Managing Different Kinds of Phobia

Everybody fears something, the only difference is that some people are aware of it and others are not. And while many people share specific fears with majority of the population, there are still a few whose fears are exhibited by marginalized community. This is phobia and while some people regard it as a disorder, some agree that it is nothing but a psychological flaw in every man’s brain.

Not all phobias are the same. Experts categorizes phobia into different groups. But needless to say what a man’s phobia can simply be another’s man favorite thing. The fact that there are people who will freeze to death and there are some who will grow wild in excitement once they are in heights tells us that there is more to phobias than fears, screams and emotional imbalance.

Phobias know no age. You can be a kid and be afraid of spiders and you can be old and be afraid of the same thing. While it is a fact that children exhibit phobias when they are at the ages of 5 to 9, there are phobias which will only manifest late in adulthood.
Experts explain that phobia is an uncontrollable, intense, irrational and constant fear of something that poses little or no danger at all. And since there are literally hundred different kinds of phobias (new are even being discovered as time goes by) this article will only focus on explaining the most common phobia types.

Medically speaking, phobia is an emotional disorder rather than a psychological disorder. The patient needs a very strong interaction between a series of biological and environmental factors for a phobia to appear. These factors include traumatic experiences, disturbances and unpleasant situations that usually become part of a person’s memory. These memories result into fear.

While this disorder cannot be treated with medicine or operations, there are ways for a person to actually overcome his or her phobia. The most commonly used phobia treatment involves a series of cognitive behavior therapies. Generally termed as psychotherapy, it gradually puts the patient affront his or her fears. The progressive exposure of the patient, as assistant by psychiatrist will allow the patient to develop skills that will later allow him or her to adapt to the said fear – ultimately removing discomfort later on defeating the phobia.

The other type of treatment involves medication. Medicines are prescribed by the doctor to aid the phobic patient to control his or her emotions when facing the cause of his or her phobia.

Psychologists categorizes phobia into three classes.

Social phobia is a generic term describing the intense fear of an individual to be humiliated in a social gatherings and public places. To avoid this humiliation, they fear seeing a group of people or general population. They often left with a few friends or none at all.

The next type of phobia is called agoraphobia – or fear of crowded places. People with this kind of fear will find it hard to stay in public places like parks and other areas where there are a considerable number of people such as malls, stadium and church.

The last kind of phobia called specific phobia refers to fear associated with specific people, situations, animals and environments. Common phobias of this type include fear of flying (aerophobia), fear of heights (acrophobia); fear of dead (necrophobia), fear of spiders (arachnophobia) and many others.

Irene Lock is a well known teacher of Kinesiology, for more information click on:-

Understanding the Problems

Finding the Solutions

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