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PHOBIAS
A phobia is an anxiety disorder in which you feel intense fear of a
particular object or situation, but know all the time that there is
no real danger.
The dictionary definition
of the word "Phobia" is "Fear" but, a better word
could be "Avoidance", as most phobia sufferers avoid the situations
or objects which they fear.
A phobia is an excessive
or unreasonable fear of an object, place or situation. Simple phobias
are fears of specific things such as insects, infections, flying. Agoraphobia
is a fear of being in places where one feels "trapped" or
unable to get help, such as in crowds, on a bus, or standing in a queue.
A social phobia is a marked fear
of social or performance situations.
Phobias are extremely common.
Sometimes they start in childhood for no apparent reason; sometimes
they emerge after a traumatic event; and sometimes the develop from
an attempt to make sense of an unexpected and intense anxiety
or panic (e.g. "I feel fearful,
therefore I must be afraid of something").
When the phobic person actually
encounters, or even anticipates being in the presence of the feared
object or situation, s/he experiences immediate anxiety. The physical
symptoms of anxiety may include a racing heart, shortness of breath,
sweating, chest or abdominal discomfort, trembling, etc. and the emotional
component involves an intense fear - of losing control, embarrassing
oneself, or passing out.
Commonly people try to escape,
and then to avoid the feared situation wherever possible. This may be
fairly easy if the feared object is rarely encountered (e.g. fear of
snakes) and avoidance will not therefore restrict the person's life
very much. At other times (e.g. agoraphobia, social phobia) avoiding
the feared situation limits their life severely. Escape and avoidance
also make the feared object/situation more frightening.
With some phobias the person
may have specific thoughts which attribute some threat to the feared
situation. This is particularly true for social phobia where there is
often a fear of being negatively evaluated by others, and for agoraphobia
when there may be a fear of collapsing and dying with no one around
to help, or of having a panic attack and making a fool of oneself in
front of other people.
With some phobias there may
be accompanying frightening thoughts (this plane might crash; I'm trapped;
I must get out). However with other phobias it is more difficult to
identify any specific thoughts which could be associated with the anxiety
(e.g. it is unlikely that a spider phobic is afraid of making a fool
of themselves in front of the spider). With these phobias the cause
seems to be explained more as a conditioned (learned) anxiety response
which has become associated with the feared object.
Read More About Phobias
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Web Site
News:
I am a psychiatrist with over 30 years’ experience of
working with agoraphobia and have written “Freedom From
Agoraphobia.” This is a program for overcoming agoraphobia
both for people who have the condition and for therapists.
In order to make its contents available to more people, I
shall be sending in the educational portions of this book
as articles free to subscribers to Phobics-Awareness.org.
Mark Eisenstadt, M.D.
Read More
Here
There are Thirteen articles now.
We would like to welcome Steve Woods to the
site, I am the Hypnotist, Chinosis Coach and joint Director
of Positive Thoughts based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.
I also spend a lot of time in Birmingham so have a business
base there, My qualifications are R.Hyp, R.Chi.C, S.N.H.S.
Dip(Hypnotherapy). I am a Member of the Academy of Hypnotic
Arts (M.A.H.A.).
Steve is going to help out with any Q&A you may have,
The Q&A will be on the
Forum
Under Hypnosis.
You can find Steve's site Here
New Book:
We though agoraphobics may be interested in this book.
Jack Madigan is, by many accounts, blessed. Thanks to his
legendary rock star father, he lives an enviable existence
in a once-glorious, but now crumbling, Boston town house with
his teenage son, Harlan. There's just one problem: Jack is
agoraphobic. While living on his dad's dwindling royalties
hasn't been easy, Jack and Harlan have bumbled along just
fine. Until the money runs out...and so does Jack's luck Read
More
click the banner below to visit
www.hypnoshop.com
Self Hypnosis is a powerful tool for making positive changes
within your life. Hypnosis has been used for centuries and
has been put to many great uses, helping millions of people
to stop smoking, lose weight, conquer fears and phobias, and
much more.
Relaxation Tapes & CD's
We are hoping to offer tapes and CD's very soon, The only
cost will be for postage and packing, We believe in trying
to keep the price as low as possible, You can find some CD's
on the forum
Storm Phobias
I know this time of year in the UK can be a worrying time
for people who suffer from storm phobias,
Especially thunder and lightning, I will be working on this
part of the site over the next few weeks, In the mean time
I've added a lightning detector so you can see where the storms
are, It refreshes every 60 seconds, You can find It Here
Also check out the Net Weather web site Here.
More about Storm Phobia Here
Books
The Driving Fear Program
The Driving Fear program is a self-help resource for those
with a fear of driving, or a driving related phobia such as
fear of highways or bridges. It includes articles on specific
coping techniques and a comprehensive e-book program in use
by clinicians and individuals worldwide, Find out more Here
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