Phobias - what is it? Types of human phobias

The word "phobia" has Greek roots - phobos - "fear". This is a condition in which a person experiences an excessive and unreasonable degree of panic. It is triggered by the impact or expectation of a particular object or circumstance. So phobias are born.

What it is?

Psychologists define a phobia as an irrational uncontrolled fear. Therefore, it is practically impossible to explain their manifestation logically at one time or another. However, sometimes phobic anxiety disorder arises from irrational dislike and hatred for anything. In this case, fear has a veiled form.

Undoubtedly, fear is an innate emotional process, a genetically determined physiological component. This sensation can be caused by imaginary or real dangers.

If the treatment is started in time, at the first stages of phobia development, it can be defeated. But as over time it increasingly settles in the human brain, it is difficult to "root out" from there. It will take a lot of effort to recover from the phobia.

Psychology, fortunately, is struggling with this. According to statistics, clinical cases are currently not common. On such cases, it is said that fear begins to get out of control and prevent a normal life, turning into attacks of real panic.

Phobias differ from ordinary fears through their obsession, agony and acuity. The patient does not manage to drive this state out of his consciousness, while the intellect remains untouched. Another sign is the patient's realization that his fear is abnormal.

Birth of phobias

By itself, a phobia will never arise on a flat surface. In most cases, it is the result of a severe experience, long depression, stress, or as part of a neurosis. That is, the causes of phobias are stress, emotional experience (hidden or not realized by a person). Z. Freud argued that the phobia appears due to suppression, displacement in the darkness of the subconscious of shame, feelings of guilt, a very difficult experience.

The most obsessive ideas, as well as phobias, are people who put their sanity above feelings. For them, the most important thing is the ability to control the situation. To such people, first of all, men are businessmen or officials, since they have a great responsibility for a long time. This does not give them the opportunity to relax. They believe that in a stressful situation one can not experience strong emotional experiences. Because such people try to keep everything under control, they begin to suffer from the betrayal of their own brains.

The phobia begins to develop more strongly from the moment when the person decides to organize his life without the object of his fear. In some cases, when the subject of anxiety is rare (snakes, for example), the patient's life proceeds peacefully. But the existing complex phobias are complex enough to be able to avoid them. These include, for example, agoraphobia (fear of leaving the house and being in a public place), or as it is also called - social phobia (fear of being among people).

Main categories of phobias

1. Specific, or simple phobias. What it is? This is a disproportionate sense of fear about specific situations, living beings, activities, places and inanimate things. For example, dentophobia (fear of dentists), film phobia (fear of dogs), aviaphobia (fear of flying), ornithophobia (fear of birds).
2. Social phobias. What is it, you now find out. They are also called social restless disorder. Fear is a complex or complex phobia that has deep roots. A patient suffering from this type of ailment faces difficulties, being in a social setting. Quite often it is very difficult for him to find himself and be among people. Attending parties, weddings, exhibitions, he is very anxious. The man is tormented by the fear of embarrassment, condemnation and public humiliation, for example, at the very thought of speaking before a large number of people he is panicking. Beginning with adolescence, an individual tries to avoid such social situations. Over time, depression may begin to develop.
3. Agoraphobia is the fear of being in a situation that has no way out, that is, a person is afraid to get stuck in a desperate situation and not get help. This includes the fear of traveling on buses or trains, the fear of visiting large stores. In some particularly difficult cases, the individual is unable to leave his own home. Agoraphobia includes complex, complex phobias.

List of the most common phobias

There are a large number of their kinds, many of which are subdivided into subclasses. The following are the most common phobias. What is it is also explained.

To date, the most common is eremophobia - the fear of loneliness. But this applies to those people who are afraid to remain alone with themselves.

Aviation phobia

No less frequent aviaphobia. People suffering from this disease are afraid of flights. Their condition is aggravated by the fact that any air crash is very brightly covered in the press. In addition, the fear of flights may be in other fears, such as claustrophobia (fear of enclosed space) and acrophobia (fear of heights). A person suffering from aviaphobia can be advised one thing: try to get distracted from thoughts of fear (listen to music, read a book, watch a movie, etc.).

Peyrphobia and glossophobia

A fairly common ailment in the modern world is the fear of public speaking. This is the deepest fear of all mankind. Each of us is afraid to seem ridiculous, stupid, incompetent or ridiculous.

Of course, before the performance everything is nervous, from the teacher to the politician. The only thing that can teach you to overcome this fear is frequent performances in crowded companies. If it is extremely difficult for a person to start fighting his fear, then it is better for him to work with an experienced psychologist who will teach exactly the practice of communication.

Acrophobia

Acrophobia is a fear of heights. In most cases, it is rather a fear of falling. Individual simply avoid the subject of phobia - you do not have to climb to high points. In the last resort, be distracted from the fact of being at altitude.

Nobofobia

Phobia of the dark is familiar to everyone from childhood, but not all of them can cope with it in the course of time. For adults, this is the most irrational fear. From it you can try to get rid by asking yourself the question what exactly frightens in the dark.

Thanatophobia

Thanatophobia - the fear of death - has a serious impact on many people. Her version is necrophobia - this is the fear of corpses. Many mistakenly believe that this ailment also includes fear of cemeteries. But this fear has a different name - co-metrophobia. Necrophobia is a fear that is difficult to overcome. It should be understood that life is a cycle that includes death. It is important to realize that there will always be people who remember you.

Atihifobia

The fear of making a mistake or failing haunts even successful people. This can even provoke the emergence of other common fears (failure, change, what people think). Therefore, it is necessary to stop thinking about what can or can not happen, and to think positively.

Rektofobia

Fear of failure is a very strong and insurmountable fear. Quite often under him lies the desire to be accepted or loved. A person needs to be sure that someone needs him and will not be abandoned.

Arachnophobia

A fairly well-known fear is the fear of spiders. He has no reasons and prerequisites for appearance. This irrational fear simply arises and at times even irritates the person suffering from it. Some people decide to overcome it in the following way. They spend a long time in that locality or country where spiders are very common and are represented by many species and sizes.

Phobophobia

Many people often joke about the question of how phobias are afraid of being called. It turns out that there is such fear - phobophobia - a fear of starting something to be afraid of. A rather unusual phenomenon occurs in those who in the past fell into a stressful situation. Her re-appearance in the future frightens a person, and especially worried about the feelings that he suffered. Phobophobia feeds itself, fear begins to get out of control and exhausting.

Claustrophobia

Fear of enclosed space is a very disturbing disorder. A person suffering from claustrophobia describes this as a sense of a trap without entering and leaving. Usually manifested emotionally and physically. Because of what this phobia arises, it is still not known exactly . It begins to develop in adolescence and often passes to the age of maturity or becomes less pronounced.

However, not all fears fall under the definition of the term "phobia". The list of the most common is constantly updated, updated and expanded.

Symptoms of phobias

Typical signs of a panic attack are:

• Fast heartbeat;
• Pain in the chest;
• Interruptions in the work of the heart, arrhythmia may occur;
• Sweating;
• Shortness of breath or rapid breathing;
• Disturbances of the vestibular apparatus;
• There is a feeling of a coma in the throat, squeezing;
• Dizziness or fainting;
• Darkening in the eyes, "flies";
• Weakness in the whole body;
• The muscles are tightly compressed, to the point of pain (mainly the shoulders, abdomen, neck, throat);
• Cramps in the muscles of the hands and feet;
• chills;
• Numbness of some parts of the body;
• shiver;
• Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea;
• suffocation;
• lack of air;
• A sense of horror, panic, fear.

It is not necessary that all symptoms are present. A person suffering from any phobia, already knows about what to expect in the next panic attack.