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Everybody, whether they like to admit it or not, has fears and gets anxious about certain things, whether it be a spider crawling on the ground or getting up in front of large groups of people.
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In most cases though, people cope with those fears and confront them.
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A phobia is the most extreme type of fear, where it actually causes them to go to great lengths to avoid being exposed to the feared or perceived danger.
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Even if there's no actual risk or danger, and people often feel powerless against it.
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Phobias are considered the most common psychiatric disorder, affecting almost 10% of the population.
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Phobias are extreme, often unreasonable and irrational fears of something.
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Which could literally be anything, like pyrophobia, fear of fire, alektorophobia, fear of chickens, triskaidekaphobia, fear of the number 13, phobophobia, fear of developing phobias.
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Or even pinaciphobia, a fear of lists.
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Unreasonable or irrational fears get in the way of daily routines, work, and relationships.
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Because patients with phobias might try to do whatever they can to avoid the anxiety and terrifying feelings associated with the phobia.
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For example, most people don't necessarily enjoy the company of a spider.
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But they also don't let it affect their social or daily life.
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Like, even though I know there are spiders in the woods, I wouldn't avoid a camping trip on account of the spiders.
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Even if they love camping.
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Somebody with arachnophobia, a fear of spiders, might refuse to go because they know there's a possibility of seeing a spider in close quarters.
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The fear is clearly interfering with their social life and relationship with friends.
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Meaning it's a phobia.
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An irrational fear of an object or situation like this is called a specific phobia.
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The diagnostic and statistical manual for mental disorders, edition 5.
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Splits these specific phobias into five categories.
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Fear of animals, like arachnophobia or alektorophobia.
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Fear of the natural environment, like darkness or nyctophobia.
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Fear of blood and needles, hemophobia.
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Situational fears, like fear of flying.
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Aviophobia, and then other fears.
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Like fear of clowns.
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Coulrophobia.
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These specific phobias are one of three main types of phobias.
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The other two types are agoraphobia and social phobia.
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Agoraphobia means fear of public places.
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But it has to do with being fearful in a public space where it feels like it might be hard to escape quickly and return to a place perceived as safe.
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Like the person's home.
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Therefore, people with agoraphobia tend not to venture out very often.
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Some commonly feared areas might be places like crowded shopping malls or theaters.
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Where it might be difficult to escape quickly.
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Social phobias on the other hand, are overwhelming and persistent fears of social situations and interactions.
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People with social phobias are fearful of being embarrassed or judged by others.
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Being embarrassed or feeling awkward in a social interaction from time to time is totally normal.
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But people with social phobias often feel anxiety for weeks leading up to events before they happen.
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And are afraid of doing common things in front of others.
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For example, someone with a social phobia might be afraid to eat in front of someone else.
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For people with phobias, seeing, being exposed to or even thinking about the phobia causes severe anxiety.
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That's often not proportionate to the real threat.
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They'll catastrophize and jump to the worst-case scenario and think that it's more likely to happen than it actually is.
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These thoughts can lead to physical symptoms like excessive sweating, trembling.
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And an increased heart rate.
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That being said, it's important to reiterate the difference between an everyday fear and a phobia.
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Feeling queasy while you're climbing a ladder would be an everyday fear.
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Avoiding your favorite frozen yogurt place because it's on the second floor of a building would be a phobia.
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Feeling weirded out around your best friend's pet snake is an everyday fear.
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Avoiding your friend's house entirely because they have a snake would be a phobia.
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Unless it's not in a terrarium and slithering around the house.
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Then I guess it would be an everyday fear.
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Basically, it comes down to the idea of what would be an appropriate or reasonable response versus a disproportionate or exaggerated response.
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But what causes a phobia?
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Well, we don't really know.
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But we do know that you're more likely to develop one if you have a family member with a phobia.
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Sometimes though, phobias might be caused by specific traumatic events.
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Like being confronted by an aggressive raccoon.
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Now tailoring treatment for a specific individual's fear is super important in effective therapy.
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Because different patients might respond differently depending on the therapy.
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Especially if other conditions are involved like depression and drug abuse.
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Psychotherapy, particularly cognitive behavior therapy, can be super beneficial for patients.
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Cognitive behavior therapy teaches patients to be mindful that their fear is irrational.
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And the likelihood of their worst fears coming true, like being attacked by a pack of angry raccoons and getting rabies and dying an unpleasant untimely death.
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Is actually very low.
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Also, systematic desensitization might be used.
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Where a person is gradually and systematically exposed to the feared objects.
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Patients first learn to identify the anxiety.
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Then they learn coping techniques.
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And last they use their learned coping techniques to overcome situations.
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The vast majority of patients can be treated using these tailored methods.
