Phobias: Fear and Phobias Let Essays

Submitted By yuliya14
Words: 1109
Pages: 5
Open Document
Yuliya Makar
English 1010
Explaining a concept
10.20.14

PHOBIAS Let just imagine a minute in a cozy room, a short dip in the ocean, a cute animal twenty feet away, a friendly hug from a family member, a nice walk in the library, a banana with a morning breakfast. All of the aforementioned situations seem like friendly, innocuous, and overall positive scenarios. For many people, however, these circumstances can lead to extreme panic, irregular heartbeats, and even severe mental disorders. Although on the surface phobias can sometimes seem like silly, trivial fears that only some people acquire, phobias are prevalent in all sorts of societies around the world and the consequences that can arise from the workings of phobias can cause extreme discomfort and dire consequences for those who must suffer through them. Though phobias generally are defined conceptually as an “irrational fear,” they are far from irrational to those who deal with them. At the time that the fear or discomfort strikes its victim, nothing else in the world matters except for getting through or away from the unbelievably scary trigger. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders extends the conceptualization of phobias to say that they can sincerely affect multiple facets of peoples’ lives, causing some to “avoid” or alter their “daily routine”. Many people believe that phobias are not particularly widespread, yet it has been documented by the RCP (Royal College of Psychiatrists) that at least 10% of people deal with one or more significantly problematic phobias during their lifetime. Unfortunately, the true statistic is probably much greater than that. Most of those who suffer from phobias are embarrassed to admit that they are scared of certain things, which can lead to participant bias and selective responses in scientific studies on the subject. I know that I would be a bit embarrassed to admit that I suffer from kathisophobia (fear of sitting down) or leukophobia (fear of white color), so it is simple to understand why the statistics may be skewed. Despite the potential confounding variables in studying phobias and their prevalence, it is inevitably true that phobias affect people from all different areas of the world. Though it is hard to pin down exactly what causes a specific phobia, there certainly are general rules we can apply to better understand the triggers that lead to these fears. Usually, phobias arise from previous events in a person’s life; though one may be more prone to a certain phobia due to genetics, phobias are more often originated at specific events. Phobias can develop actively or passively. In other words, the phobia can either arise from an active encounter one has with the stimulus, or it can emanate from simply hearing or listening to the media’s or fellow humans’ horror stories. For example, my cousin’s extreme cynophobia (fear of dogs) originated from a horrific encounter in which a German Shepherd bit him, whereas my father’s aviophobia (fear of flying) developed progressively as he read blogs about certain plane crashes and other people’s fears about traveling in an aircraft. Regardless of how they develop, phobias can cause serious problems for those who struggle with them. Phobia rates differ drastically when we are talking about different types of people in varying cultures around the Earth. Surprisingly, women are at least twice more likely than men to develop phobias during a lifetime. Though based predominantly on extrapolated data, social phobias – one of the many subgroups of the anxiety disorder — seem to be more common in the Americas (North, Central and South) than in European and Asian countries. No matter where or when a person experiences a phobia, he or she is exposed to a very dangerous and serious anxiety disorder that can be unbelievably painful. Although diagnosing phobias is ultimately subjective (even if by a trained psychologist or
Show More

Related Documents: Phobias: Fear and Phobias Let Essays

Concepts: Phobia and Memory Essay examples

Phobia, Memory, and Sleep By: Daniel Lopez One, of my concepts that I will be writing about is phobia. Phobia is defined as having an extreme or irrational fear of something. There are mild irrational fears that don’t really interfere with a person’s ability to function, which is really common. There are many people who are afraid of certain animals, things, and fear certain places as well. Many people have to cope with phobia and the way they get overwhelmed and with anxiety. The way…

Words 1109 - Pages 5

Christopher Burkett's Essay: Isolophobia

After reading Christopher Burkett’s phobia draft, many significant elements, such as the beginning and rising actions, in addition to the climax, immediately became clear to me. The fear itself, isolophobia, was stated directly in the first line of his story, as well as a definition that provided the reader with some background knowledge. Burkett did not necessarily need to include this though, because his draft did a more than substantial job at explaining what isolophobia is and what it means to…

Words 908 - Pages 4

Psychology paper 2

The Fear of Irrational Fears People experience fear every day. Sometimes people understand that their fears are irrational but are unable to conquer them. Many people wonder why they can't get over their fears, despite the fact that they are irrational. Observations and Research support several reasons why irrational fears exist. The observations had been conducted around three participants. The first participant with the fear of elevators, the next with the fear of bridges, and the final participant…

Words 1376 - Pages 6

Essay on Fear: Brain and Strongest Emotions

Fear My Questions: What is fear? Is it a trait, behavior, or an emotion? In my opinion, it is an emotion that is in a part of a brain that makes us behave uncontrollably to a certain extent if we encounter whatever our fears are. In this research of mine, I want to find out the true meaning of fear and how us humans face it, or control it. Depending on how serious your fear is, fears are also known has phobias. Phobias are types of fears for certain struggles people face. Some are highly serious…

Words 387 - Pages 2

A War of the Mind Essay

is called anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorder is general term for the many different forms and variations of common psychiatric disorders. The term anxiety disorder can be divided into three different disorders, those being panic disorders, social phobia, and generalized anxiety disorder. ("Anxiety and depression" ) Each one of these is different from the other and must be dealt with differently as well. General anxiety disorder is characterized by extreme worry. The amount of worry that the individual…

Words 1231 - Pages 5

Anxiety Essay Paper

symptoms of other problems. For instance, there’s generalized anxiety disorder which a person is stressed and anxious about multiple things this can occur for a period of six months or more. There’s also social or specific phobia. Social phobia is occurring when a person has a fear of being confronted, humiliated, or embarrassed and…

Words 545 - Pages 3

public speaking anxiety12 Essay

Transmittal i Executive Summary iv Introduction 1 Overcoming Fear of Public Speaking 2 Preparation 7 Know your Audience 8 Creating an Outline 11 Evaluate the Outline 11 Strategies for Presenting 12 General Tips 13 Visual Aids 13 Conclusion 16 References 17 Executive Summary Glossophobia is the fear of speaking in public settings. People with an anxiousness of public speaking likely either exhibit the phobia or similar symptoms related to the phobia. The purpose of this report is to find and understand…

Words 5007 - Pages 21

The Crucible Fear Analysis

Fear From a tiny skip in a heartbeat to extreme phobias, fear has been doing damage to the human race since the beginning of time. The earliest recorded evidence of fear is in The Bible, when the serpent convinced Eve to taste the fruit that God had forbidden Adam and Eve to partake of in the Garden of Eden. The woman saw how beautiful the tree was and how good its fruit would be to eat and she thought how wonderful it would be to become wise. So she took some of the fruit and ate…

Words 1690 - Pages 7

Social Psychology Essay

Social Psychology How people influence one another We have a bio need for social interaction Social isolation activates areas of cingulate cortex (also associated w/ physical pain) We seek to conform to a group (evolutionarily) Social Facilitation: The presence of others enhances our performance 1897 – 1st social psych experiment – bicyclist’s bike faster when racing others rather than the clock Social Disruption: Presence of others worsens performance (usually when task is difficult Attribution…

Words 2620 - Pages 11

Emergency Situations

or doesn't fit with the situation. Kids need to know what to do during a natural disaster too. In your area, you might be more prone to one disaster or another. You should never tell children not to be afraid and never dismiss their feelings of fear. Let the child know it's okay to be scared and be honest about the situation. It helps when you have a disaster relief plan in your family. Make sure the kids know what to do during an emergency situation. If there's a tornado warning, they need to know…

Words 615 - Pages 3