Common Specific Phobias

The article Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Imipramine, or Their Combination for Panic Disorder, evaluates the effect that drug and psychosocial therapies have on panic disorders. Furthermore, the authors also evaluate whether a particular treatment is more effective than another, a combination of treatments, or whether one treatment outdoes another. Patients who are afflicted with panic disorders have a reduction in lifestyle and lowered role functioning when compared to individuals who suffer from diabetes, heart disease, or arthritis. Researchers found that treating individuals with a panic disorder, led to a better lifestyle. However, medicine also found that treating patients with imipramine led fewer symptom manifestations. The authors of the article conducted trials in which they compared cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), imipramine with medical management, combination of CBT and imipramine, pill placebo with medical management, and CBT with placebo for for panic disorder. Researchers found that CBT alone and imipramine alone yielded greater results than the placebo for PD. Imipramine yielded a greater quality of response, however, CBT had greater

In this paper I will be describing phobias and fear, but more specifically coulrophobia (the fear of clowns) and Monophobia (the fear of being alone). I also will describe possible causes of phobias, the history of phobias, how fear is helpful in small amounts, what fear does to someone and how to defeat it. Fear is present in all people but some more than others and I would like to know why. The definition of a phobia is “an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something”. Phobias are never simple and often do not have a simple answers or cures, but there are ways of dealing with phobias. There are some treatments that can help you get over your fears. Phobias are not easy to get into without getting into very

Of the many disorders presented in chapter 15, I find phobias the most interesting. Phobias are more than just a strong fear or dislike. A specific phobia is diagnosed when there is an uncontrollable, irrational, intense desire to avoid some object or situation. There are numerous types of phobias. A few common phobias are; agoraphobia, which is the avoidance of situations in which one will fear having a panic attack, especially a situation in which it is difficult to get help, and from which it difficult to escape. Social phobia, which refers to an intense fear of being watched and judged by others. It is visible as a fear of public appearances in which embarrassment or humiliation is possible, such as public speaking, eating, or performing.

One way to help treat specific phobia is through cognitive behavioral therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a therapy used to help target behaviors and help examine the thoughts and cognitions (Berkman, Blickman, Heine, Malekzadeh, Teunissen, Bussmann, Kwakkel, Meeteren, Groot, TREFAMS-ACE, 2013). This treatment can help a person with specific phobia because this therapy can be used as an active intervention to help the individual face their fears of

Agoraphobia is anxiety about being in (or anticipating) situations that might be difficult or in which help may not be available in the event of having a panic attack. The individual might feel like the situation is unsafe and that is when the panic sets in. These symptoms must be present for at least six months. The DSM states that this must occur in at least two of these places: 1) public transportation 2) being in open spaces 3) being in enclosed spaces 4) standing in line or in a crowd or 5) being outside the home alone. Agoraphobia can be diagnosed with or without panic disorder. (American Psychiatric Association, 2013)

Specific phobia, also known as simple phobia, is an anxiety disorder characterized by persistent and unreasonable fear of something or fear of a situation, wherein such fear is not proportionate to the danger or risk of that thing or situation that a person has the fear of. The five sub-type of specific phobia are the animal, natural environment, blood injection injury, situational and others. The most common specific phobia is the animal phobia. Examples of this animal phobia include fear of dogs, snakes, insects or mice. To prevent over diagnosis of specific phobia, DSM 5 have made several changes based on the over assessment of danger or erratic fear. To be considered as one of the specific phobias, it should meet the requirements

The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines anxiety as “a nervous disorder marked by a feeling of uneasiness”. An anxiety disorder involves an excessive or inappropriate state of arousal characterized by feelings of apprehension, uncertainty, or fear. There are seven common types of anxiety disorders. They include generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder,

When the lungs seem to be collapsing and life seems to be steadily slipping away from an unfaithful, shaky grasp, most would dig a grave and call it dying; while some would call it a panic attack. Panic disorder, the unwelcome offspring of anxiety, is not a commonly acknowledged mental illness in today’s society. Panic disorder is a fatiguing, socially cataclysmic mental disease which results in panic attacks. While panic attacks may shower their victims with copious amounts of external, physical effects (pools of cold sweat, frantic movements, inability to breathe, etc.); the most detrimental effects are purely internal.

The definition of anxiety are a group of mental illness that cause people to feel excessively frightened, distressed, or uneasy. If it’s not treated within a person, it can lead to an affect on daily activities such as shopping, or going outside can be extremely difficult. In the past,

I will discuss what Anxiety is, how to diagnose it, and also how to treat it. It is very common and I’m pretty sure most of you know basically what it is. But just in case I will go over the main important things to know about Anxiety. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety disorders involve more than temporary worry or fear. For a person with an anxiety disorder, the anxiety does not go away and can get worse over time. The feelings can interfere with daily activities such as job performance, school work, and relationships. There are several different types of anxiety disorders. Examples include generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and social anxiety disorder. According to the American psychological association, Anxiety is an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and invisible changes like increased blood pressure. You can have OCD, phobias, panic attacks, and PTSD. OCD is basically anxiety that takes the form of obsessions and compulsions. I know many of you guys are scared of spiders or bees and that is

People with agoraphobia typically avoid places and situations that they perceive to be dangerous, such as large crowds or enclosed spaces, for fear that it might trigger a panic attack. There are certain people who are more at risk for developing an anxiety disorder such as panic disorder. McGrandles and Duffy (2012) state that “risk factors include internalizing problems and a more inhibited temperament” and “adults with anxiety often report childhood experiences of anxiety” (p. 5). Panic disorder is a powerful and debilitating psychological issue. We will discuss the diagnoses and treatment of this disorder

This specific phobia can lead to the person experience of an intense fear when not being able to break out of a populated area (Barlow & Mavissakalian, pp 4). This causes people having to evade open and heavily crowed environments with little possibilities to exit over their massive fear of going through a panic attack. Therefore, today there are signs in many rides at themed parks that warn people of the closed areas. This specific category of phobias causes the person to fear traveling on bus or even waiting in a line. This phobia can also lead to being dependent of someone because they are too afraid to go outside of their homes. Barlow & Mavissakalian (1981 pp 4-5), implicated that the clinical picture painted is consistent and consists or fears of going out to public places and open and crowded places, fears of walking alone or using any means or public transportation, and fears of being alone at home. Agoraphobia is the most disabling of all phobias and usually begins in early adolescence.

To a normal human, one might think that they can experience anxiety any day. An example is that some people think watching someone scale a building, or someone walk on a tightrope across two high buildings gives them anxiety. Although this is somewhat true, true anxiety is completely different. Anxiety is a serious mental illness that some people unfortunately suffer from. “Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the US” (“Facts & Statistics”) . People who have anxiety disorder are constantly worrying or stressful from normal everyday events. These patients have troubles operating in day to day operations, such as driving. There are different types of anxiety disorders including phobias,

People who have phobias usually try to avoid it, if they cannot, they may experience rapid heartbeat, panic, fear and difficulty in breathing. Phobia can be treated by therapies and medications that can help to overcome the phobia. In some situations, or from some objects, people will not need to get treated because of a specific phobia they suffer from, for example, someone who lives in a city and have phobia from snakes usually will not seek treatment because of the low chance facing this type of phobia or fear in the city during a life time. On the other hand, treatment is necessary when phobia deals series damage such as, limiting social activities and interacting with people, having difficulties to get some necessary medical treatments and in many cases it can cause less productivity in school or work. In many situations people need to be treated especially when their phobias affect their everyday life and prevent them from practicing their daily activity and also, it makes them avoid certain places or

Everyone in their life time experiences some sort of anxiety. It is that feeling that you get when you are about to take a test or doing a presentation in front of students. But some people, like me, have something worse than just the anxious feeling you get, something called anxiety disorder. It becomes a disorder when that anxious feeling happens frequently and makes you feel uneasy and different