A phobia is an extreme, irrational fear of a situation, place, object, person or animal. People with a phobia will go to great lengths to avoid a certain situation. Extreme fear combined with avoidance behavior are the hallmarks of a phobia. Avoiding a situation or place can disrupt social life. Not all phobias are equally serious. A phobia of snakes does not make life very complicated, but most social phobias are difficult in everyday life.
Fear is good, just not always
Everyone gets scared sometimes and that’s okay. Fear keeps us alert and protects us in a dangerous situation. Only a phobia warns of a situation that is not dangerous. Usually the person with the phobia also knows rationally that there is no danger, but the fear takes over. After that, the only thing a person wants to do is get out of the situation, or away from the object that is causing the fear. Escape behavior and avoidance behavior complicate everyday life.
About 1 in 20 people experience a phobia. Some phobias, the fear of the doctor for example, can arise at a very young age, while most social phobias arise during puberty or in young adults.
The classification of phobias
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Phobias usually classified into:
Single/specific phobias: these are phobias that focus on one special situation, animal, person, object or activity. Some examples are:
- Fear of flying (aviophobia)
- fear of spiders (a rachnophobia),
- fear of dogs (cynophobia),
- fear of blood (hematophobia)
- fear of the dentist (dentophobia)
Complex phobias: these are mainly social phobias and agoraphobia (fear of agoraphobia)
- Social phobia is an extreme fear of certain public situations. For example, a fear of speaking in public, a fear of attending a birthday party, a fear of participating in a meeting. There is an overwhelming fear of going off in company. This is not the more or less healthy tension before a public performance, this is a fear in which the person can no longer function and wants to remove himself from the situation.
- Agoraphobia is a fear of open spaces but also of closed spaces and public spaces. People with agoraphobia are afraid of shops, office buildings, squares, public transport and in the most serious cases no longer leave the house.
Social phobias but also agoraphobia are often a combination of different phobias. Someone with agoraphobia may also be afraid of being alone (monophobia) and afraid of closed spaces (claustrophobia). This combination of phobias causes social isolation.
Symptoms of a phobia
There are many phobias and the symptoms vary. Every person is unique and will react differently to a phobia. Someone with a phobia of horses (hippophobia) cannot touch a horse but can drop someone off at a riding school without any problems. Others get a panic attack when they have to drive alone past a riding school, they go around the block if necessary. A phobia can often be recognized by several physical signals:
- to sweat
- tremble
- dry mouth
- shortness of breath
- headache
- dizziness
- palpitations
- need to go to the toilet immediately
- nausea
In addition to these physical symptoms, there are also psychological ones. Because a phobia is sometimes accompanied by dizziness, there is a fear of fainting, a fear of completely losing control, of going off in company and in some cases a fear of dying.
The causes for a phobia
Little is known about the causes of the development of a phobia. Single phobias often arise in childhood, although they are not yet noticeable. In some cases, phobias are inherited from family members. When parents are afraid of dogs, children can inherit that fear. Research has been done into hereditary factors and some results could indicate a predisposition to an anxiety attack.
Social phobias often develop a little later, during puberty or shortly afterwards. It is not clear exactly what causes them. Some point to an embarrassing or frightening moment in the past, but this is not the case in all cases. Extreme shyness can be a trigger for social phobia, but not always. These phobias also sometimes refer to genetic predisposition and learned fears. Unfortunately, little is known about the development of phobias and although they often develop at a relatively young age, adults can also develop a phobia at a later age.
Phobia or not?
Few people who have a phobia will deny this. But a specialist is needed for a diagnosis. Many specialists use a few criteria, a combination of physical complaints such as hyperventilation combined with escape behavior. Avoidance behavior is characteristic of every phobia. Phobias are classified as anxiety disorders. An anxiety disorder is called a phobia when there is an extreme fear of a non-existent threat or danger.
Treatment of a phobia
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It may not always be necessary to treat a phobia. If you are afraid of snakes, you avoid snakes (you don’t encounter them that often) and you can live with that. Fear of flying becomes a little more difficult when you like to travel and a phobia of dogs is also not practical, although it can be lived with.
Most phobias are easily treatable. In the case of specific phobias, confrontation is often used . A confrontation with the feared object or animal under the guidance of a therapist is enough for many of the simple phobias. They disappear or at least become more manageable. For social and more complex phobias, a combined therapy is often offered. Behavioral and psychotherapy, sometimes also family therapy, possibly with medication.
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