What Are The Top 10 Phobias
We all have things we fear snakes and hedgehogs are mine. Most of the time these fears do not impact on our daily lives but if they do then it may be time for some for a short course in behaviour therapy. The top ten phobias include:
1. Arachnophobia: The fear of spiders. This phobia tends to affect women more than men.
2. Ophidiophobia: The fear of snakes.
3. Acrophobia: The fear of heights.
4. Agoraphobia: The fear of situations in which escape is difficult. This may include crowded areas, open spaces, or situations that are likely to trigger a panic attack. People will begin avoiding these trigger events, sometimes to the point that they cease leaving their home. Approximately one third of people with panic disorder develop agoraphobia.
5. Cynophobia: The fear of dogs. This phobia is often associated with specific personal experiences, such as being bitten by a dog during childhood.
6. Astraphobia: The fear of thunder and lightning.
7. Trypanophobia: The fear of injections. Like many phobias, this fear often goes untreated because people avoid the triggering object and situation.
8. Social Phobias: The fear of social situations. In many cases, these phobias can become so severe that people avoid events, places, and people that are likely to trigger an anxiety attack.
9. Pteromerhanophobia: The fear of flying. Often treated using exposure therapy, in which the client is gradually and progressively introduced to flying.
Reference: psychology.about.com
System Desensitization Treatment For Ophidiophobia Or Fear Of Snakes
This is one of the viable treatments used to bring the manifestations in control. The specialist would contemplate the level of dread in the individual by making him go up against a toy snake, a genuine snake or pictures of snakes in a safe domain. CBT treatment for ophidiophobia or fear of snakes rotates around desensitizing or debilitating the dread by normal presentation to the frightful subject.
Close by this, the advisor additionally can instruct diverse unwinding routes, for example, breathing activities, mental visualization practice and meditation to the individual. The individual needs to utilize these unwinding methods when presented to the frightful subject, and acquire the dread control. At times, the advisor likewise can utilize mesmerizing to help the unwinding.
Professional Help For The Fear Of Snakes: Available Options
Consider reaching out to a therapist for help with your phobia. The most common treatments are based on cognitive behavioral therapy techniques. Hypnotherapy and neuro-linguistic programming are also used. Most therapists encourage you to talk about your innate fears and your reasons for them while observing your composure. Through this, they find ways to break the pattern of your thought process.
Many mental health professionals use exposure therapies to help people work through their fears. One such technique is systematic desensitization, considered one of the most effective and efficient methods of treating ophidiophobia. It involves gradually exposing someone to what they are afraid of, so they become desensitized and no longer fear it.
It sounds simple, but it needs to be done very methodically and by a trusted mental health professional to prevent undue trauma. However, there is no one-size-fits-all solution.
Ophidiophobia: The Fear Of Snakes
I think of snakes Kaa from the Jungle Book leaps out at me. Hes a cartoon character in a childrens movie, yet terrifying and menacing. Or I think about Cobras, Pythons, and Boa Constrictorsall snakes with the power to be lethal. There are also snakes that are harmless to humans, such as Garter snakes. However, no snake is harmless for those suffering from ophidiophobiajust a glimpse of any snake can elicit sheer terror.
Ophidiophobia can be defined as the abnormal or irrational fear of snakes. Though not specifically designated in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , Ophidiophobia is usually grouped under diagnosis F40.218Other Animal Type Phobia.
Talking Treatments For Snakephobia
Talking treatments or talking therapies, which include counselling, might be very effective at treating fear of snakes or Snakephobia. Talking therapies are very laid back treatments and physically non intrusive which involve talking to a highly trained and proficient professional about your thoughts, feelings and behaviour. There are many different types of talking therapy, but they all aim to:
- help you recognise unhelpful patterns in the way you think or act, and find ways to change them .
- help you resolve complicated feelings, or find ways to live with them
- help you make sense of things and understand yourself better
- give you a safe time and place to talk to someone who wont judge you
Talking therapies are in most cases the same as counselling, therapy, psychotherapy, psychological therapy, talking treatment. There is usually a very little difference between whats meant when talking about any of these.
Descriptive Statistics And Effect Of Age And Gender
The score distribution on both the SNAQ-12 CZ and SPQ-12 CZ is non-normal as evidenced by the Shapiro Wilk test . The mean score on the SNAQ-12 CZ and SPQ-12 CZ were slightly lower than those reported by Zsido et al. . This might be due to the three, respectively five, different items. However, even when we recalculated the mean score using items from the Hungarian SNAQ-12 and SPQ-12 on our data set, these were again slightly lower than in the original study . This could be explained by the fact that the total scores on the full scales were also lower compared to the study by Zsido et al. . Moreover, our sample included a higher proportion of biology students who generally score lower on these scales .
Why Are People Afraid Of Snakes
Some researchers believe that the fear of snakes is programmed into the human brain as a survival instinct.6 According to research, its a universal fear that occurs in almost all countries and cultures around the world.1,2
While having some level of fear towards snakes is normal, many people who develop ophidiophobia describe having had negative encounters with snakes that intensified their fears.2 According to research on the different kinds of life experiences that can lead to phobias, there may be three pathways that make a person more likely to develop a phobia.7
The three pathways that make a person more likely to develop a phobia are:
Everything You Need To Know About Ophidiophobia
Disliking something is very different from a phobia. If the mere thought of a subject or a discussion around it evokes feelings of anxiety and dread, it can be termed as phobia. The term ophidiophobia comes from ophis which means snake and phobia which means fear. Ophidiophobia ranks at number two among all phobias.
One in ten people have some kind of fear of snakes. Which means youre not alone.
Ophidiophobia is also the most common phobia among all herpetophobia . An article in The New York Times states that the widespread fear of snakes is perceptual and could be blamed on the pulvinar, a region in our brain. In other words, we have been conditioned evolutionarily to be afraid of snakes or similar forms.
Learning To Cope With Ophidiophobia
All of the above in no way guarantees that your anxiety or phobia will go away completely. What it means is that you wont feel the same levels of anxiety as before and that you will have better control in managing your fear of snakes when it does arise.
A fear of snakes is very common, but is shouldnt undermine you. By dealing with it, either by seeking professional help or asking for support from close family and friends, you can find ways to reduce your anxiety and lessen your fears.
You can also focus on positive thoughts or ask a trusted family member to talk you through an anxiety attack.
Reducing your fear from something that disrupts your life to something that causes only slight discomfort is more than half the battle.
Learning to manage your ophidiophobia can go a long way in leading a normal life. The next time you watch Jungle Book and listen to Kaa singing Trust in Me, take a deep breath, apply the techniques of systematic desensitization and sing right along.
Causes Of Ophidiophobia Or Fear Of Snakes
Ignorance and absence of training is a standout amongst the most widely recognized causes why people fear snakes. Early trauma can cause ophidiophobia or fear of snakes. Seeing or witnessing an incident wherein someone else, a close companion or relative was hissed at, or bitten by a snake can likewise prompt the dread of snakes. Media reports and TV shows can likewise persuade that snakes are constantly perilous prompting ophidiophobia or fear of snakes.
A few causes known to have developed 8. Astraphobia or Fear of Thunder and Lightning in individuals are:
Unlocking The Psychology Of Snake And Spider Phobias
- Date:
- University of Queensland
- Summary:
- Researchers have unlocked new evidence that could help them get to the bottom of our most common phobias and their causes. Hundreds of thousands of people count snakes and spiders among their fears, and while scientists have previously assumed we possess an evolutionary predisposition to fear the unpopular animals, new research seem to indicate otherwise.
University of Queensland researchers have unlocked new evidence that could help them get to the bottom of our most common phobias and their causes.
Hundreds of thousands of people count snakes and spiders among their fears, and while scientists have previously assumed we possess an evolutionary predisposition to fear the unpopular animals, researchers at UQ’s School of Psychology may have proved otherwise.
According to Dr Helena Purkis, the results of the UQ study could provide an unprecedented insight into just why the creepy creatures are so widely feared.
Previous research shows we react differently to snakes and spiders than to other stimuli, such as flowers or mushrooms, or even other dangerous animals.or cars and guns, which are also much more dangerous, Dr Purkis said.
has been explained by saying that people are predisposed by evolution to fear certain things, such as snakes and spiders, that would have been dangerous to our ancestors.
people who are willing to have their pets photographed for use as experimental stimuli.
Story Source:
Diagnosing And Treating Ophidiophobia
Fear of snakes is not abnormal but the fear that happens with ophidiophobia is far more intense. Only a mental health professional can determine if your fear is of phobic proportions and help you determine the correct treatment plan to aid you in mitigating the symptoms. Cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure therapy are the best options for treatment, because they both directly address your fear by slowly helping you to change your perception, actions and response to snakes.
Why Am I Scared Of Snakes
Fear of snakes, along with fear of spiders, is an interesting phobia. The fact is, human beings can become phobic of anything. All it needs is high anxiety paired with an object weve treated people for phobias of everything from buttons to balloons.
However, studies have shown that its easier to make people phobic of snakes and spiders than anything else. So it seems that evolution has coded the snake/spider pattern into our DNA because these animals were such a threat to us for so long.
So relax, your phobia of snakes is not unusual, or irrational. It is just unpleasant and unnecessary.
Hypnotherapy Is Effective In Helping Overcome Ophidiophobia Or Fear Of Snakes
Hypnotherapy is a good treatment option for ophidiophobia or fear of snakes. Hypnotherapy can be an option for a few people. Working with a professional therapist gives the individual the chance to do a reversal and reinvent his or her reasoning about snakes. This is not generally the best alternative, since it includes surrendering some level of control to the specialist while in a daze.
Prevention Of Ophidiophobia Or Fear Of Snakes
Prevention of ophidiophobia or fear of snakes is not possible. If you have nonsensical feelings of trepidation, consider getting psychological help, particularly in the event that you have youngsters. In spite of the fact that hereditary qualities likely play a part in the improvement of fears, repeatedly observing another persons phobic response can trigger a fear in youngsters. By managing your own particular feelings of trepidation, you will not not pass them on to your youngsters.
Why We Fear Snakes
04 March 2008
Fear of snakes is one of the most common phobias, yet many people have never seen a snake in person. So how is this fear generated?
New research suggests humans have evolved an innate tendency to sense snakes and spiders, too and to learn to fear them.
Psychologists found that both adults and children could detect images of snakes among a variety of non-threatening objects more quickly than they could pinpoint frogs, flowers or caterpillars. The researchers think this ability helped humans survive in the wild.
“The idea is that throughout evolutionary history, humans that learned quickly to fear snakes would have been at an advantage to survive and reproduce,” said Vanessa LoBue, a post-doctoral fellow in psychology at the University of Virginia. “Humans who detected the presence of snakes very quickly would have been more likely to pass on their genes.”
Previously, anthropologists have suggested the need to notice snakes in the wild may have led early primates to develop better vision and larger brains.
Eew!
The researchers were inspired to investigate the fear of snakes when they thought about how universally people dislike the slithering legless lizards.
“This feeling is really common,” LoBue told LiveScience. “We dont see snakes all the time. There’s really no reason for this overwhelming disgust or hatred of snakes.”
LoBue’s collaborator, Judy DeLoache, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, happens to be petrified of snakes.
How Do You Get Rid Of Ophidiophobia
Phobia like ophidiophobia easily occurs in a normal human being from the genetic factor. Snake fear is an obvious feeling in a human being for survival. Snake phobia is also one of the most common phobias in the world. Sometimes, you even dont know how you came to develop snake phobia but it has impinged in your nervous system.
Almost every phobia can be curable with the psychotherapies like Exposure therapy.Exposure therapy is psychotherapy in which you exposure to the fearful object slowly. A counsellor might give you snake toys firstly, advisea you to watch some movies related to the snake, take you to the zoo where there is no harm to you and at last, you may get a chance to overcome your fear.
Some specialist involves just a 3/4 hour session of live exposure and you can be cured forever. The magic of social science can do wonders in your life. Sometimes people take some time to cure themselves other than taking counselling session at one go.
The second most common treatment option is Cognitive Behavior therapy, there is some stress in our brain that causes harm in our mind because of snakes, these are some events that cause pain CBT tries to change the emotion from negative to positive for the snake. CBT has brilliant numbers to cure the ophidiophobic person.
Ophidiophobia Or Fear Of Snakes Can Also Be Treated By Energy Psychology
Energy psychology is also a treatment option. Another treatment alternative for individuals living with ophidiophobia or fear of snakes is energy psychology. This way to deal with fears has the benefit of giving results quite rapidly. The client figures out how to change his or her present practices to more positive ones. The individuals thought patterns likewise develop through this procedure.
Relaxation Methods In Treating Ophidiophobia Or Fear Of Snakes
These incorporate counting and positive affirmations, controlled breathing, and meditation when confronted with pictures of snakes. The best part about relaxation methods for treating ophidiophobia or fear of snakes is that one can tailor their own particular solutions and help oneself conquer the dread of snakes.
Ophidiophobia Fear Of Snakes: Symptoms And Treatment Options
A fear of snakes is a common phobia but it should not be confused with the general fear of snakes that most of us experience from time to time. When classified as a phobia the fear goes much deeper. To the point where the Ophodiophobe avoids being in a situation or a place where there is even a remote possibility of encountering a snake.
The cause may be difficult to establish.
Some say its an inbuilt fear that we humans are born with and part of our brains natural fight or flight process. We think its more likelt to be the result of some form of historical negative experience or behaviours that have been picked up from our peers or educators as we progress along the lifeline. The media also play a part in how we perceive snakes with news reports and films making them out to be evil, deadly killers.
Facing My Fear Of Snakes
Facing My Fear of Snakes Article by Andrea Gordon of The Toronto Star Family Issues…
Reptilia has designed a course that is personalized to match the unique differences in every individuals personal phobia. We create a safe, pressure-free environment for those who wish to learn to control their fear.
The course takes place over four sessions an hour a piece. There are no surprises, and your teachers will pace themselves based on your level of comfort. In the beginning we start by familiarizing you with the subject of your fear; busting common myths and answering your questions. You will learn how to avoid the animals and what to do in situations if you encounter them. As you become increasing more comfortable we bring out pictures and artefacts such as skins and bones for you to interact with. The next step is observing the animals in their exhibits, and learning why they behave the way that they do.
Eventually the zookeepers will go in exhibits with animals to show how they behave and react to a foreign presence or what they do when threatened. Ultimately by the end of the course we hope that you will be able to interact with the subject of your fear with a much different perspective than the one you started out with!
You Can Ease Away Your Fear Of Snakes Surprisingly Quickly With Hypnosis
If you suffer from a phobia, or fear of snakes, you probably find it impossible to imagine being comfortable near a snake.
Even the idea of a snake can be enough to strike terror into many snake phobics.
For years, people have thought that to get rid of a phobia, you have to go near the feared animal until you get used to it – a process most people simply refuse to go through.
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- 0:05 What Is Ophidiophobia?
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Some symptoms people with ophidiophobia exhibit include:
- Fear of snake encounters
- Fear of snakes on television
- Fear of locations where snakes may be present
Any of these fears might result in:
- Anxiety attacks
- Increased heart rate
Another Cause Of Ophidiophobia Or Fear Of Snakes Is Traumatic Circumstance Including Snakes
Any past experience including snakes, for example, wind chomps or a murmur from snake, that was traumatic and annoying, can likewise make a man ophidiophobic. It can likewise be a result of seeing another person confronting a terrifying circumstance with snakes. The various shows on TV and internet showing snakes and perils related to snakes can likewise be another cause for ophidiophobia or fear of snakes.
Evolutionary Influences On Pavlovian Fear Conditioning
In the natural environment, it is not any sound or smell that is likely to warn a potential prey of a lurking predator, but sound or smells produced or emitted by the predator itself. Such systematic ecological relationships between the CS and the US could be used by evolution to facilitate fear conditioning to stimuli that have provided recurrent threats in mammalian evolutionary history. Thus, the product of the evolutionary processes already discussed need not necessarily be an innate snake fear; it could be an evolved predisposition to very easily associate fear with snakes and similar threats.
These demonstrations suggest that evolution, rather than programming innate fears to specific stimuli, has generated predispositions to easily associate fear and avoidance to stimuli that are fear-relevant from an evolutionary perspective. Thus, not only are snakes the prototypical phobic stimulus, but phobias result from conditioning to a large but nonrandom set of situations that have in common that they involve some degree of threat , and more from an evolutionary than a contemporary perspective.
Gerald Goldstein, Michel Hersen, in, 2000
Origins Of Common Fears: A Review
- edited by Mitch Brown
Whether you cower while looking down from great heights or fear looking up to the stormy skies, whether you fear the bite of a fat venomous snake or fear the bite-sized fattening snacks, your fears must have had an origin, they must have come from somewhere. But where? Join me as I lead a tour of our collective psyches to discover the origins of our common fears in the major psychological theories of the last century.
Why Are We Afraid?
To explain how this theory works, I first need to define a few terms. A stimulus is a sensory object or event that evokes a responsesome kind of change in the organism . In some cases, the relationship between a stimulus and a response is reflexive/unlearned . For instance, a bite evokes fear and pain reflexively. In other cases, the association is learned or conditioned. One way this learning occurs, is through classical conditioning. In classical conditioning, we learn to associate a new stimulus with an unconditioned one, usually through repeated pairings of the two.
Image by Arash Emamzadeh.
Evolutionary psychology
What Are The Symptoms Of Ophidiophobia
If you have a deep fear of snakes, you may experience one or more symptoms when you come near them, think about them, or engage with media containing snakes.
For example, if your co-worker discusses their pet ball python in the break room, you may have one or more of the following reactions:
- dizziness or lightheadedness
- difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
- trembling and shaking
These symptoms may worsen as you get physically closer to a snake or as the time of a proposed snake interaction grows closer to happening.
Signs And Symptoms Of Ophidiophobia Or Fear Of Snakes
Ophidiophobia or fear of snakes can be mild or severe. In the event that you have mild ophidiophobia or fear of snakes, then you encounter outrageous dread just when you really witness huge and harmful snakes. In the event that it is an extreme case then even little and tame snakes or even pictures of snakes can bring about the anxiety quite severely and this is a major symptom of ophidiophobia or fear of snakes. Some of the common symptoms that can occur in children as well as adults are listed below:
- Intense and diligent dread created by the genuine experience or only a reckoning of experiencing a snake.
- Screaming and crying when confronted with snake, or even a photo of snake is a symptom of ophidiophobia or fear of snakes.
- Complete avoidance of places where snakes may be seen, for example, zoo.
- Entirely avoiding the activities such as camping, hiking or swimming in lakes because of the dread to discover snakes.
- Panic attacks when confronted with anything connected with snakes.
- Physical signs of ophidiophobia or fear of snakes, for example, trembling, sweating and damp hands, dry mouth, deadness in appendages, trouble in breathing, wooziness or swooning, dashing pulse, stomach uneasiness and muscle pressure.
When you Should Visit a Specialist for Ophidiophobia or Fear of Snakes?
How To Get Over Your Fear Of Snakes
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In the United States, approximately one-third of the adult population suffers from an irrational fear of snakes.XResearch source Whether this fear is the result of a personal experience, or the result of misinformation that has been spread through popular media and culture, “ophidiophobia” nonetheless remains one of the most common phobias amongst adults.