Phobias: Causes, Types, Treatment, Symptoms

Ian C. Langtree - Writer/Editor for Disabled World (DW)
Published: 2009/01/18 - Updated: 2023/12/02
Publication Type: Informative
Category Topic: Phobias and Fears - Academic Publications

Page Content: Synopsis - Introduction - Main

Synopsis: Phobias are intense irrational fears that can cause significant distress and interfere with daily life. They can be classified as anxiety disorders and can manifest in various ways. Consider a life limited by fear and anxiety, in which every feat is examined and even the least decision is angst-ridden. Hours are expended scrutinizing daily tasks or circumstances that many people carry out easily.

Introduction

About 18 percent of those living in the United States endure a kind of a panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, general anxiety disorder or phobias, such as a social phobia, agoraphobia, or a specific phobia, which embody common fears of items such as germs, heights or elevators.

Main Content

Consider a life limited by fear and anxiety, in which every feat is examined and even the least decision is angst-ridden. Hours are expended scrutinizing daily tasks or circumstances that many people carry out easily. According to the National Institute of Health, more than 40 million adults in the United States who endure anxiety disorders have this type of life.

Concordantly, about 18 percent of those living in the United States endure a kind of a panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, general anxiety disorder or phobias, such as a social phobia, agoraphobia, or a specific phobia, which embody common fears of items such as germs, heights or elevators.

Are you like those people?

Many people aren't sure how to tell if their natural concerns have transformed into a phobia. A phobia is classified as an irrational fear or dread. If someone comes upon a phobia trigger, they might become panicked with increased heart rate and respiration. Commonly, he or she might feel a choking sensation or their hands get sweaty. They may also have ringing in their ears and recognize they are unable to concentrate on the environs.

Like any unpleasant consciousness, people will try great lengths to elude the happenings, places or things that produce them. If someone has a social phobia, they may evade social settings, or if it is a common phobia, including coffins or spiders, people who possess a phobia will seek to elude those triggers.

The anxiety disorder phobia could be one of the most difficult to unravel because subsequent problems often result from the anxiety / phobia relationship, such as despair or substance abuse. In fact, many people who suffer from one anxiety disorder often cultivate more anxiety disorders.

Though it may be useful to meet with a mental health professional to analyze your phobia and inspect the origin of it, the essential action is beginning treatment for the anxiety and phobia. Several therapeutic approaches exist for successfully eliminating a phobia, including talk therapy, drugs, systematic desensitization, hypnotherapy and Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

Typically, drug treatments for anxiety and phobia treatment can include sedatives, which actually worsen the difficulty because they don't focus on the underlying reason for the phobia. Other mental health professionals prefer to use talk therapy; however, talking about or even thinking about the condition or environment of the principal anxiety phobia can cause a panic attack.

Traditional hypnosis simply assists the subject to accomplish a relaxed hypnotic state and then offering post-hypnotic suggestions or commands can be very successful if the person is open to it. However, a lot of people with phobias discard the idea that they will be more comfortable and at ease when they are challenged with the environment or situation that prompts anxiety from the associated phobia.

Knowing the challenges and even impediments of other forms of treatment for phobias, systematic desensitization can be a helpful treatment. It is the course of gradually desensitizing a person to the trigger that sets off the anxiety disorder phobia and ensuing panic attacks.

For instance, if a subject aims to conquer a phobia of dogs, she is asked to first sit down and envision a dog until she is secure with the image. Then, she is given a photograph of a dog to view. Perhaps she moves forward to embracing a toy dog and so on until she is able to remain in the presence of a canine without the panic symptoms - possibly even pet it.

The main point is that, following each progression, the subject acknowledges that nothing bad occurred and that she is protected. If at any time she feels panic or fear, the therapist asks the client to revert to the preceding step until she has gotten back a sense of security.

Thankfully, there is a tactic to make this process less painful and frightening: Systematic desensitization can be carried out as the subject is in a relaxed hypnosis state. While in a relaxed hypnotic trance, the client would be asked to execute the same actions, but she would actually feel very peaceful as she visualized herself feeling relaxed and comfortable in the situation that provokes anxiety.

Just as in the live systematic desensitization that happens without the benefit of hypnosis, if she feels any anxiety concerning her phobia, she is directed to step back to the previous action. The only disadvantage is that this method can necessitate a fair amount of time to beget release from a phobia.

The fastest and most effective technique to get rid of a phobia is a Neuro-Linguistic Programming practice called a Visual/Kinesthetic Disassociation. It often cures the subject of a chronic phobia in just one session. The method actually programs clients to disassociate, or mentally step outside of themselves at the time that they would typically begin their anxiety attack. The process literally splits the subjective emotions from the mental images that produce the panic attack in the first place.

While any phobia treatment that someone undertakes will necessitate work and commitment, systematic desensitization coupled with hypnosis can offer an effective cure. But the NLP Visual/Kinesthetic Disassociation can offer an answer that almost seems magical by allowing the subject to triumph over the phobia quickly with significantly less - perhaps even no discomfort or panic.

It's important to note that seeking professional help from a mental health provider is crucial for an accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment plan for phobias.

Author Credentials: Ian is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Disabled World, a leading resource for news and information on disability issues. With a global perspective shaped by years of travel and lived experience, Ian is a committed proponent of the Social Model of Disability-a transformative framework developed by disabled activists in the 1970s that emphasizes dismantling societal barriers rather than focusing solely on individual impairments. His work reflects a deep commitment to disability rights, accessibility, and social inclusion. To learn more about Ian's background, expertise, and accomplishments, visit his full biography.