Definition Essay On Phobia

Introduction: Almost everyone has an irrational fear or two—of mice, for example, or your annual dental checkup. For most people, these fears are minor. But when fears become so severe that they cause tremendous anxiety and interfere with your normal life, they’re called phobias. A phobia is an intense fear of something that, in reality, poses little or no actual danger. Common phobias and fears include closed-in places, heights, highway driving, flying insects, snakes, and needles. However, we can develop phobias of virtually anything. Most phobias develop in childhood, but they can also develop in adults. If you

Almost everyone has fears. It can be as simple as a fear of spiders or as complex as a fear of being in a car accident. However, whenever that fear combines with anxiety and a few other factors, it is actually a phobia.

You can face your phobia, or fear by joining a club or organization. According to In The

     All people have fears, whether they like to admit it or not. Their goal should be to get over those fears, whether they are of heights, swimming, speaking in front of large crowds or even something more minor. Getting over the most basic fears can mean so much to people and push them further until they have accomplished a lot of things that they want to get done. For example, someone who is afraid of heights should pick something (like bungee jumping) that has to do with heights and try it just to prove to himself that he has the ability to do anything that he allows himself to do. Sure, what he does might scare him, but how else can he ever expect to get over his fear? Another example, if a man wanted to ask a woman out on a date, he should ask her instead of sitting around and waiting for the love of his life to fall into his lap. Everything a person does

Phobia in clinical psychology context is an irrational fear of something or situation. The person suffering from phobia will try their best to avoid their phobia. In the extreme case that the person suffering from the phobia cannot avoid it, they will attempt to endure through the situation with a lot of distress ADDIN EN.CITE Swanson1986158(Swanson, 1986)15815817Swanson, Guy E.Phobias and Related Symptoms: Some Social SourcesSociological ForumSociological Forum103-130111986Springer08848971http://www.jstor.org/stable/684555( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_2" o "Swanson, 1986 #158" Swanson, 1986). Phobias can cause difficulties in a person performing their daily activities.

Of the many disorders presented in chapter 15, I find phobias the most interesting. Phobias are more than just a strong fear or dislike. A specific phobia is diagnosed when there is an uncontrollable, irrational, intense desire to avoid some object or situation. There are numerous types of phobias. A few common phobias are; agoraphobia, which is the avoidance of situations in which one will fear having a panic attack, especially a situation in which it is difficult to get help, and from which it difficult to escape. Social phobia, which refers to an intense fear of being watched and judged by others. It is visible as a fear of public appearances in which embarrassment or humiliation is possible, such as public speaking, eating, or performing.

Many people face their fears, and some are even put in as stories. In many stories like The Ravine by Graham Salisbury, Vinny breaks free from peer pressure but does not face his fear, which is jumping off the ravine into the jungle pond. Meanwhile, in The Jumping Tree, Rey faced his fear and got his ‘badge of courage’. This helped with his reputation and fear. Facing our fears, or experiencing something harmless

Phobias describe certain fears that we as humans encounter. Some of which are very interesting while others are downright outrageous. People subsisting with indirect phobias either endure their fear with a lot of stress and anxiety, avoid the feared situation/object all together or take many irrational precautions when coming into contact with their fear 7. For example, Howie Mandel copes with his germaphobia by shaving his head entirely and instead of shaking hands with people he touches fists. This is a much more reposed way of subsisting with germaphobia for Howie Mandel. In the past Howie scrubbed his hands vigorously with soap which eliminated the antibodies in his hands 9. People subsisting with direct phobias other than social phobias have the opportunity to simply avoid their cause of fear, while those with indirect phobias do not. A person who has Arachnophobia can easily avoid places and situations where they assume arachnid insects will be present 3. Those with social phobias have a disadvantage when it comes to coping with their fear. It is nearly impossible to avoid uncomfortable social interaction

In general, a phobia refers to “extreme [and] irrational fear reactions” (Powell, Honey, & Symbaluk, 2013, p. 190). Phobias are developed through a process called classical conditioning. Classical conditioning involves “a process in which one stimulus that does not elicit a certain response is associated with a second stimulus that does; as a result, the first stimulus also comes to elicit a response” (Powell et al., 2013, pp. 109-110).

Phobias, an extreme fear of something, can best be understood through use of the psychodynamic perspective. Oftentimes, childhood traumas or exposure to the object of the fear at an early age can lead to the phobia to manifest itself when the patient is an adult.

A phobia is something bigger than a fear. It is something that makes us internally cringe by just thinking of it. It’s that little thought that makes your heart race and your fingers tremble like a leaf during a storm. The reason you may have a phobia is because something traumatic happened to you during your childhood or even adulthood. You may also be afraid of something because the size of it, how dark it is, or it intimidates you. About.com states ‘’we no longer need to consciously think about certain behaviors, as they simply ‘’come naturally’’.’’ Meaning once you get used to doing your daily routine it will be hard to change one step. If you have been afraid of dogs since you were a child it is not going to be simple to just walk up to one and pet it. It takes time but with practice you can conquer your fear for

In studying the indigenous Kogi tribe there are many questions that I found compelled to

Known as a mental disorder a phobia is a persistent fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to compelling desire to avoid it. Phobias tend to affect the way people live their lives, for example, their working and social environments, considering that they last for a very long time and are capable to cause intense psychological physical stress. It is considered today the most common mental and anxiety disorder in the United States (Matig Mavissakalian & David H. Barlow 1981 pp 2). There are many phobias such as: the fear of aging, fear of changing, fear of clowns, fear of getting fat, fear of being in closed spaces, etc.

Sociology is a very complex subject. Trying to understand how a person or anything else works is quite difficult. No two people are the same. Life as we know it is very complicated. There are many professions that people go into to find out how life works – how people work.

However, phobia can even cause people to risk their health. For example, the fear of dentists can leave people suffering from it willing to risk the health of their teeth in order to avoid having to go through an exam or procedure ( MacKay). When one knows about an upcoming confrontation, it can be the reason why one can not sleep or finds it hard to focus on important tasks. Due the change in daily routine, this unrealistic fear can interfere with the ability to socialize, work, or go about everyday life, brought on by and object, event or situation. But even animals have anxieties and phobias just as every human being (www.phobia-help.de). A phobia is an irrational fear, one knows that the object or situation, one is scared off, can not hurt one, but one is still afraid. A reason for this is that the human mind can not distinguish what is real and imaginary. When one has uncontrollable anxiety attacks, he loses rational judgement, leading to complicated problems. However, anyone can develop a phobia, men and women, teens and young adults, and elderly lady or a one-year-old boy (MacKay).