irrational fear of a specific object or situation associated with severe anxiety, and recognized by the subject to be unreasonable or unwarranted. It is more than fear, however, for the feared object or situation must be avoided, or can be endured only with marked distress, because of the anxiety response or panic attack that it almost invariably provokes. This condition is also known as angst.
Three major forms of phobias are generally recognized
1. Specific phobia (also known as simple phobia or isolated phobia).
The essential feature of a specific phobia is a persistent, irrational fear of, and compelling desire to avoid, specific objects or situations. This kind of phobia is characterized by a relatively specific fear of an object or situation. The range of stimuli that may elicit a fearful response is narrower than in other phobic disorders and such phobias are sometimes also referred to as simple phobias.
Examples of specific phobias include the following groups of excessive fears
Some animal dreads: entomophobia, apiphobia, arachneophobia, batrachophobia, equinophobia, ichthyophobia, musephobia, murophobia, ophidiophobia, ornithophobia, and zoophobia.
Samples of natural terrors: acluophobia, nyctophobia, acrophobia, hysophobia, anemophobia, astraphobia, aurophobia, brontophobia, keraunophoia, ombrophobia, potomophobia, and siderophobia.
Examples of blood-injury-illness panics: algophobia, odynophobia, belonephobia, dermatophobia, hematophobia, hemophobia, pyrexeophobia, febriphobia, molysmophobia, mysophobia, traumatophobia, and vaccinophobia.
A few miscellaneous anxieties: ballistophobia, barophobia, claustrophobia, dementophobia, dextrophobia, erythrophobia, harpaxophobia, levophobia, pediophobia, trichopathophobia, and trichophobia.
2. Social phobia (social anxiety disorder; although when it occurs in children, it is known as avoidant disorder).
Individuals who have social phobias have excessive anxieties in social situations; such as, parties, meetings, interviews, restaurants, making complaints, writing in public, eating in restaurants, and interacting with the opposite sex, strangers, and aggressive individuals. They often fear situations in which they believe they are being observed and evaluated, such as eating, drinking, speaking in public, driving, etc.
Unlike specific or simple phobias, which tend to diminish as the individual grows into puberty and young adulthood, social phobias persist as one gets older. Many such individuals have traits that interfere with social and marital adjustment. Some have ongoing problems with generalized anxiety, dependence, authority, and depression.
Samples of excessive-social anxieties: aphephobia, haptephobia, catagelophobia, ereuthophobia, graphophobia, scriptophobia, kakorrhaphiophobia, scopophobia, and xenophobia.
True fears present signals in the presence of dangers; whereas unwarranted fears, phobias, are a waste of time. True fears are based on perceptions from your environment.
Unwarranted fears, phobias, are based on your imaginations or memories. Your survival instincts are gifts from nature. Whatever causes true fears is probably based on legitimate reasons. Always listen to them; however, you should also strive to distinguish true fears from phobias (irrational terrors).
3. Agoraphobia (considered to be the severest form of phobia and the one for which most professional help is needed).
Some other words that are synonyms of the word phobia include: fear, hatred, dread, anxiety, aversion, panic, fright, terror, torment, scare, terrify, angst, disgust, abhorrence, antipathy, repulsion, and revulsion.