The Fear Of Being Alone

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.

The path of life is not always smooth. There are ups and downs, sharp bends and unclear turns. Sometimes you are so bent on your reaching your destination that you blind yourself to other opportunities that life presents. This was my predicament before I joined college- an overzealous academician who was eager to conquer his dreams. Therefore, it came as a surprise when I learned that apart from attending classes, I would be expected to participate in at least one sport co-curricular activity. This was my father’s personal policy. He took it upon himself to ensure that all his children developed their athletic skills. I fought against this ideology. I told him that I did not have an athletic bone in my body. I even complained that adults are not supposed to be told what to do. I argued relentlessly. Needless to say, I lost miserably. “Co-curricular activities help in the development of the mind and body,” my father insisted-and took it upon himself to explain to a belligerent me. He even offered to go with me to college to meet my coach. “I do not need babysitting,” I said grudgingly. He then gave me a handbook and asked me to pick my sport. I knew I had lost the fight. The sports offered at my college included: soccer, basketball, hockey, badminton, cricket, rugby, volleyball, and swimming. After much thinking and critical analysis of each sport, I decided to settle for

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.

Definition: Agoraphobia is the fear of being in a situation where there may be lack of an escape or help, and may result in embarrassment and humiliation. (MedicineNet, 2013) This may include being in a public or open place; like in a crowd, standing in line, being in some mode of transportation, being on a bridge, or being out alone. (Psych Central Staff, 2013) Often, those with Agoraphobia need the presence of a companion to leave their house or venture to specific places. Anxiety is accompanied when one is placed in these threatening situations and they will experience panic-like symptoms or a panic attack. This fear will cause one to entirely avoid these places or situations and become more reclusive to decrease the panic attacks.

Agoraphobia is anxiety about being in (or anticipating) situations that might be difficult or in which help may not be available in the event of having a panic attack. The individual might feel like the situation is unsafe and that is when the panic sets in. These symptoms must be present for at least six months. The DSM states that this must occur in at least two of these places: 1) public transportation 2) being in open spaces 3) being in enclosed spaces 4) standing in line or in a crowd or 5) being outside the home alone. Agoraphobia can be diagnosed with or without panic disorder. (American Psychiatric Association, 2013)

As you walk the streets all around you there are individuals who may live their life in fear of the petrifying clowns that appear out of nowhere, the spine-chilling darkness that creeps in at dusk, or even the nauseating germs of others surrounding you, but what if you knew someone simply terrified of the outdoors. This may seem strange, but these individuals are constantly living in fear of the outside world away from their “Safe Zone”. From the moment they wake they fear the outside world, constantly panicking about what could happen if they venture to the outdoors. Agoraphobia affects between 5-12% of Americans (Misconceptions of Agoraphobia), and is essential to become aware of the true definition of Agoraphobia.

I was sitting at my desk looking at the new worksheet my teacher 3rd grade teacher had just handed out. I looked at the clock and saw the time, 11:14, and wrote it on my paper. Later I looked at the clock again, 11:20, and wrote it down again. I glanced at the clock yet again, 11:21, and jot the number down once again. Eventually I had a line of times written down my worksheet. I didn't know why I was doing it, or even that it was weird of me to do it. I just felt the need to do it and I did. It became such a common action that my mom bought be a little notebook for me to specifically write my times in so I didn't have to clutter up my homework.

The book that inspired this piece focused on worry. One of the worries mentioned in the book is imagined fears, sometimes people worry about things that aren't real threats. It’s all in their head. My project focused on the idea of imagined fears. I made a hollow human head that has a bowl inside of it. One can write down their imagined fears down on paper and put them there so the fears are in someone else's head instead of their own. There is no way to face imagined fears except to realize they are not real, the head can serve as a process for taking those fears out of your head and realizing they are not real. The head can also serve as an altar. Imagined fears are the strongest fears people have because there is no way to face them except

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.

a happy heart, and living by the golden rule of treating others the way we want to be

Before we left, we said “goodbye” again to our family and left. As my mom drove, I was getting sleepy, but my mom told me that I should stay awake just in case. We later got to the hospital, where we got confused where to go, but eventually found out where the entrance was. We all got out of the car and headed towards the automatic doors, but when I walked in, it was pretty barren and cold. My mom headed to the counter to check us in while my siblings and I sat down. The kind lady working behind the counter gave my mom, sister, and I a yellow wristband, and told us to sit

There are several treatment options for separation anxiety disorder in children. The golden standard treatment of separation anxiety and other anxiety disorders is cognitive behavioral therapy, also known as CBT (Ehrenreich, Santucci, & Weiner, 2008). There are a couple of goals for this approach that involve both the child and parent (James, James, Cowdrey, Soler, & Choke, 2015). These researchers state that one of the goals is for the child to be able to recognize their own anxious feelings and their physiological responses when they experience anxiety. Another goal is for the child to have an ability to identify and control their thoughts during experiences that are anxiety-provoking for them. Therapists want children with separation

No one is perfectly healthy. In today’s society, many people suffer from some type of disorders. Separation anxiety is one of them. According to the www.attachment.org website, “this disorder is a type of an attachment disorder that is usually observed by young children, who feel they are getting lack of affection and attention from parents or their caregivers due to separation.” I believe that many people feel unsafe being alone and they are afraid to be alone. However, due to inescapable situation or technology or laziness they face separation, loneliness, and fear. Many researches and articles say genes, environment, and people are the main cause of the attachment disorder. There are differences between adults and young children who have separation anxiety. The ways to treat separation anxiety vary. The research says 77.5 % of people has lifetime separation anxiety disorder, 75.2 % has reported separation anxiety disorder in the past 12 months had adult onset SAD, and 80% of SAD diagnoses still occurred prior to 30 years of age with individuals experiencing onset by their late teens to early 20s.

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.

“Aurophobia is the fear of gold. People who have this fear may dislike gold because of its appearance of what it represents, such as power or death.”(Aurophobia, n.d.)