Specific Phobias

Specific phobia, also known as simple phobia, is an anxiety disorder characterized by persistent and unreasonable fear of something or fear of a situation, wherein such fear is not proportionate to the danger or risk of that thing or situation that a person has the fear of. The five sub-type of specific phobia are the animal, natural environment, blood injection injury, situational and others. The most common specific phobia is the animal phobia. Examples of this animal phobia include fear of dogs, snakes, insects or mice. To prevent over diagnosis of specific phobia, DSM 5 have made several changes based on the over assessment of danger or erratic fear. To be considered as one of the specific phobias, it should meet the requirements

A phobia is an extreme or irrational fear of something. Many phobias are in relation to one another. As people, we must realize that phobias cannot be fixed by ourselves. In order to help individuals that we may encounter, we must completely understand phobias. We cannot judge them for something they cannot help. To help an individual feel more at ease it is our job to know the causes, effects, impacts, and treatments of their phobia. This would help to completely understand the phobia and in the end, help us all to support each

Phobias can be treated one of four ways. The most common is to faces the fear. This person would either get assistants from a behavioral therapist or go at it alone. This would be the most extreme way of getting over the phobia. Or a person can receive help from a behavioral therapist. The therapist may ask the patient to read up on the object or place, then look at photos of their fear. The patient might be asked to final go face their fear after all the research and preparation (Mayo Clinic). The treatment with medication is always an

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.

Universal human phobia is close interpersonal violence that a person experiences throughout their life. This phobia is not brought upon by mother nature, but by the actions of another human being. In the book, the authors explained how people were not angry if a tornado sent them to the hospital and destroyed their house. Yet when a gang beats them and destroys their house, it’s personal and the victims are angry. The actions of others that causes people to be scared is the concept of universal human 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

Fear, an intensive form of anxiety, can be crippling in nature to some people. It is important that we overcome our fears to be able to grow and mature. There are three main ways in which we can manage or resolve fear: behavioral therapy, systematic desensitization, and exposure desensitization. Behavioral therapy was introduced by John B. Watson, a behavioral psychologist, and involved an individual alternating engagements in coping and relaxation techniques to help desensitize that person to the stressors (Seaward, 2015). Systematic desensitization involves the anxious person learning to de-stress from the fear in small, piecemeal increments through which they always feel in control. Exposure desensitization, on the other hand, occurs when the individual is introduced to the real stressor is brief and save encounters with the stressor. Through combinations of the three different ways to

The Nature of the Problem: In both Exposure and Behavioral Therapy the main focus is on anxiety. These anxieties area conditioned response (Prochaska & Norcross, 2005, p.238 & 264). In Exposure Therapy and Behavioral Therapy the client avoids situation where there will be confrontation or fear where it could be

“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,

Specific Phobia, under the category of anxiety disorder, there are five different specifiers. Nonetheless, this paper will focus on the treatment for claustrophobia, a situational phobia subtype. In general, there are two types of treatments, psychological and biological. However, several research suggested that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), which incorporates the exposure of anxious situation to the patient, can obtain approximately 70%-80% of improvement rate (Beidel, Bulik, & Stanley, n.d., P.156). Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to determine which type of CBT would be the most effective for specific phobia situational specifier patients who are experiencing personal distress or distress to others and/or functional

It starts with going to get a diagnosis from your doctor. “Your doctor will ask questions about your symptoms and take a medical, psychiatric and social history.”(Mayo Clinic, paragraph 1). While there is many treatments or medications for phobias, psychotherapy is currently the best one. Psychotherapy has two main types, Exposure therapy and Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Exposure therapy includes slowly exposing the person to the fear to manage anxiety. For example, if you’re afraid of flying an airplane(aerophobia), you might start off thinking about airplanes, to looking at pictures of airplanes, going near an airplane,and then stepping inside one. And eventually riding an airplane on a short ride and then a longer flight. CBT involves a mix of exposure and other techniques to learn to cope with the feared object or situation. “CBT emphasizes learning to develop a sense of mastery and confidence with your thoughts and feelings rather than feeling overwhelmed by them.”(Mayo Clinic, paragraph 6). While psychotherapy is commonly successful, medications like beta blockers and sedatives, may sometimes be used in long term or short term

Exposure therapy is an effective treatment for specific phobias, Social Anxiety Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Exposure therapy may be used as a stand-alone treatment or it may be used as a component of the therapeutic package. For example, if a client seeks treatment for a fear of spiders, he may receive exposure therapy. However, if a client has PTSD and is struggling with his marriage, he may be treated with Cognitive Behavior Therapy and receive exposure therapy as a treatment component.

Phobia is an acquired fear whenever we sense danger or when we are confronted with something new or unknown that seems potentially dangerous. It can be social anxiety disorder which characterized by excessive fear or anxiety about one or more social situations or specific phobia that developed when a person has an encounter with an object or situation that involves or provokes fear. Phobias vary in severity among individuals. Although phobias are common, they do not necessarily cause significant disruption of everyday activities.

In this paper I will be describing phobias and fear, but more specifically coulrophobia (the fear of clowns) and Monophobia (the fear of being alone). I also will describe possible causes of phobias, the history of phobias, how fear is helpful in small amounts, what fear does to someone and how to defeat it. Fear is present in all people but some more than others and I would like to know why. The definition of a phobia is “an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something”. Phobias are never simple and often do not have a simple answers or cures, but there are ways of dealing with phobias. There are some treatments that can help you get over your fears. Phobias are not easy to get into without getting into very

Fear is a normal and an important human reaction to something dangerous, it keeps one out of danger, because fear is disliked and one tries ones best to avoid the object or situation of fear. It causes physical changes known as fight-or-flight reaction, which causes blood pressure to increase and the heart rate to speed up to pump blood to the large muscles used to run away, to balance this the human body has sweat glands which produce perspiration to cool the body.