4.1.4b - Phobias

Tuesday 16th January ‘24

How is it defined?

An extreme or irrational fear of an extreme situation.
A group of mental disorders characterised by high levels of anxiety in response to a particular stimulus or group of stimuli. The anxiety interferes with normal living.
Depression, phobia and OCD are 3 of the most common mental disorders.
Examples: vestiphobia - fear of clothing; astraphobia - fear of thunder; belonephobia - sharp object; pogonophobia - fear of beards; ichthyophobia - fear of fish; cynophobia - fear of dogs.

Phobias are anxiety disorders which interfere with daily living.
- It is an instance of irrational fear that produces a conscious avoidance of the feared object or situation.
- Responses: panic, avoidance, failure to function,
DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th Edition)
- Marked and persistent fear of a specific object and situation.
- Exposure to the phobic stimuus nearly always produces rapid anxety response.
- Fear of phobic object or situation is excessive.
- Phobic stimulus is either avoided or responded to with great anxiety.
- Phobic reactions interfere significantly with the individual’s working or social life, they are very distressed by the phobia.

Simple (specific) phobias - fear of a specific object in the environment, the most common type
- Subcategories
  - Animal phobias - eg arachnophobia
  - Injury phobias - eg haemotophobia
  - Situational phobias - eg aerophobia
  - Natural phobias - eg hydrophobia
Social phobias - feelings of anxiety in social situations, feeling of being judged.
- Subcategories
  - Performance - eg public speaking or eating at a restaurant.
  - Interaction - eg having to answer questions on an interview panel.
  - Generalised - eg mixing with others in a large crowd at a concert.
Agoraphobia - fear of public and open spaces so may suffer from anxiety and panic attacks.
- Can be caused by simple or social phobias. eg mysophobia (contamination) can lead to fear of open spaces.