Informative Essay On Phobias

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.

Persistent concern about having additional attacksb. Worry about the implications of the attack or its consequences(e.g., losing control, having a heart attack, “going crazy”)c. A significant change in behavior related to the attacksB. The presence (or absence) of Agoraphobia.C. The Panic Attacks are not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or a general medical condition (e.g., hyperthyroidism).D. The Panic Attacks are not better accounted for by another mental disorder, such as Social Phobia (e.g., occurring on exposure to feared social situations), Specific Phobia (e.g., on exposure to a specific phobic situation), Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (e.g., on exposure to dirt in someone with an obsession about contamination), Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (e.g., in response to stimuli associated with a severe stressor), or Separation Anxiety Disorder (e.g., in response to being away from home or close relatives).(APA, 2000)

One recent study suggests that full-blown hypochondriasis is fairly rare, although lesser degrees of worry about illness are more common, affecting as many as 6% of people in a community sample. Hypochondria is an irregular anxiety about one's well being, particularly with an unjustified terror that one has a severe sickness. A lot of people worry about medical symptoms, but not everyone has hypochondria. Having an unidentified illness can cause anxiety. In this case, one should get a second opinion. This does not mean that said person is a hypochondriac. However, if you search your symptoms yourself, there is a high possibility that you can find something that matches. Minor illnesses, like the common cold, can match much more serious disorders.

Another cause for people having fear is the past experiences they have had. Generally, if something bad has happened to somebody, they try to forget about it and/or they try to make sure it never happens again. However, in doing so, they still have a subconscious fear that something similar to the terrible event they’ve experienced may somehow manage to happen again, especially if there are a few similarities between the past event and the current situation. For example, if a man had surgery for his heart to perform better and he nearly died, he may be very reluctant to ever have surgery to his heart or any other body part(s) again.

“A phobia is essentially a human being's irrational fear of something. It could be an object, an animal, a situation or an environment. These fears are persistent, intense, excessive and unrealistic, which is primarily why phobias are deemed irrational. A clinically phobic person's reaction to what scares him/her may seem extreme and the fright may not appear to be justified.” (Grenier et al., 2011) A specific phobia is known by a deep and persistent fear of an object or situation which becomes anxiety. The anticipations of the stimulus may make the symptoms arise. Many individuals who suffer with this disease will avoid the stimuli. They will take extra steps and precaution to have no contact. The main characteristics that the DSM-5 describes for this disorder includes “the individual suffering from a persistent fear that is either unreasonable or excessive, caused by the presence or anticipation of a specific object or situation, exposure to the stimulus usually results in an anxiety response, the sufferer recognizes that their fear is disproportionate to the perceived threat or danger, individuals take steps to avoid the object or situation they fear, and the phobic reaction, anticipation or avoidance interferes with the individual’s normal routine and relationships, or causes significant distress. At last, the phobia that the person has to be constant for a period of six months or longer.” (American Psychiatric Association,

A Phobia is a persistent, abnormal or irrational fear of a specific thing or situation that compels one to avoid the feared stimulus. Phobias are largely underreported. An estimated 6 million people

Anatidaephobia is the fear of a duck watching you at all times. Yeah it’s a weird one but, it's real, too real for people that suffer from it. It could mess up your life. For example, you could never go to a farm because you will be too scared. Some people can’t even leave their house, because they think a duck is watching them.

Hypochondriasis is a mental illness wherein an individual is preoccupied with the fear of having or the idea of having a serious disease. It involves the misunderstanding of bodily symptoms. The sensations of most hypochondriacs are intense and disturbing, leading to incorrectly connecting the symptoms to a serious disease. It said that hypochondria is caused by a patients excessive worrying with having or developing a disease. Often these patients seek medical attention, but a doctor's reassurance does not help the situation. Hypochondriacs will still think they are sick no matter what the do. Generally, patients who suffer from hypochondriasis also suffer from anxiety. There are many effective treatments for hypochondriacs such as

The excess of worry and fear is only heightened due to the fact that physical ailments are normally present. If a person with this disorder is concerned over a health related matter, the unexplained physical conditions that are occurring only reinforce the beliefs and worry that is taking place inside their head.

Access to online medical information has also increased the number of hypochondriacs. Hypochondriacs are not able to see themselves as healthy because they always feel that something is wrong with their bodies. Hypochondriacs come in two forms: illness anxiety disorder, if there are mild to no physical symptoms, and somatic symptom disorder, if there are multiple or major physical symptoms (Hall-Flavin, 2015, para. 4). The difference in these forms is that illness anxiety disorder is all in a patient’s head, whereas somatic symptom disorder has physical symptoms that lead the patient to believe the problem is worse than the doctors think. Misplaced beliefs due to misconceptions of the body’s natural behaviors cause most cases of hypochondria.

Also referred to as “Illness anxiety disorder (IAD)”, these patients are convinced they have a certain disorder or disease despite not having any symptoms or possibly having mild symptoms. They may worsen their symptoms on purpose or fabricate symptoms to exaggerate to the physician that they have the diseases (different from malingering because with this, they believe they have the disease). These patients are genuinely worried for their health and when medical exams reveal that there is nothing wrong with them, severe anxiety may consume them to the point that they develop an actual illness.

Feeling anxious before giving a speech or presenting a project is normal, but when that anxiety carries over into being nervous before going to a casual party or meeting up with friends, that is when it might be more than just nerves. Social anxiety is one of the most common forms of anxiety. About fifteen million adults in America suffer from social anxiety, with the typical onset age being thirteen (Social Anxiety Disorder). Overcoming social anxiety takes tremendous efforts and can take many years. There are many different methods people have tried using to overcome their fears. Two common ones people use are learning to control their breath and cognitive-behavioral therapy. With persistence and determination, people can learn to deal with their social anxiety the healthy way, or better yet, overcome it completely.

Headache = Tumor. Cough = Tuberculosis. Mole = Skin Cancer. Such is the thought process of a hypochodriac. As defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-IV (DSM-IV), hypochondriasis is an unrealistic interpretation of one's bodily sensations as abnormal, leading to the fear and belief that one has a serious disease (1). This preoccupation with having a serious medical condition is one of the somatoform disorders and may be considered more as a symptom than a disease. In fact, hypochondriacal symptoms often appear as a part of other mental disorders, including forms of depression or schizophrenia (2). For this reason, a close investigation of hypochondriacal behavior is necessary to

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).

An unpleasant emotion or feeling caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat : Fear. Fear is a strong word, it can mean a variety of things and lead to a variety of things depending on who you are. My fear caused me to shake and tremble as if the world was coming to an end. It makes me feel safe around no one. I look back on my life and ask myself, was it all worth it for this? It makes me shrink and fall the size of of a humming bird. My stomach starts to feel like it never has before. My head is spinning in circles and my hands are trembling to the point where I think they might fall off.