Phobias
What are phobias?
A phobia is an irrational and uncontrollable fear of an object or situation that most people can face without anxiety.
If you have a phobia, you will experience feelings of great panic when you have to deal with whatever it is that frightens you and you will go to great lengths to avoid it. Phobias are common and many people suffer from more than one.
Examples of phobias
- Specific phobias: fear of flying, fear of certain animals or insects, fear of germs
- Social phobias: fear of meeting people
- Claustrophobia: fear of enclosed spaces e.g. lifts
- Agoraphobia: fear of being away from the security of home, fear of being alone
Signs and symptoms
- Confused thinking
- Feelings of extreme panic
- Physical symptoms such as feeling sick, dizziness, dry mouth, sweating, unsteady breathing, shaking
- Anxiety about being on your own
- Avoidance of the feared object or situation
- Developing your own safety signals/props to cope with the feared situation/object e.g. someone with agoraphobia may become dependent upon their partner being with them whenever they go outside.
- Embarrassment once the fear has passed
How do phobias start?
It is not clear when and how phobias come about. Sometimes they can be traced back to an unpleasant or frightening event in childhood.
In other cases their origin is not clear but they seem to be a result of prolonged stress and anxiety or of a sudden stressful event which may have brought on a panic attack.
Avoidance
The phobia starts to affect everyday life when the person begins to avoid the situation that makes them anxious. Repeated avoidance maintains the problem and the negative thought processes that go with it.
Social phobia
Young men can often be affected by social phobia, with at least two in one hundred men being affected by it. This is when some people worry and become very anxious at the thought of meeting new people.
They also worry about becoming the centre of attention and think everyone is noticing them and judging what they are doing. They may find it difficult to eat or drink in public or go into restaurants or shops. It may prevent them from going for promotion at work, even though they are well qualified to do so.
As with other phobias, the most successful treatment for this condition is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
What can you do about it?
Cognitive behavioural therapy
The most effective treatment for overcoming phobias is cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Referrals to therapists can be made via your GP.
CBT involves helping people to change the way they think about themselves and other people. It focuses upon the concept that thoughts and feelings are closely related.
If you think something is going to go wrong you will feel anxious; if you think everything will be fine, you will feel more confident.
Therapists teach programmes to develop positive thinking processes when faced with the feared situation.
Exposure therapy
Exposure therapy is also used to stop people avoiding the feared situation. This is a gradual process and can take several weeks, as small steps are taken towards achieving the desired goal.
It involves helping a person to relax while in the situation that they find frightening. This is done in stages, each time making the situation a little more intense or frightening e.g. a spider phobic would be encouraged and supported over a period of time to progress from looking at pictures of spiders to accepting or even handling a real spider.
Self help
The following books may be helpful.
- Don't Panic: A guide to overcoming panic attacks by Sue Breton (Macdonald Optima)
- Peace from Nervous Sufffering by Claire Weekes (Fontana)
- Living with Fear by Isaac Marks (McGraw Hill)
