This page will help you to understand your phobias. I will start by explaining different types of phobias and outline what is happening in your brain to produce such a frightening response.
In order to get rid of these fears, you first must understand what is happening.
Phobias fall into three categories:
- Social Phobia is already covered in depth here
- Agoraphobia is covered in depth here
- This page is about Specific Phobias
10 Phobia Facts You Need to Know:
- Fear on overdrive: Phobias are intense, irrational fears of specific objects, situations, or activities. They trigger anxiety and avoidance behaviours.
- Beyond spiders and heights: Phobias come in all shapes and sizes, from common ones like spiders and heights to less familiar ones like fear of numbers (arithmophobia) or public speaking (glossophobia).
- Not just in your head: While psychological factors play a role, genetics and brain chemistry can also contribute to phobias.
- Avoidance traps you: Skipping triggers might feel safer in the short term, but it strengthens the fear and limits your life in the long run.
- Escape the cycle: Facing your fears gradually, with proper support, is critical to overcoming a phobia. Therapy (CBT) can be a powerful tool.
- Relaxation is your friend: Techniques like deep breathing, meditation, and mindfulness can help manage anxiety and calm your fight-or-flight response.
- Self-care matters: Prioritize healthy habits like sleep, exercise, and a balanced diet to boost your overall well-being and resilience against anxiety.
- You’re not alone: Millions of people live with phobias. Connecting with others who understand can offer encouragement and support.
- Help is available: Don’t suffer in silence. Seek professional help if your phobia significantly impacts your life. Therapists and support groups can guide you on your journey.
- Progress, not perfection: Overcoming a phobia takes time and effort. Celebrate small victories, and remember, even tiny steps forward are a win.
Specific Phobias
Refers to a particular type of condition where you experience extreme fear when you are either thinking about or are in the presence of;
- a particular animal group
- blood, injection or injury
- a situation
- a particular environment, or
- other triggers
Common phobias include
- Arachnophobia, fear of spiders
- Acrophobia, fear of heights
- Trypanophobia fear of injections
- Ophidiophobia, fear of snakes
- Mysophobia fear of germs or dirt
- Pteromerhanophobia fear of flying
- Cynophobia, fear of dogs
Symptoms
When you are in the presence of or even thinking about whatever triggers your fear, you will experience anxiety symptoms. These symptoms include
- Heart palpitations
- Sweating
- Shaking
- Extreme fear
- Breathing changes
Symptoms are covered in more depth here. You experience these symptoms because your brain has been taught that the stimulus threatens you.
What causes phobias?
In some cases, we can be taught to be afraid of something when we are children. For example, if we grew up in a home where a parent was afraid of spiders or insects, this may have contributed to a fear reaction over time.
How?
If the parent were afraid of spiders, we would have seen them reacting with fear in the presence of a spider. If the parent had a phobia, we might even have seen them “check” for spiders when entering a room or avoid places where they believed they might encounter a spider.
This may be the beginning of our fear. We react to how other people are feeling. If someone is stressed around us, we can feel that stress. As a child, we look to our parents to learn from them, behave in certain situations, and not touch hot stoves as they can burn us. We pick up and mimic what they do to learn.
We may well have learned to react to spiders with fear.
If you have a needle phobia and a parent who was overly concerned when you received a jag as a child, you may have been taught by the parent (although they do not mean to do this) that getting an injection was something to be afraid of.
You may have had an actual incident before developing a phobia. For example, you may have been bitten by a dog and understandably became cautious around them afterwards. If you could not relax again and perhaps avoided places where you suspected you might encounter a dog, you may have been further teaching your brain to be afraid of dogs.
Our brain pays careful attention to anything that may cause us harm. Injury or pain. It pays attention to anything that may be a threat to us. It does this to protect us the next time we encounter something that may threaten us. It matches the stimulus, for example, the spider, needles, heights, and dogs, with the feeling created in your body – fear.
The next time you encounter, whatever it is that you are afraid of, your brain provides the feeling of fear – a stress response – to help you get out of danger.
What you are afraid of may not represent a real danger or threat and can start to interfere with your daily.
If your phobia is causing you problems, you can teach your brain to relax again and eliminate your fears.