Phobia refers to an anxiety disorder that is characterized by the extreme fear (usually irrational) of something. There are many phobias, and they are differentiated based on the specific object of the extreme fear – that is, the object that triggers the extreme and uncontrollable fear or that which makes someone unable to control his or her emotions and thus exhibit feelings of anxiety and panic. Some commonly known phobias are hydrophobia or fear of water, arachnophobia or fear of spiders, claustrophobia or fear of confined/enclosed spaces, and acrophobia or fear of heights. These actually belong to the ‘specific phobia’ classification, one of the three types of phobias as determined by medical experts and which are discussed in greater detail below.
Social Phobia
This type of phobia is also known as social anxiety phobia. This is the fear of being embarrassed in front of many people. This is due to a person's low self-esteem. A person with social phobia considers himself unworthy of being recognized by others because he or she thinks that he or she is inept. Therefore, someone with social phobia is usually afraid to eat in public or go to parties alone.
Social phobia is subdivided into two types: the generalized social phobia and the specific social phobia.
Generalized social phobia refers to fear of all or almost all social situations or social interaction – not because the person is afraid of other people but because he or she is afraid of being embarrassed or humiliated. Specific social phobia, on the other hand, refers to fear of certain social situations (or certain socially embarrassing situations, to be more precise) such as losing one's privacy or reputation. For instance, a person who is afraid that someone is watching him or her in his or her private moments (voiding) will experience psychosomatic symptoms like difficulty of urinating. Others who have social phobia, on the other hand, will eventually be unable to function socially because of their severe fear of being rejected.
Agoraphobia
The second major classification of phobias is known as agoraphobia. Agoraphobia is actually ‘phobia of agora’.
Agora is a term that has Greek origins. In ancient times, it referred to an open place where citizens assembled to discuss politics and listen to speeches. Afterwards, the term was used to refer to the Greek marketplace where merchants sold various goods. In both senses of the term, however, the agora always referred to an open place that is full of people. The etymology of the term ‘agoraphobia’, therefore, indicates that agoraphobia is extreme fear of open and crowded places.
Agoraphobia, however, is not as straightforward as it seems. People who suffer from agoraphobia are actually people who are extremely afraid of experiencing a panic attack while they are in a public and crowded place. They think it would be very embarrassing to have a panic attack in such a place; furthermore, it would be very difficult to get away from a public and crowded place at the onset of a panic attack. As a solution, people with agoraphobia stay in safe places – usually their homes – and simply avoid the public and crowded places (the agora). Thus, people with agoraphobia usually prefer staying at home where they feel safe and avoid traveling and going out as much as possible.
Specific Phobia
This type of phobia is a fear for a specific object or event. Specific phobias can be further classified into various subtypes. The following are some of the major subtypes of specific phobias:
Phobias of specific situations: Situational phobias refer to excessive fears that are triggered by specific and (potentially) traumatic situations. Some people, for instance, are intensely afraid of flying, and this extreme fear of flying is known as pteromerhanophobia or aviophobia. Amaxophobia, on the other hand, refers to fear of riding in an automobile. There are also people who are afraid of traveling by road, and this fear is known as hodophobia. Those who are extremely afraid of being alone or being on their own, on the other hand, have isolophobia.
Phobias of specific environmental events: The objects of these specific phobias are environmental events. Some people, for instance, have tonitrophobia and are unreasonably afraid of thunder. There are also people who are extremely afraid of thunder and lightning, and they have what is known to be astraphobia. Furthermore, some people are intensely afraid of hurricanes and tornadoes; they have what is formally known as lilapsophobia. People who are extremely afraid of rain, on the other hand, have ombrophobia.
Phobias of animals and insects: In this subtype, the objects of intense fear of some or all animals and insects. Intense fear of animals, in general, is known as zoophobia. Intense but generalized fear of insects, on the other hand, is known as insectophobia.
Some people, however, are afraid only of specific animals or insects. There are people who are unreasonably afraid of mice, for instance, and this type of animal phobia is known as suriphobia. Some people, on the other hand, are extremely afraid of bees, and this type of insect phobia is known as melissophobia.
The objects of animal/insect phobias are various. Most people are afraid of snakes, for instance. However, when someone's fear of snakes has become so unreasonable and intense, this person may already have a phobia of snakes or ophidiophobia. There are also people who are irrationally and intensely afraid of common household pets like dogs (cynophobia), cats (elurophobia), birds (ornithophobia), and fish (ichthyophobia).
Phobias of injury and medical procedures: Most people are afraid of blood, getting an injection, getting injured, and undergoing medical procedures. In some people, however, these fears become so unreasonable and intense that they become insurmountable and thus become a hindrance to obtaining proper medical attention. Their fear is no longer normal, in other words, and has turned into specific phobias.
Some of the specific phobias that belong to this subtype are the phobia of injection (trypanophobia), the phobia of injury (traumatophobia), the phobia of needles or objects with sharp points (aichmophobia), the phobia of dental surgical procedures (odontophobia), the phobia of operation or surgery (tomophobia), and the phobia of blood (hematophobia).
Others: All other phobias with specific objects (i.e. specific phobias) that do not belong to the above mentioned subtypes belong to the “other” classification. The objects of these phobias are extremely varied and are not easily categorized or classified into specific subtypes.
For instance, people who are obsessed by their extreme fear of death have what is known to be necrophobia. People who are intensely afraid of clowns, on the other hand, have coulrophobia. People who have mysophobia, meanwhile, are extremely afraid of germs. Some suffer from an extreme fear of numbers (arithmophobia), while some are intensely afraid of written characters (graphophobia).
There are lots of other known specific phobias, and discussing all of them in one article is simply not possible.
Specific phobias are the most common type of phobias. A specific phobia usually starts from childhood up to the adolescent stage. The usual phobias in children are phobias of animals and insects. Situational phobias, on the other hand, tend to be more common in adults than in children.
By TTS Holistic Counselor Mehdi Jaffari
|
