Specific phobia
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A specific phobia is an anxiety disorder characterized by an intense and unreasonable fear of a particular object, situation, or animal that is perceived as generating a direct threat or danger to the individual. However, these common encounters do not create an immediate risk and exist in ordinary daily environments. The fear is irrationally provoked and does not necessarily develop from a conditioned reaction to the stimulus. On the contrary, the fear is produced by constitutional anticipation of the stimuli. Often the affected individual is aware that their fears are unfounded, but are unable to suppress the exaggerated response when confronted with the stimulus.
Common phobias include such psychological circumstances as claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces); nyctophobia (fear of the dark); acrophobia (fear of heights); trypanophobia (fear of needles); triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13); aviophobia (fear of flying); mysophobia (fear of germs or contamination); and such animal fears as cynophobia (fear of dogs), arachnophobia (fear of spiders), and ophidiophobia (fear of snakes).
An individual with a specific phobia may become distressed when faced with the feared situation or object, or may even become discomforted by just the thought of the stimulus. When an encounter occurs, symptoms may include stress, panic, agitation, hypertension, severe anxiety, panic attacks, lightheadedness, hypotension and bradycardia (as in cases of trypanophobia), and fainting. The afflicted individual must rearrange their life in order to circumvent the feared stimulus—as in cases of claustrophobia in which the afflicted person can only take stairs to avoid elevators or ends up avoiding buildings with elevators altogether.
The fear can control the afflicted person’s personal decisions and seriously debilitate their social interactions, career choices, and relationships with others. Specific phobias are the most common type of anxiety disorder in the U.S. More than 19.2 million Americans suffer from a specific phobia. The phobia can develop during childhood and last through adulthood, although phobias commonly begin during adulthood as well. Specific phobias are twice more common in women than in men. Specific phobias frequently go untreated, but if the anxiety becomes severe and disabling, treatment should be sought. The specific phobia can be relieved by psychotherapeutic treatment.
