What are phobias? Understanding this type of anxiety disorder

Phobias are among the most frequent and widespread anxiety disorders. Let's see what they are.

Specific phobias or simple phobias refer to disproportionate fears of specific stimuli. We can all have some type of phobia to a greater or lesser degree or know someone who has one.

In this article we will see what phobias are and what symptoms and characteristics they present.

What are phobias and how do they appear?

Throughout our life, especially in the infancy, stage in which we still do not know how to manage the emotions completely, certain situations in which we have felt an anxiety, such as situations in which we have felt a high fear, sensation of disgust, unforeseen scareetc., associated to an object, situation or living being, can be memorized or leave a trace that maintains that association in our brain.

In this way, the appearance of the associated stimulus or any other related to it, generates again the same sensation and in the same intensity as when we lived the traumatic situation, the same sensation and in the same intensity as when we lived the traumatic or unpleasant situation in the past. or unpleasant situation in the past.

Sometimes phobias can be so intense that they seriously limit the life of the people who suffer from them; let us imagine a severe phobia of birds or any stimulus related to them, be it feathers, their singing, etc. This disproportionate fear will not allow this person to go out in the street normally, take a trip to the countryside or live in places close to nature.

Types

We can differentiate between the following types of phobias.

1. Animal type

They refer to a wide range of species, which may cause extreme fear to the child or adolescent, such as dogs or cats, certain types of insects or reptiles, worms, etc., etc., etc.etc.

2. Environmental type

Fear of meteorological phenomena such as lightning and storms, storms, lightning, etc. lightning and storms, heights, etc.etc.

3. Sage, injections and damage type

They suggest an excessive fear or fear to objects, material and surgical procedures, for what it is going to generate an intense anticipatory anxiety before a Blood test, to go to the dentist, to the gynecologist, to go to hospitals. Also there can also be intense fear at the sight of blood or wounds (hematophobia), etc. (hematophobia), etc.

4. Situational type

As their name suggests, they take the form of a disproportionate and irrational fear of situations such as tunnels, bridges, elevators, buses, being alone, the dark, etc.

Phobias are a sample of the functioning of our system of survival, tremendously powerful and related to ourThe phobias are a sign of the functioning of our survival system, tremendously powerful and related to our hormones and neurotransmitters in the brain. This intense memory of events experienced as dangerous, is the reaction of our body when it considers that it has to defend itself from that danger in the future.

Characteristics of these anxiety disorders

While fear is a proportionate reaction to the stimulus that triggers it, phobia is characterized by a disproportionate reaction of fear to stimuli or situations that do not involve real danger..

Even when the person is aware that his fear is irrational and disproportionate, he cannot control the fear, triggering physiological reactions of anxiety such as tachycardia, nausea, dizziness, hyperventilation, cold sweats, shivering, stomach knots, etc.shivering, chills, knot in the stomach, etc.

The symptoms are so intense that many times situations where the phobia may appear are avoided, to the point of being limiting.to the point of being limiting for the daily life.

Treatment

Psychology has developed techniques to overcome phobias; especially successful is the cognitive-behavioral therapywith techniques developed for the "unlearning" of anxiety such as systematic desensitization, gradual exposure and cognitive restructuring.

The latest Advanced Therapies such as EMDR or ICT are giving very positive results in overcoming phobias and traumas, being today one of the most effective and innovative treatments along with the techniques of cognitive-behavioral psychology.

From our experience in the field of mental health, in Avance Psychologists we have found that this kind of anxiety disorders can hardly be treated by going alone. can hardly be treated by going only to the logical and rational facet of the human mind.. The focus of the alteration is in the way in which emotional memory is experienced, and therefore a complete therapeutic approach must especially affect this component.

Authors: Laura Palomares Perez and Sofia Rodriguez de la Plaza.