Claustrophobia: Needing A Way Out
Claustrophobia, an abnormal fear of being in enclosed spaces, is a common specific phobia. A person with claustrophobia can’t ride in elevators or go through tunnels without extreme anxiety. Afraid of suffocating or being trapped, the person will avoid tight spaces and often engage in “safety seeking behavior,” such as opening windows or sitting near an exit. That may make the situation tolerable, but it doesn’t relieve the fear.
Normal Fears In Children
Many childhood fears are natural and tend to develop at specific ages. For example, many young children are afraid of the dark and may need a nightlight to sleep. That doesnt mean they have a phobia. In most cases, they will grow out of this fear as they get older.
For example, the following childhood fears are extremely common and considered normal:
0-2 years Loud noises, strangers, separation from parents, large objects.
3-6 years Imaginary things such as ghosts, monsters, the dark, sleeping alone, strange noises.
7-16 years More realistic fears such as injury, illness, school performance, death, natural disasters.
If your childs fear is not interfering with their daily life or causing them a great deal of distress, then theres little cause for undue concern. However, if the fear is interfering with your childs social activities, school performance, or sleep, you may want to see a qualified child therapist.
Social Phobia And Agoraphobia
Of course, to some extent, we are all afraid to show our feelings and emotions in front of others. However, for some people, such fear becomes obsessive and turns into a phobia. Most of those who suffer from these fears are people with imaginative or systematic thinking.
People of the first category have an innate creative side and being the center of attention is a natural thing for them, so the fear of public speaking or of open spaces arises only in consequence of certain particularities of perception. At the same time, for the people from the second category, it is rather a fear of appearing incompetent, ridiculous or stupid to others.
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Phobias From New To Old
Someone who fears anything new has a neophobia. And someone who is afraid of growing old or afraid of old people has a gerontophobia. Somewhere in between, you might find someone with phartophobia, which is an unreasonable fear of passing gas in a public place. Someone with odontiatophobia will go out of their way to avoid going to a dentist. And a spargarophobic individual will panic over a plate of asparagus.
Signs And Symptoms Of Phobias
The symptoms of a phobia can range from mild feelings of apprehension and anxiety to a full-blown panic attack. Typically, the closer you are to the thing youre afraid of, the greater your fear will be. Your fear will also be higher if getting away is difficult.
Physical symptoms of a phobia include:
- Difficulty breathing
Emotional symptoms of a phobia include:
- Feeling overwhelming anxiety or panic
- Feeling intense need to escape
- Feeling unreal or detached from yourself
- Fear of losing control or going crazy
- Feeling like youre going to die or pass out
- Knowing that youre overreacting, but feeling powerless to control fear
Symptoms of blood-injection-injury phobia
The symptoms of blood-injection-injury phobia are slightly different from other phobias. When confronted with the sight of blood or a needle, you experience not only fear, but also disgust.
Like other phobias, you initially feel anxious as your heart speeds up. However, unlike other phobias, this acceleration is followed by a quick drop in blood pressure, which leads to nausea, dizziness, and fainting. Although a fear of fainting is common in all specific phobias, blood-injection-injury phobia is the only phobia where fainting can actually occur.
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How Is Autophobia Diagnosed
Autophobia is a phobia, or fear-based disorder. If you suspect you have autophobia, you should visit your general practitioner. They can refer you to a mental healthcare specialist.
When you see a mental health specialist they will perform a psychological evaluation. They will ask for your medical history to see if a physical problem is affecting your mental health. After that they will perform a psychological evaluation. This involves asking lots of questions about your daily activities and feelings.
Autophobia is considered a situational phobia. This means that the situation of being alone or loneliness causes extreme distress. To be diagnosed with autophobia, your fear of being alone causes you so much anxiety that it interferes with your daily routine.
In some cases, people have more than one phobia at a time. Its possible that youre dealing with more than one phobia, which could be making your autophobia even more challenging to cope with. Talk to your doctor about any other fears you have.
People with specific phobias like autophobia are often treated with psychotherapy. The most common types are exposure therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy.
How Is Aquaphobia Treated
Since aquaphobia is considered a specific phobia, its treated most commonly with two forms of psychotherapy: exposure therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy.
The preferred treatment method is exposure therapy. During this type of therapy, youll be repeatedly exposed to the source of the phobia in this case, water. As youre exposed to water, your therapist will keep track of your reactions, thoughts, feelings, and sensations in order to help you manage your anxiety.
With cognitive behavioral therapy, youll learn to challenge your thoughts and beliefs about your fear of water. As you learn to challenge your fears, youll also develop strategies to cope with those thought patterns and beliefs.
In addition to professional treatment, there are also several self-care techniques you can practice at home. Mindfulness-based strategies, daily physical activity, yoga, and deep breathing are all helpful strategies when treating phobias.
In the later stages of treatment, you may decide to work with a specially trained swim instructor who can help you learn to feel comfortable swimming.
Your doctor might also prescribe medications to treat some symptoms of anxiety and panic. But the Mayo Clinic notes these arent used long term. Rather, medications can help during initial treatment and for specific reasons.
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The Most Common Phobias
Steven Gans, MD is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Terrified of the creepy-crawlies? Scared of slithering serpents? Well, youre not alone. According to the American Psychiatric Association, phobias are the most common psychiatric illness among women and the second most common among men.
The National Institute of Mental Health suggests that phobias affect approximately 10% of U.S. adults each year. These phobias typically emerge during childhood or adolescence and continue into adulthood. They also impact twice as many women as they do men.
There are a number of explanations for why phobias develop, including evolutionary and behavioral theories. Whatever the cause, phobias are treatable conditions that can be minimized and even eliminated with cognitive and behavioral therapy techniques and medication.
Arachibutyrophobia: Fear Of Peanut Butter Sticking To The Roof Of Your Mouth
Phobias are much more than just being afraid of something. Almost all people feel afraid at some point, depending on their exposure to certain things or threatening situations. People with phobias, on the other hand, have a marked fear or anxiety about a specific object or situation that can lead to clinically significant distress. They can have an impairment in their ability to function in daily life, including socially or at work. Certain phobias are more common than others, including ones related to airplanes, elevators, or spiders other phobias are less so.
For example, its an uncomfortable feeling for everyone, but some people have phobias, like the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth. Some people can handle eating small amounts, but others avoid peanut-based products like peanut butter sauces and ice creams. It can be rooted in a broader phobia, like the fear of sticky textures or choking, or it can occur independently.
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The Root Of The Name For The Fear Of Long Words
Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia is probably taken from the root word sesquipedalian, which means “long word.” Therefore, sesquipedalophobia is technically more correct.
But somewhere along the line, someone added references to the hippopotamus and monsters to make the word sound even more intimidating. How ironic that the name for the fear of long words is itself 35 letters long.
This phobia is highly personalized. Some people are afraid of long, multisyllabic words, while others have a fear of obscure words. Some fear even moderate-length common words.
Tips For Managing Claustrophobia
Many people with claustrophobia will avoid the spaces that trigger the condition. But that may not be a good long-term solution because you may eventually find yourself in a scary but unavoidable situation. Here are some ways to cope during an attack:
- Breathe slowly and deeply while counting to three with each breath.
- Focus on something safe, like time passing on your watch.
- Remind yourself repeatedly that your fear and anxiety will pass.
- Challenge whats triggering your attack by repeating that the fear is irrational.
- Visualize and focus on a place or moment that brings you calm.
Its also important not to resist the attack when its happening. You may want to stop the attack from happening, but if youre unable to stop it, your anxiety may increase and make the attack worse.
Instead, accept that the attack is occurring, remind yourself that its OK to experience these feelings, reassure yourself that the attack isnt life threatening, and remember that it will pass.
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Strange Phobia #1: Ornithophobia The Fear Of Birds
Alfred Hitchcock tapped into the essence of this phobia with his famous film The Birds. The fear of birds, especially pigeons, may seem like a laughing matter, but when you consider that some theories regarding the origin of birds name these flying creatures as distant relatives of the dinosaurs, then its a bit easier to comprehend why someone might be terrified!
Ornithophobia may be treated effectively with cognitive-behavioral therapy, visualization techniques, relaxation techniques and/or medications when appropriate.
Cynophobia The Fear Of Dogs
Cynophobia, the extreme fear of dogs, is one of the most common animal phobias around the world. Nearly 36% sufferers seek treatment for Cynophobia and the majority of these are also known to be afraid of cats. The extreme fear of dogs is actually even more debilitating than the fear of spiders and the fear of snakes due to the fact that dogs are commonly present in most residential areas. Nearly 75% of Cynophobes are women, though the fear also affects men. The condition usually begins in childhood, but many patients are also known to have developed the fear in their adulthood.
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Somniphobia: Fear Of Sleep
This is one phobia that can be particularly disruptive: Somniphobia is the fear of sleep. Sleep is associated with many health benefits. For example, the Mayo Clinic notes that lack of sleep increases your risk of developing colds. Even worse, a lack of adequate sleep on a long-term basis is associated with a greater risk of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.
Acrophobia The Fear Of Heights
Acrophobia is an irrational fear of heights or the fear of falling . It is a specific phobia that causes the sufferers to be highly agitated or in a state of panic which could interfere with his/her ability to climb down. In severe cases of Acrophobia, a panic attack might be triggered even when the sufferer is climbing up or down a chair. Nearly 10% of people in the United States are known to suffer from Acrophobia.
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Freedom From Freedom For
Never think in terms of being free from always think in terms of being free for. And the difference is vast, tremendously vast. Don’t think in terms of from — think for. Be free for God, be free for truth, but don’t think that you want to be free from the crowd, free from the church, free from this and that. You may be able to go far away one day, but you will never be free, never. It is going to be some sort of suppression.
Why are you so afraid of the crowd? … If the pull is there, then your fear simply shows your pull, your attraction. Wherever you go you will remain dominated by the crowd.
What I am saying is, just look at the facts of it — that there is no need to think in terms of the crowd. Just think in terms of your being. It can be dropped right now. You cannot be free if you struggle. You can drop it because there is no point in struggling.
The crowd is not the problem — you are the problem. The crowd is not pulling you — you are being pulled, not by somebody else but by your own unconscious conditioning. Always remember not to throw the responsibility somewhere on somebody else, because then you will never be free of it. Deep down it is your responsibility. Why should one be so much against the crowd? Poor crowd! Why should you be so much against it? Why do you carry such a wound?
Strange Phobia #: Emetophobia The Fear Of Vomiting
Nobody enjoys vomiting. Food and drink sources are meant to travel in a downward direction and not against the pull of gravity. However, those with emetophobia dont simply become disgusted when they vomit or see someone else vomit, they become terrified! Those with emetophobia are so utterly aghast when vomit of any kind is encountered that they will actively avoid social situations in which there is the possibility that someone could vomit.
Obviously, this can greatly affect an emetophobiacs day-to-day happiness, but thankfully, treatments are available. For example, emetophobiacs are often successfully treated with cognitive behavioral therapy.
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How Is Aquaphobia Diagnosed
Doctors use the new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders to help them diagnose mental health conditions.
Currently, the DSM-5 doesnt have a specific diagnosis or category for aquaphobia. Instead, it identifies a fear of water under the diagnosis for specific phobia.
If you suspect you have aquaphobia, make an appointment with your doctor. Theyll be able to refer you to a mental health specialist who can diagnose and treat your phobia.
Based on the criteria from the DSM-5, a mental health specialist will likely diagnose aquaphobia if you have experienced the symptoms listed above for at least six months.
Part of the diagnosis also includes ruling out other mental health conditions, such as:
Strange Phobia #: Arachibutyrophobia The Fear Of Peanut Butter Sticking To The Roof Of Ones Mouth
A high percentage of Americans love eating peanut butter! Its one of the most popular and most spreadable food staples in the U.S. and is found on many peoples favorite foods list. However, for an arachibutyrophobiac, the thought of having peanut butter stuck to the roof of his or her mouth precludes any desire to actually eat it. Whether its creamy or crunchy, arachibutyrophobiacs will jump when peanut butter enters the room!
Arachibutyrophobia can be successfully treated with behavior therapy, anti-anxiety medication, psychotherapy or cognitive behavioral therapy.
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A List Of All Phobias And Their Meanings: Know What Scares You
A phobia is an unreasonable fear of something, that in reality, may not be very harmful. Here is a list of all phobias and their meanings, which will help you to get familiarized with the terminologies related to various phobias, and at the same time, will increase your knowledge about them.
A phobia is an unreasonable fear of something, that in reality, may not be very harmful. Here is a list of all phobias and their meanings, which will help you to get familiarized with the terminologies related to various phobias, and at the same time, will increase your knowledge about them.
A phobia can be defined as an aberrant and intense fear of an object or situation, that poses little or no actual danger. Usually, a phobia is considered similar to a normal fear, but it is the extent to which a person is affected, that determines whether that fear has become a phobia. The most common fears or phobias that people usually suffer from include heights, darkness, snakes, insects, closed-in places, etc.
Though your phobia can be an irrational fear for others, a single thought of that object or situation can actually make you anxious, and if in case you are exposed to that situation, the terror is automatic and overwhelming. The experience can be so scary or nerve-wracking, that you may go to any extent of avoiding it, and would eventually end up changing your lifestyle too.
Tip : Learn To Calm Down Quickly
When youre afraid or anxious, you experience a variety of uncomfortable physical symptoms, such as a racing heart and a suffocating feeling. These physical sensations can be frightening themselvesand a large part of what makes your phobia so distressing. However, by learning how to calm yourself down quickly, you can become more confident in your ability to tolerate uncomfortable sensations and face your fears.
Perform a simple deep breathing exercise. When youre anxious, you tend to take quick, shallow breaths , which actually adds to the physical feelings of anxiety. By breathing deeply from the abdomen, you can reverse these physical sensations and feel less tense, less short of breath, and less anxious. Practice when youre feeling calm until youre familiar and comfortable with the exercise.
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