Everything You Need to Know about Phobias-Symptoms, Types, Diagnosis and Treatment

A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder defined by an excessive, persistent, irrational and unrealistic fear of an object, animal, person, activity or situation. 
If you suffer from a phobia, you may experience deep feelings of dread or panic when you encounter your source of fear. 
Phobia can be a permanent condition, causing violent physical and psychological reactions, and it can affect your ability to do business normally.

Everything You Need to Know about Phobias

Everything You Need to Know about Phobias: Symptoms, Types, Diagnosis, and Treatment

Introduction

There are many types of phobia according to cases such as place, heights, phenomena, some voices, fear of animals and others. Actually, Phobias have no obvious reasons.  

The term phobia, which means phobia in its technical use in psychiatry, is used to construct words that describe a state of irrational, unnatural, unjustified, distracting, or disruptive fear of daily life as a mental disorder. 
It is also used in chemistry to describe chemical deviations, in biology to describe organisms that hate some conditions, in the medicine to describe hypersensitivity to certain stimuli, usually sensual (e.g. light phobia). 
In common use, phobias also constitute words that describe hate or aversion to a particular thing or subject.

What is Phobia? 

A phobia is a diagnosis of mental illness and a type of anxiety disorder that causes a person to experience excessive, exaggerated and irrational fears about the condition, living creature, place or object. 
The term 'phobia' is often used to refer to the fear of a particular trigger. When a person is intimidated, they often consider it dangerous to shape their life. 
When a person has to face the source of their fear, then the person will experience severe distress. 

The danger of fantasy is bigger than any real threat created by the cause of terror. This can prevent them from working normally and sometimes leads to panic attacks. It is believed that phobia usually emerges from extremely painful experiences. 

Fear is that the person gets transferred from one situation to another, or reoccurs throughout life. For example, a person develops the fear of water when he sees a drowning incident which is unforgettable. 

Phobias are more serious than simple fear sensation and are not confined to the fear of specific triggers. Individuals should know that their fear is strange, they can not control the fear reaction. 

The symptoms of the phobia may include sweating, chest pain, etc.. Fear usually results in the intense start of fear and presence for more than six months. 
The feeling of anxiety can only be made by thinking about the purpose of fear. 

In small children, parents can see that they cry, become very sticky, or try to hide behind the feet of the parents or something. They can throw mesmerized too to show their crisis. 
The phobias family, which starts during childhood, can also be seen by the fear of a family member. Phobias and anxiety disorders are relatively common. 
As long as he is not exposed to the source of fear, a person does not experience any symptoms. 

Phobias can be treated with cognitive-behavioral therapy using fear reduction techniques. In many cases, antidepressant medication has proved useful during the early stages.

How many types of phobias are there?

Classification of phobias - Phobias-Symptoms, Types, Diagnosis and Treatment

Classification of Phobias

According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), most of the phobias are classified into three categories, and this type of phobias is also considered to be sub-types of anxiety disorder. The categories are:

Specific phobias

 Typical phobias are intense and irrational fears of specific triggers, special items, or social situations that fall in immediate anxiety and can sometimes cause panic attacks. 
These are known as simple fear because they can be linked to an identifiable reason that can not often be in a person's everyday life, like snakes. Therefore, they are unlikely to stay day-to-day in an important way. 

Typical fear can include fear of losing control and throwing from fear with the encounter. It can be further divided into five categories: natural environment type, transit type, blood-injection-injury type animal type, and others. Most common types of specific phobia are:

Environmental phobia: Environmental phobia when someone is involved in specific natural conditions or events (the other fears such as astrophobia and acrophobia in fear.

Situation phobia: Fear such as visiting the dentist, Fear of flying, Fear of becoming ill, Fear of water Fear of being in constricted, confined spaces, etc.

Bodily phobia or Blood-injection-injury phobia: An attack occurs due to the medical process and is sometimes frightened by seeing injury or bleeding; In some cases, people can lose their consciousness with physical fear.

Animal phobia: It is also known as zoophobia, this irrational fear is such that when a person has to face an animal (other phobias associated with the animal phobia are cynophobia, apiphobia, and ornithophobia).

These are just too far from the typical Phobias. People can develop a fear of almost anything. In addition, as society changes, the list of potential phobias changes. For example, nomophobia is afraid to be without a cell phone or computer. 
In children, blood-injection-injury phobia and fear associated with the natural environment, animals usually develop between the ages of 7 and 9, and they are reflected in normal development.

Social Phobia, or Social Anxiety

Social phobia is a deeply scared public humiliation and is being taken alone or judged by others in social situations. Unlike typical Phobias, social fear involves the fear of public circumstances and investigations, which causes embarrassment or insult in clinical norms. 
The idea of large social gatherings is frightening for a person with social anxiety. It's not like shy. These types of phobia vary in severity among individuals. 

Some people can easily avoid the subject of their fears and can face relatively little concern on that fear. Others have to face full panic attacks with all related disabling symptoms. 

Most people understand that they are suffering from an irrational fear, but their terror is powerless to override the reaction. These individuals often report dizziness, bladder or bowel control, tachypnea, the feeling of pain, and shortness of breath.

Phobias-Symptoms, Types, Diagnosis and Treatment

Agoraphobia

Agoraphobia is a generalized fear of those situations, from which a person has to experience extreme terror, such as in the elevator or outside the house. 
Agoraphobia is also known as a complex phobia because its triggers are less easily recognized. People with complex phobias may also be able to avoid triggers, such as leaving the house or being in a big crowd. 

It is generally considered misconceptions in the form of fear of normal places, but it is a small place, such as social embarrassment (social agoraphobia), fear of pollution (fear of microbes, possibly complex-obsessive-compulsive disorder) or  Post Traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which is related to the trauma that occurs outside the door. People with agoraphobia increase the risk of panic disorder.

Complex phobias

Complex phobias are known to cause more disabling effects on life than disruptive or specific phobias. For example, people who experience Agoraphobia may also be afraid of many others who are involved. These may include monophobia, or fear of leaving alone, and claustrophobia, fear of trapping in a closed space. 

In severe cases, agoraphobia is associated with fear of open spaces, but it can be more complex than that. This kind of fear is not seen as a threat of a certain position only, unless it does not eliminate the patient's feeling as if it is trapped, helpless, in terror, etc. 
Agoraphobic patients are worried about situations or places where it is difficult to escape, or assistance will not be available on panic attacks. 

A person with agoraphobia may be afraid to travel on public transportation, go to a shopping center or stay home alone. 
On the other hand, in social phobia, a person is afraid to face life or social situations. Patients are unusually nervous. Apart from this, the affected person may be afraid to talk to people or to the public for fear of being humiliated. 

More research is needed to confirm why a person develops agoraphobia or social anxiety. Researchers currently believe that complex fears, life experiences, are due to the combination of brain chemistry and genetics.

Symptoms of Phobias

All phobias can limit your daily activities and cause serious anxiety and depression. Complex phobia, such as fear of exposed places and social phobia, are more likely to cause these symptoms. 

Intimidated people often deliberately avoid contact with something that causes them to become fearful and anxious. For example, someone fearing a spider (Acrophobia) would not want to touch a spider or even want to see a picture. 

In some cases, a person may be intimidated, where they are afraid to face themselves because they feel very uncomfortable. It is not necessary for people to be in a position that they are afraid to experience the symptoms of terror. 
The brain is capable of reacting to fearful situations, even if they are not really in position. Those who have phobias, they experience the following symptoms:

Phobias-Symptoms, Types, Diagnosis and Treatment

How do you know if you have a phobia?

Physical symptoms

If people are aware of the purpose of their fear, they are likely to experience feelings of terror and intense anxiety. 
Panic attacks can be very scary and disturbing. Symptoms are often without warning and without warning. 
The physical effects of these sensations may include: abnormal breath, sweating, feeling unconscious, chest pain or tightness, fast heartbeat, hot flush or cold, butterflies sensation in the stomach, mist or pin and needles vibrate, knee, dizziness, confusion, and deviation, dry mouth, headache, ringing in your ears, or nausea. 

Psychological symptoms

In many cases, people may also experience some common psychological symptoms, such as a sensation of uncontrolled anxiety when approaching the source of fear. Not able to work properly when exposed to the trigger. 
A feeling That the source of that fear should be avoided at all cost. It is confessed that the fear is irrational, inappropriate, and exaggerated, combined with the inability to control emotions. These are common in the majority of Phobias.

How the Brain Works during a Phobia

In a phobia, the regions of the brain that deal with fear and stress, properly recover the fearful event. 
If a person has to face similar phenomena later in life, then stressful memory in those areas of the brain, sometimes retrieved more than once. This situation causes the body to experience the same reaction. 

Researchers have found that fear is often associated with Amygdala, which is behind the pituitary gland in the brain. 
Amygdala can trigger the release of "fight-or-flight" hormones. They put the body and mind in a highly cautious and tense state. 
Dangerous or potentially fatal events are remembered in some areas of the brain.

Diagnosis of Phobias

The diagnosis of specific phobias depends on a comprehensive clinical interview and diagnostic guidelines. 
Your doctor will ask questions about your symptoms and get information about your medical, psychological and social history. 
Diagnostic criteria may be used/used in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) published by the American Psychiatric Association.

Treatment of Phobias

Phobias are highly cured, and those who have phobias are almost always aware of their disorder. 
Awareness of the disorder helps easily in making a great deal of diagnosis. Going to a psychologist or psychiatrist is the first step regarding the treatment of phobias if they have already been recognized and fear does not create serious problems.  

Most people think that avoiding the source of their fear helps them stay in control. With a specific fear, many people will not be able to take treatment because these fears are often manageable. 

It is not possible to avoid some Phobias triggers, as is often the case of complex phobias. In these cases, talking to a mental health professional can be the first step of recovery. Most treatments can be cured with proper treatment. There is no cure that works for everyone with fear. 

To work, the person needs treatment. Different methods are used to treat phobias. These methods include systematic desensitization, progressive relaxation, virtual reality, modeling, medicine, and hypnotherapy. 

Doctor, psychiatrist, or psychological behavior can recommend therapy, medicines, or a combination of both. The purpose of therapy is to reduce the symptoms of fear and anxiety and to help people manage their responses to their fears.

Treatment of phobias

What are the treatments for phobias?

Therapy

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT): A doctor, therapist, or counselor helps the person with fear to learn the different ways to understand and respond to the person's source of their fears. 
Being cautious with its emotions can be beneficial by allowing the patient to challenge pathological thoughts or beliefs, with the purpose that the patient will realize that his fear is irrational. 
CBT can be organized in a group setting. Gradually desensitization treatment and CBT are often successful, provided the patient is ready to bear some inconvenience. In a clinical trial, 90% of patients did not receive any serious response after successful CBT treatment. 
CBT is also an effective treatment for phobias in children and adolescents and has been adapted for the use of this age.

Systematic desensitization: A process in which the patients who seek help gradually become accustomed to their fear, and eventually eliminate it. This method is used to treat patients with extreme phobias and prolonged exposure. 
In the traditional systematic desensitization, a person is in touch with the object that they are afraid of time so that fear and discomfort are not heavy. This controlled exposure for anxiety-stimulating stimulus is key to the effectiveness of exposure therapy in the treatment of specific phobias. 
It has been shown that humor is an excellent option when traditional systematic desensitization is ineffective.

This technique is examined only when a person is able to overcome the fearful object or circumstance or survive. 
People with little difficulty in their fear usually do not need long-term contact for their fears. For example, the person with aerophobia, or the fear of flying on the plane, can take the following steps under guidance. 
The humor includes a series of systematic desensitization treatment activities, which include activities that express humor with horror objects.

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR): Peer-reviewed clinical trials have shown that EMDR is effective in treating some phobias. 
Mainly used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, EMDR has been demonstrated effective in facilitating fearful symptoms after a specific trauma, such as fear of dogs after dog bites.

Progressive muscle relaxation: This technique can be used because the activities become more difficult in a person's hierarchy level. This helps the patients relax their muscles before and during the contact with the intimidating object or incident.

Participant modeling: This way the patient perceives the practice of behavior and encourage to strengthen their efforts and includes doctor modeling during subsequent exposure to fearful object and positive behavior. 
In the same way as systematic desensitization, phobic patients are gradually presented for their scary objects. The therapeutic model has proved to be effective for children and adolescents.

Virtual reality therapy: This technique helps frightened people to face fearful objects. It uses virtual reality to produce scenes that can not be possible or ethical in the physical world. 
It offers some advantages over systematic desensitization therapy. People can control scenes and can handle reality in more reality than they can handle. 
Virtual reality is more realistic than simply visualizing a scene- The therapy is in a private room and the treatment is effective.

Medications

Medication can help to control the fear and fear of any particular object. The following medicines are effective in treating phobias.

Beta-blockers: These are other medicinal alternatives and they have physical symptoms of anxiety that can with fear and can stop the adrenaline's stimulating effect, such as perspiration, increase heart rate, blood pressure, vibrate and Can reduce the feeling of a fast heart. 
By taking beta-blockers before a phobic event, these symptoms decrease, causing the incident to become less scary. Side effects can include anxiety, fatigue, insomnia, and cold fingers.

Antidepressants: Antidepressant medicines, such as serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRIs) or MAOIs, may be helpful in some cases. 
SSRIs are usually prescribed for people with Phobias. They affect the level of serotonin in the brain, and this can result in a better mood. SSRI can initially cause nausea, sleep problems, and headache. 
If SSRI does not work, then the doctor can determine a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) for social fear. 
On the MOI, individuals may have to avoid certain types of food. Side effects may include dizziness, anxiety, headache, and insomnia.

Tranquilizers: Benzodiazepines such as sedatives can also be determined. Benzodiazepine is an example of a tranquilizer that can be prescribed for fear. These patients can help to relax by reducing the amount of their anxiety. 
Benzodiazepines can be useful in the severe treatment of severe symptoms, but the risk-benefit ratio is against their long-term use in phobic disorders. 
Regardless of this positive search, benzodiazepines are used with caution. This category of drugs has been shown effective in recent times if abuse of alcohol is used with negative behaviors like.

Hypnotherapy: This method can be used alone and with the combination of systematic desensitization for the treatment of phobia. Through hypnosis therapy, the underlying cause of fear can be disclosed. 
Hypnotherapy can eliminate conditional reactions occurring during different conditions. Patients are first placed in a hypnosis trance, which is a state of utmost comfort in which unconsciousness can be recovered. This state makes patients more open to suggestions, which helps in bringing the desired change. 
Deliberately addressing old memories helps individuals understand the phenomenon and is seen in the less dangerous light. 
Fear may be due to the previous incident that the patient does not remember, an event known as suppression. The brain suppresses painful memories from conscious mind until the person is ready to deal with them.

Summary

• Phobia is a common form of anxiety disorder, and distribution is odd with age and gender.
• Phobias can be a source of real and ongoing crisis for a person. However, they are cured in most cases and are often worth avoiding the source of fear. If you have fear, then one thing that you should never be afraid of is to ask for help.
• Women are almost four times more likely to be afraid of animals - a higher dip than all specific or generalized phobias or social fears. Social phobias are more common in girls than in boys.
• Most phobias are classified into three categories and such phobias are also considered to be sub-types of anxiety disorders: specific fear, social phobia, or social anxiety, agoraphobia, animal phobia, etc.
• If people are aware of the purpose of their fear, they are likely to experience feelings of terror and intense anxiety. Panic attacks can be very scary and disturbing.
• Symptoms of phobia often occur suddenly and without warning.
• Most phobias can be cured with proper treatment. There is no cure that works for everyone with fear.

Read Here: Expert Tips To Conquer Fear Of Flying