Everybody fears something right? No one is devoid of fear and if there is someone with no fears then it’s a problem. Fearing something is okay, it’s normal. It is also an emotion like happiness, sadness, anger…This is actually something that protects you. Imagine you are encountered with a wild animal and say you don’t fear it what happens next? Your existence in earth will come to an end right? So fear is needed. What about phobia? Understand that fear and phobia are not the same thing. Even though the underlying emotion is the same there is a difference in its intensity. Phobia, a type of anxiety disorder, are extreme fear towards something, someone or some situations. It will be so severe that it disrupts the rhythm of your life once you encounter such situation. It will be so evident that it can be noticeable from the you behave, your body language.
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What are some common types of phobias?
- Cynophobia: Fear of dogs
- Acrophobia: Fearing heights
- Trypanophobia: Fear of needles
- Glossophobia (social anxiety disorder): stage fear, fear of crowd.
- Necrophobia: Fearing dead things and things associated with death.
- Coulrophobia: Fear of clowns, dolls, clown masks…
- Pteromerhanophobia: Fear of flying in airplane.
- Mysophobia: Fear of germs.
- Claustrophobia: Fear of closed spaces.
- Arachnophobia: Fear of spiders.
What are the reasons of such phobia?
- If anybody in your house is having a particular type of phobia then it is very likely that you also develop it. Oh this something that must be feared, you learn it from them.
- Phobias can be acquired at any point of your life. A stressful situation, an experience that shook your core, a frightening one. Say you have been chased by a dog when you were young so its natural for you to develop fear towards dogs. This is mainly due to the negative emotional impact that you experience during this situation.
Symptoms
- Rapid heartbeat
- Sweating profusely
- Anxiety
- Hot flushes
- Trembling
- Urge to escape the situation
- Being short of breath
- Chest pain
- Dry mouth
- Chocking sensation
- High blood pressure
- Lightheadedness, fainting
Overcome phobia
For our every fear we will have some history. In other words our back history explains why we fear it. We may need the help of a professional to dig up these history and to accurately find it.
1. Understand what we fear
We fear the unknown. Try to gather information about it. Study more about it and this will surely shift your perspective about it to some extend.
2. Challenge your phobias
We are so certain that whatever our phobia is it is so dangerous that it is going to cause a catastrophe. This is a misconception or maybe the way we are thinking of it is the problem. Recognize and then challenge it. Just simply face it. It’s not easy as its said but never impossible. If you have the capacity to create such fears you also have the capacity to demolish them.
3. CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy)
Focusing on identifying and shifting your thoughts or dysfunctional beliefs to a positive perspective. Also helps you with the negative reactions that you experience at that time.
4. Exposure therapy or desensitization
Say you have cynophobia. First step is showing you the images of a dog, then the video of a dog. Next looking at an actual dog from a distance. Touching a dog while someone is holding it, holding their paws and slowly slowly taking steps so as to get rid of the phobia. This is never done in one go. You will experience physical, mental or emotional stress or symptoms but you will be guided through it all by a therapist.
5. Medications
Medications for controlling phobia symptoms.
6. Reaching out for help
Always reach out for help if it gets to a point that it disturbs you and feel like you are losing control or cant seem to contain it. There are help centres or a psychologist can help you. All you need to do is just reach out.
Phobia is not something that can be wiped out within a day or so. It takes acceptance, courage and patience to get over it. We all need fear but not to the point that it controls us instead to understand what we are dealing with is or can be dangerous (not in all cases) so we must be careful while handling it.
Written by Gayathri Gopinadh