Psychopathology – Key Assessment

c. Phobias.

  1. An introduction to the disorder.

Normally both fear and anxiety can be helpful, helping us to avoid dangerous situations, making us alert and giving us the motivation to deal with problems. However, if the feelings become too strong or go for too long, they can stop us from doing the things we want to and can make our lives miserable. A phobia is a fear of particular situations or things that are not dangerous and which most people do not find troublesome.

Most common phobias are found in the following three categories Specific, Social and Agoraphobia. Specific phobia is characterized by extreme fear of an object or situation that is not harmful under general conditions. There are four major subtypes of specific phobias – animal type, situational type (planes, lifts, and enclosed spaces), natural environment (heights, storms, water) and blood-injection-injury type.

Social phobia is an anxiety disorder in which a person has significant anxiety and discomfort related to a fear of being embarrassed, humiliated, or scorned by others in social or performance situations. Even when they manage to confront this fear, persons with social phobia usually feel very anxious before the event/outing, feel intensely uncomfortable throughout the event/outing and have lingering unpleasant feelings after the event/outing. Social phobia frequently occurs with public speaking, meeting people, dealing with authority figures, eating in public and using public restrooms.

Agoraphobia is as I said before a fear of public places - it can result in people being afraid to go out of their homes. This anxiety disorder involves the fear of experiencing a panic attack in a place or situation from which escape may be difficult or embarrassing. The anxiety associated with agoraphobia is so severe that panic attacks are not unusual, and individuals with agoraphobia typically try to avoid the location or cause of their fear People with agoraphobia typically avoid crowded places like streets, crowded stores, churches, and theatres. It is thought to be the most serious of all phobias.

There are many elements that make up the fear response. Cognitive elements (the expectation of impending harm), Somatic elements (the body’s emergency reactions to danger and changes in appearance - the sympathetic nervous system is activated, releasing adrenaline), Emotional elements (the feelings of dread, terror and panic) and Behavioural elements (usually fleeing or freezing).  

  1. The Clinical Characteristics the disorder

For an individual’s reactions to be clinically diagnosed as a phobia the following conditions must be met. Firstly, the fear must be persistent, and must be severe. Secondly, the individual must feel compelled to avoid or escape from the phobic inducing stimulus such as a spider or a snake. And finally the fear must also be illogical or irrational.

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For Specific phobias the average age of onset is around 7 to 9 years. People with specific phobias know that their fear is excessive, but are unable to overcome their emotion. The disorder is diagnosed only when the specific fear interferes with daily activities of school, work, or home life.
There is no known cause, although they seem to run in families and are slightly more prevalent in women. If the object of the fear is easy to avoid, people with phobias may not feel the need to seek treatment. Sometimes, however, they may make important career or personal decisions ...

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