Impact of and Treatments for Phobias

It is December 2^nd 2005, Sophie Waller was just pronounced dead in her bed at the age of 8. Pathologist Marianne Brundle found she died of acute kidney failure because of starvation and dehydration (Salkeld, 2009). It all started when she had a dentist appointment at the age of 4 and the dentist accidentally sliced her tongue. The fear of another painful mouth experience haunted her. A dentist phobia developed and when she cracked her tooth 4 years later she was terrified and stopped talking and eating. Not even the hospital could help poor Sophie, her phobia had taken over. Two weeks after leaving the hospital, she was announced dead at her family home, weighing less than 56 pounds. Phobias take over many people’s lives and dealing with it affects everyday life.

A phobia is an intense, unreasonable fear of situations, objects, activities, or people (Berger, 2005). People with phobias often know their fear is irrational, but they are unable to do anything about it (Wodele & Solan, 2015). Phobias normally develop due to a scary situation or traumatic event a person experiences. It has been also said that both genetics and environment have an impact on development. Gender, age and earnings do not create the phobia but may be considered factor. For example, women are more likely to have animals phobias; children or people with a low socioeconomic status are more likely to have social phobias, and men make up the majority of those with dentist and doctor phobias (Wodele & Solan, 2015). Phobia are the most well-known type of anxiety.

There are two different types of phobias, simple and complex. Simple deals with children between the ages of 4-8, that go through a traumatic event during their childhood. This may link to the learning theory, which makes people learn to reduce their anxiety by avoiding the fear rather than learning strategies to cope with it (Milnes, 2016). Overtime small issues turn into intense fear. Another possibility of developing a phobia may be if the child watches a family member or close friend go through an intense phobia. Experts stress that phobias transferred from parents to their kids are learned fears and not genetically inherited (Nordqvist, 2016). Complex phobias normally are caused by stressful events and may be discovered at any age. Although there are thousands of phobias, most people do not have them (Milnes, 2016).

Scott Rauch, psychiatrist of Harvard Medical School has researched the element of fear through rats to explore the world of neurological factors of fear. The experiment first begins when the rats hear a noise then feels an electric shock. This creates the rats into having a fear (the fear of the feeling of the shock). The researchers would then repeat the process and record the electrophysiological activity in the rats’ brain (Winerman, 2005). They realized this reaction occurs in the part of the brain called the amygdala. The amygdala is an almond shaped set of neurons located deep in the brains medial temporal lobe and it plays a key role in emotions. The scientists realized there are two paths involved with the amygdala. One path deals with physical effects from the fear and the second path deals with emotional effects from the fear. When the human trials began in the 1990’s, scientist used pictures of an item a person was afraid of and then used a PET scan to see how the brain reacted.

Phobia derives from the Greek root “phobos” which means fear (Rathus, 2003). Planning around not facing a fear or phobia is the first real example of how one’s mental and physical being are impacted. All phobias are anxiety disorders, lumped in the same class as post-traumatic stress disorder and panic disorder, among others, all based on fear (Winerman, 2005). Three phobias that are widely popular among people who have problems with social interactions are social phobia, anthropophobia and agoraphobia.

Social phobia deals with having the fear of public embarrassment or humiliation in a crowded place. One feels self-conscious about their every action, believing people are watching their every move. According to the DSM-5: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, those with social phobia also known as social anxiety disorder avoid social interaction such as meeting unfamiliar people, situations in which the individual may be observed eating or drinking and situations in which in which the individual performs in front of others. The cause is unknown but can be linked to both genetics and the environment. Those who tend to be worriers, perfectionists and who have a hard time dealing with small mistakes may also be more likely to develop social phobia (Berger, 2005).

Anthropophobia is known as the fear of people. Talking to a person in anyway creates extreme stress and shyness. People suffering from this phobia believe the person is judging them about everything, even the way they form their sentences. Anthropophobia and social phobia are very alike except for the fact that a person suffering from anthropophobia would feel so many symptoms of anxiety. While with social phobia generally feel somewhat less afraid in situations that make them feel anonymous, those with anthropophobia may be equally uncomfortable whether they are on stage or in the back row of a crowded theater (Fritscher, 2016). Symptoms are sweating, racing heartbeat, loss of words and shaking.

Agoraphobia is the fear of an embarrassing or difficult situation that one cannot escape from. Although agoraphobia does not deal with people personally, it does deal with a situation involving others and the feeling of being trapped. This phobia may develop once the person goes through multiple panic attacks out in public. Not knowing how it was triggered, the person begins to fear going out in public. Most people do not know the real trigger but believe it is linked to genetics and experiences. Agoraphobia may lead to the person developing depression.

Most phobias have the same side effects, including panic attacks, accelerated heart rate, shaking, sweating, and the feeling of doom or dying. This leads to the person isolating themselves from the public and people. Treatments for the three phobias and others may be exposure therapy, hypnotherapy, talking to a therapist, relaxation technique, group therapy and medication.

Exposure therapy is also known as systematic desensitization and it is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy. The person tries to relax the best they can and then start imagining details about their phobia (it advances over time with more detail). According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 75% of people with specific phobias overcome their fears through cognitive-behavioral therapy. Hypnotherapy is like hypnosis and tries to block the awareness of the pain. This also allows patients to find memories or old painful experiences that the conscious mind has blocked out. Talking to a therapist and going to group therapy allows the person to get comfortable with someone and a group of others who may be going through the same phobia and effects. Relaxation techniques may be certain breathing training that helps when a person goes through an anxiety attack. Medication can be prescribed to the person. Anti-depressive and anti-anxiety medication may ease the symptoms or the feelings of isolation. Some medications carry serotonin, a hormone dealing with emotions, to reduce anxiety. Although some of these methods are not capable of curing the disorder, a lot of them help with the symptoms they go through.

Unfortunately, the brain areas that deal with fear and stress keep retrieving the frightening event inappropriately so the treatments hope to make the brain realize its being irrational (Nordqvist, 2016). To suffer from the following phobias: social phobia, anthropophobia and agoraphobia, effects everyday interactions. 19 million Americans have a phobia that causes difficulty in some area of their lives (Wodele & Solan, 2015). Phobias deal with psychology due to occurring in the brain with no choice and the fears have effects on a person’s everyday life.

Work cited

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Fritscher, L. (2016, March 7). Verywell: What is the Fear of People? Retrieved November 19, 2016

Milnes, C. (2016, November 30th). Chapter 18.1: Types of Anxiety lecture. (C. Fritz, Interviewer) Milnes.

Nordqvist, C. (2016, February 8th). Phobias: Causes, Symptoms and Diagnosis. Retrieved November 30th, 2016

Rathus, S. A. (2003). Psychology; Principles in Practice. Austin: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.

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