Specific phobia

A specific phobia is a generic term for any kind of anxiety disorder that amounts to an unreasonable or irrational fear related to exposure to specific objects or situations. As a result, the affected persons tend to actively avoid direct contact with the objects or situations, and in severe cases any mention or depiction of them.

The fear or anxiety may be triggered both by the presence and the anticipation of the specific object or situation. A person who encounters that of which they are phobic will often show signs of fear or express discomfort. In some cases it can result in a panic attack. In most cases of adults, this kind of phobia is consciously recognized by the person; still, anxiety and avoidance are difficult to control and may significantly impair person's functioning and even physical health.

Diagnoses Criteria for Specific Phobia

All information about Diagnoses Criteria for Specific Phobia comes from the website http://www.mentalhealth.com/dis1/p21-an04.html

Marked and persistent fear that is excessive or unreasonable, cued by the presence or anticipation of a specific object or situation (e.g., flying, heights, animals, receiving an injection, seeing blood).
Exposure to the phobic stimulus almost invariably provokes an immediate anxiety response, which may take the form of a situationally bound or situationally predisposed Panic Attack. Note: In children, the anxiety may be expressed by crying, tantrums, freezing, or clinging.
The person recognizes that the fear is excessive or unreasonable. Note: In children, this feature may be absent.
The phobic situation(s) is avoided or else is endured with intense anxiety or distress.
The avoidance, anxious anticipation, or distress in the feared situation(s) interferes significantly with the person's normal routine, occupational (or academic) functioning, or social activities or relationships, or there is marked distress about having the phobia.
In individuals under age 18 years, the duration is at least 6 months.
The anxiety, Panic Attacks, or phobic avoidance associated with the specific object or situation are not better accounted for by another mental disorder, such as Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (e.g., fear of dirt in someone with an obsession about contamination), Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (e.g., avoidance of stimuli associated with a severe stressor), Separation Anxiety Disorder (e.g., avoidance of school), Social Phobia (e.g., avoidance of social situations because of fear of embarrassment), Panic Disorder With Agoraphobia, or Agoraphobia Without History of Panic Disorder.

If the fear is just a reasonable fear that passes, then the fear is not a phobia.

Causes of Specific Phobia

All information about the Causes of Specific Phobia comes from the textbook (2006,) Essentials of Abnormal Psychology:Fourth Edition

Direct Experience

This is where the object that a person is afraid of is experienced directly. For example if a person is afraid of snakes and he/she got bitten by that snake, then he/she has just experienced a direct experience

Experiencing a False Alarm

This is actually experiencing a false alarm just as having a panic attack in the presence of the frightened object

Observing Someone

This is where a person observed another person getting attacked by a snake. Therefore, he/she is afraid of the snake this way. That person is afraid that what had happened to that person could also happen to them

Being Told

This is where a person is told about the dangers of a snake. The warning is so great and frightening to the person, he/she develops a phobia because of it.

Categories of specific phobias

According to the fourth revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the textbook (2006,) Essentials of Abnormal Psychology: Fourth Edition phobias can be classified under the following general categories:

Animal type

For example the fear of spiders (arachnophobia) and the fear of snakes (ophidiophobia).

Natural environment type: if the fear is cued by objects in the natural environment, such as storms, heights, or water. This subtype generally has a childhood on set. If a person has the fear of water they are more likely to have another fear like the fear of storms. These situations maybe dangerous, so mild to moderate fear can be adaptive. If the fear is just a passing fear, for example, being worried or cautious in dangerous or risky areas is not a phobia. These fears have to be presistent and cause distress or impairment. For example avoiding a boat ride or going on trip because afraid of a storm.
Situational type

Like the fear of small confined spaces (claustrophobia) and being "afraid of the dark," (nyctophobia).

Blood/injection/injury type

This situational phobia consists of a persistent, debilitating fear of blood (seeing it or expelling it), bodily injury of any type, and injection of one’s own body with a needle. Many people may have mild fears of these types of situations, but those with a blood/injection/injury type situational phobia are seriously impaired when even a thought of these situations occur. They may avoid certain situations, places, and careers in order to avoid their fear. A panic-type reaction can be triggered by the sight or even thought of any type of blood/injection/injury image. This reaction can be in the form of dizziness, fainting, etc. There is nothing physically wrong with a person with this type of phobia, but they still have these physical reactions.Generally, phobias cause distress, impairment, and are excessive of an expected response to a particular situation.

Other

Like the fear of the number 13 (triskaidekaphobia), and the fear of clowns (coulrophobia).

Separation Anxiety Disorder

This is where little children are afraid of being separated by loved ones, or are afraid that their loved ones will be separated from them. For example, a child might refuse to go to school because he or she might be afraid that they will lose one of their parents while they are away. They also might be afraid to sleep alone because they might be afraid that they might lose their loved ones as well while they are asleep. This is a lot to do with the self-preservation instinct, for in the wild, a lone child is vulnerable to natural hazards and predators, as well as being unable to sustain themselves properly, e.g. feeding.

Phobias and evolution

It is believed by evolutionists that a common ancestor of primates, including the human, evolved the ability to develop phobias as a result of the dangers which plagued them. This is not to be confused with the idea that humans are born with specific phobias built-in, but that their genetics are coded to have a tendency to develop some fears more easily than others. There are five dangers which predominantly affected the human's evolutionary ancestor:

The dark

Fear and avoidance of the dark resulted in minimal deaths and injuries to pre-humans caused by that which they were incapable of seeing.

Heights

Avoiding heights prevented fatal falls from bringing an end to one who could possibly have future offspring

Spiders/snakes/cats

Poisonous spiders and snakes are stealthy killers who appear mostly harmless to an uninformed being. Big cats, such as lions and tigers were the pinnacle predators of pre-humans in the wild.

Being alone

The idea of there being safety in numbers is founded in animal instinct. It can be observed biologically in the swarm.

Enclosed Spaces

Anxiety of enclosed spaces resulting in a fight-or-flight response would allow pre-humans to quickly realize the danger of falling into a hole, being trapped in a cave, etc.

It must be understood, however, that these behaviors themselves are not genetic traits. Predisposition to being a victim of these phobias is what is coded for within the human DNA. This does mean that those who have a family history of a specific phobia will be far more likely to develop the phobia themselves^*.

Treatment for Social Phobia

All information about the Treatment for Social Phobia comes from the textbook (2006,) Essentials of Abnormal Psychology:Fourth Edition

One of the ways in which specific phobia can be treated is by Exposure-Based Exercises
These exercises are a very good way to treat Social Phobia of all kinds. This treatment works by gradually getting a person to feel more comfortable with what they are afraid of.
For example, if a person is afraid of snakes, then Exposure-Based Exercises can be implemented so that he/she will be less afraid and more comfortable around snakes.
First a physican can introduce the phobic person will a snake about 10 feet away from the snake.
The next day the physican can introduce the same snake 5 feet away from the patient.
Then the next day the physican can gradually decrease the distance that the snake is to the patient.
Then the next day the patient is told to actually touch the snake.
The next day the patient can be told to put the snake around the his/her neck and watch tv. This means that the patient has finally become comfortable with the snake.
Exposure-Based-Treatment is a good way to treat Social phobia, however it can also be not beneficial as well. If Exposure-Based-Treatment is done improperly, by a non-physican then the person can develope a more fearful mentality about the object.

Another form of treatment is systematic Densensitization. This a treatment where the patient is gradually introduced to the objects or the situations they feared so their fear will gradually extinguish. The client is introduced slowly and the client rates their anxiety level from 0-100, zero being almost fant. This teaches the person to relax when the object is introduced to them.

External links

Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders - Specific phobias

Phobias | 単一恐怖