...Many people feel anxious or nervous when faced with any type of problems. Could be at work, school, before taking an exam, etc. Anxiety disorders however, are different. They can cause such distress that interferes with a person’s ability to live a normal life. Anxiety disorders are the most common psychological disorders in the United States. About 27.6 million people in the U.S. are suffering from different types of anxiety disorder. There are four different types of anxiety disorders: phobia, generalized anxiety disorder,...
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...What is the fear of an objector situation? - Specific Phobia In a person with a specific phobia, does this phobia usually have any real danger? - No What is the fear of social situations. - Social anxiety disorder With social anxiety disorder, how long does this fear last persistently? - 6 months or more Could an phobia be hereditary? - memories can be passed down through generations in turn the chemical thought from early on can cause an phobia Is there a limit to how many phobias you can have? And why? - there is only a limit considering how many phobias are known to man Could you be diagnosed with a specific phobia if you have a disorder such as schizophrenia? Please explain. Not really. Schizophrenia could make you paranoid and could make...
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...Phobias are an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something. The first written reference to phobic problems that we have is in the works of the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates (470-410 B.C.E.). But Hippocrates didn’t actually come up with the term phobia. That word wasn’t used until nearly 500 years later, when a Roman doctor, Celsus, used the word hydrophobia to describe someone who seemed to have a horror of water due to rabies. The first relatively modern use of the word phobia wasn’t until 1786, when (according to the Oxford English Dictionary) an unknown writer in the Columbian Magazine defined the word as meaning “A fear of an imaginary evil, or an undue fear of a real one.” In the 1960s, it was observed that phobias basically...
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...Course assignment Topic: Phobias Prepared by: Accepted by F1-10 ------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents What is a phobia? pg 3 Types of phobias pg 3 Symptoms of phobias pg 5 Coping with phobias pg 5 Bibliography pg 7 What is a phobia? The word “Phobia” comes from the Greek “phobos” meaning fear. But it is not an ordinary type of fear. A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder. It is a strong, irrational, fear of something that possess little or no actual danger. In many cases it is usually limited to one particular thing such as the fear of heights or lifts, of enclosed or open spaces, of travelling by plane, of certain animals and, in the worst of cases, of people. A phobia that has recently become very common is the fear of being “unclean” or contaminated by dirt or germs, and this leads to frequent and obsessive washing. Although the hands of a person with this phobia will get sore from repeated use of soap, he will not stop washing them. Some people have purely personal phobias. One woman was frightened that while she was driving a car, a bird would fly in front of a widescreen. Another man would never stand on a balcony fearing that at any moment it might collapse...
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...attack (panic attack) as defined by, Miller-Keane Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health, Seventh Edition. © 2003, an episode of acute intense anxiety, with symptoms such as pounding or racing heart, sweating, trembling or shaking, feelings of choking or smothering, chest pain, nausea, dizziness, feelings of unreality, and chills or hot flashes. It is the essential feature of panic disorder and other anxiety disorders as well as other psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and mood disorders. [Link]http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/anxiety+attack *Anxiety is the body’s natural response to danger, an automatic alarm that goes off when you feel threatened. Although it may be unpleasant, anxiety isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, anxiety can help you stay alert and focused, spur you to action, and motivate you to solve problems. But when anxiety is constant or overwhelming, when it interferes with your relationships and activities—that’s when you’ve crossed the line from normal anxiety into the territory of anxiety disorders. Anxiety Disorders The DSM is divided into different sections which represent separate, broad categories of psychiatric disorders. One of these categories is anxiety disorders. The disorders found in this category are: Panic Disorder without Agoraphobia; Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia; Agoraphobia without a History of Panic Disorder;...
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...Running Head: PHOBIA-NOT JUST A FEAR BUT A PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDER Phobias: Not Just A Fear but a Psychological Disorder Fear, an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. Fear is an unavoidable part of everyday life, and affects everyone in the world. However, there is a more powerful form of fear known as a phobia. Not everyone is affected by phobias, approximately eleven percent of the worlds population is (de Jong & Merckelbach, 2000). The world today associates any fear as a phobia, by tacking on the suffix “phobia” to the end of any word. However, a fear is not the same as a phobia. A phobia is a psychological disorder, not just an irrational fear. Belief that a phobia is not the same as a fear is controversial. This is increasingly important in this age of advanced psychology, medicine, and technology. Many people think that a phobia is defined as having a fear of a certain stimuli, but seem to overlook the fact that a phobia is more than a fear it is a psychological disorder. Phobias are quite difficult to understand, even to a person who has one. A phobia is an unrealistic and disproportionate fear of a certain stimuli resulting in panic, severe anxiety, lack of control and impairment. Phobias can be classified into two main groups, simple specific and complex general. Simple specific phobias are defined as an irrational fear to one specific stimulus, like a snake for example...
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...Anxiety Disorders – an Outline Fears & Phobias • Adaptive responses • Excessive in nature Fear: excessive fears Phobia: subset of fears including avoidance fear, anxious anticipation, interferes significantly with daily routine, markedly distressed. Social Phobia: 2 types: generalized versus nongeneralized. Five subtypes: animal type; natural environment type; blood-injection type; situation type; “other” type. Common fears: ontogenetic parade. These include: fear of separation; fear of unfamiliar adults; fear of animals, darkness, & imaginary creatures. Adult fears: social fears; fears related to blood, illness, injury, or death; fear of animals; fears of environmental hazards. Genetics: Mean heritability 40%. Environment or combination of both appears important. Theories of Fear: 1. Two-factor Theory (Mowrer) & Pavlov, Watson & Rayner. Includes classical & operant conditioning. 2. Rachman (1976) which includes direct conditioning, modeling, & information/instructional transmission. Prepared Fears (Seligman, 1970): 1. rapidly acquired 2. resistant to extinction 3. “noncognitive” 4. differentially associated with stimuli of evolutionary significance. Research on preparedness theory: Cook & Mineka (1987, 1990); McNally (1987); Bandura Behavioral & Cognitive Theories: 1. Neo-conditioning; 2. Neo-conditioning & emotional processing. Anxiety Sensitivity: Reiss – AS is one of 3 fundamental fears. The others include illness/injury...
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...Phobias and Addictions Phobias and Addictions Everyone has a phobia and an addiction. A phobia is an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something: "he had a phobia about being under water"; "a phobia of germs.” An addiction is the fact or condition of being addicted to a particular substance, thing, or activity. Phobias and addictions are related to classical and operant conditioning. Phobias and addictions are two emotional difficulties, which theorists can account for. Phobias can be acquired through classical conditioning by pairing a neutral stimulus with something that causes pain. Phobia responses can be permanent unless the organism is subjected to the extinction process. In the extinction process, one must confront the fear without the presence of the unconditioned stimulus. For example, in Watson’s experiment, Little Albert developed a phobia of white rats (and other furry objects) as a result of pairing the white rat with a loud bang. The phobia could have been extinguished by repeatedly exposing Little Albert to the white rat without the loud bang. Another way to extinguish a phobia is through counter conditioning. In counter conditioning, the conditioned stimulus is paired with a pleasant stimulus. Little Albert could have extinguished his phobia of the white rat by pairing it with something pleasant (e.g., food, praise) ("Phobias,” 2010). Ivan Pavlov is known for his theory...
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...many different categories. Panic disorder, Obsessive-compulsive disorder, Agoraphobia, and Phobic disorders are all defined as anxiety disorders. Anxiety disorders consist of a mental problem characterized mainly by anxiety. Many people suffer from anxiety disorders and have not been diagnosed or have no clue they have this disorder. It is said that over 30 percent of people experience symptoms of anxiety disorders, women suffer from this disorder more than men. Phobic disorder is a very common mental disorder of our time. How we develop them is based on the individual itself, from a traumatic event during a person’s childhood, to the perception of something that was brought to their attention. Depending on the person that is suffering from a phobia will determine the level of help, if needed, to overcome a phobia. Phobias are the extreme fear of a specific object, situation, or activity. Having a phobia can determine whether a person is able to live a normal life. Some phobias are extreme and some are very mild. Most extreme phobias alter a person’s life dramatically for example the fear of the color red. If someone were to think of how many red things we encounter on a daily basis, being afraid of that color would confine you to your home, and also harm you. On the other hand, common phobias like the fear of heights wouldn’t do so much damaged to your life because that is a more understanding phobia. Most people that suffer from phobias also have another psychological...
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...suffer from dog phobias live their lives with anxiety that he or she will come into contact with a dog. He or she live their lives with the fear that the situation will get worse over time and that something bad might or will happen to them. In Sally’s case, she first needs to understand your phobia to be able to overcome it. It is important to her to know that phobias are common. Meaning of Phobia What is a phobia? The meaning of phobia is fear of something that is intense and persistent of that certain situation, activity, animal or person. The fear of dogs is known as Cynophobia. The main symptom an individual might have from this disorder is the excessive and unexplainable desire to stay away from that fear. The fear can become beyond the control of an individual which then can control an individual’s daily life. One example of a phobia is dogs. Phobias are one form of anxiety disorders. Signs and symptoms of phobias The symptoms of a phobia can range from mild feelings of apprehension and anxiety to a full-blown panic attack. Usually when an individual gets closer to the dog, he or she starts to have greater fear. Physical signs and symptoms of a phobia is an individual starts to have the following issues: difficulty breathing, racing or pounding heart, chest pain or tightness, trembling or shaking, feeling dizzy or lightheaded, a churning stomach, hot or cold flashes; tingling sensations or sweating. There are some emotional signs that go along with phobia also. Some...
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...What are Anxiety Disorders? A cover term for a variety of mental disorders in which severe anxiety is a salient symptom. Anxiety disorders are the most common of emotional disorders and affect more than 25 million Americans. Many forms and symptoms may include: • Overwhelming feelings of panic and fear • Uncontrollable obsessive thoughts • Painful, intrusive memories • Recurring nightmares • Physical symptoms such as feeling sick to your stomach, “butterflies” in your stomach, heart pounding, startling easily, and muscle tension Anxiety disorders differ from normal feelings of nervousness. Untreated anxiety disorders can push people into avoiding situations that trigger or worsen their symptoms. People with anxiety disorders are likely to suffer from depression, and they also may abuse alcohol and other drugs in an effort to gain relief from their symptoms. Job performance, school work, and personal relationships can also suffer. Types of Anxiety Disorders Panic disorder People with this condition have feelings of terror that strike suddenly and repeatedly with no warning. Other symptoms of a panic attack include sweating, chest pain, palpitations (irregular heartbeats), and a feeling of choking, which may make the person feel like he or she is having a heart attack or "going crazy." Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) People with OCD are plagued by constant thoughts or fears that cause them to perform certain rituals or...
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...fears, claustrophobia shows up at varying levels from just a general dislike and anxiety in smaller spaces to a full blown panic at even the thought of being confined to something as simple as a specific chair. The exact symptoms of claustrophobia vary from person to person, but if they appear, getting a proper diagnosis is very important so that treatment can be sought (“Claustrophobia” GoMentor.com) During Victorian times it was common that parents punished their children by locking them in dark, confined places like coal bins, closets, and basements. Thus causing many people to grow up suffering from claustrophobia (Filson 35). Other causes may be that the child fell into a deep pool not knowing how to swim, or being in a crowded area such as an amusement park and getting separated from their parents or the group they were with, or crawling into a closet and getting locked in. Another theory behind the cause of claustrophobia is a smaller amygdalae- a tiny part of the brain that is used to control how the body processes fear (“What is Claustrophobia? . . .”). In a study published in Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, Fumi Hayano and colleagues discovered that people who suffered from panic disorders had smaller amygdalae than average. This smaller size could interfere with how the body processes panic and anxiety. There is also a theory that the phobias...
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...INTRODUCTION Everyone experienced some sort of anxiety feeling before an important event, such as an important exam, going on the 1st date, going on the roller coaster for the 1st time, and etc. during their lifetime. When this anxiety start to be an overwhelming thought in a person’s mind and causes nightmares, fears, and panic attacks, it becomes an illness, called anxiety disorder. It is the fear, apprehension, and often the expectation of unspecified danger. It is considered a normal natural response used everyday to figure out whether a situation is dangerous or not. How to differentiate a normal anxiety form an abnormal disorder: The intensity of the anxiety; whether or not the anxiety matches the circumstance. The length of the anxiety is inappropriate to what is causing the anxiety. Adequately respond to make a decision in what to do in that our body has alarm us to some danger. Anxiety is a total normal thing and is experienced daily. But when you have consistent anxiety you should start to worry. Anxiety is a reaction to stressful situations that helps rather than hinders daily functions. If we didn’t have anxiety we wouldn’t be motivated to do certain things in life that could be a good accomplishment or help us out. Anxiety Disorder is defined as the occurrence of anxiety without obvious external cause, intruding on daily functioning. Now I will discuss Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Generalized Anxiety Disorder is the experience of long-term anxiety with...
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... As the name implies, avoidance refers to behaviors that attempt to prevent exposure to a fear-provoking stimulus. Escape means to quickly exit a fear-provoking situation. These coping strategies are considered maladaptive because they ultimately serve to maintain the disorder and decrease functioning. Operant conditioning enables us to understand the powerful impact of these two coping strategies. Both coping strategies are highly reinforcing because they remove or diminish the unpleasant symptoms. Unfortunately, they do nothing to prevent the symptoms from re-occurring again and again in the future. In 1947, O. Hobart Mowrer proposed his two-factor theory of avoidance learning to explain the development and maintenance of phobias. Mowrer's two-factor theory combined the learning principles of classical and operant conditioning. Based upon the principles of classical...
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...and life satisfaction. There are many types of anxiety disorders. The classifications of these disorders include phobic disorder, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and stress disorders. The first disorder, phobic disorder, can have several causes. Phobias usually start to occur when a person is a child or an adolescent, and can be caused by having something bad happen to them, having a panic attack in a specific situation, seeing something bad happen to someone else, or learning about something bad that has happened (WebMD, 2015). The symptoms of phobic disorders include a feeling of uncontrollable panic or dread when exposed to one’s fear, the inability to function normally, and the feeling that one must do anything possible to avoid what they fear. To diagnose a phobic disorder, doctors ask their patients a series of questions about their symptoms and take a medical, social, and psychiatric history. To be diagnosed, one must meet criteria set in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association (Mayo Clinic, 2015). To treat phobic disorders, a selected medication regimen should be continued for 6-12 months, with a combination of psychotherapy, which makes the transition away from medication more successful for the patient. The exact cause of panic disorders is not fully understood, but studies have shown that many factors are involved. These factors may include family history...
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