Specific Phobias Essay

According to the DSM-V, specific phobias are types of anxiety disorders caused by an excessive and persistent fear due to the presence or anticipation of a certain object or situation (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Specific phobias are considered to fall under the category of anxiety disorders due to the severe anxiety and distress that one experiences from their extreme fear. Symptoms vary depending on the type of phobia that exists, but fears generally last 6 months before they are considered to be a phobia. Various types of phobias fall under specific phobias including animal types, the environment, blood-injection injury and situational types. This paper deals with spider phobia, otherwise known as arachnophobia.
Spider phobia is a very common fear which typically develops during childhood and tends to persist throughout adolescence (Merckelbach et al., 1996). Approximately 9% of the population suffers from specific phobias, with a large proportion of this group falling under arachnophobia (Granado et al., 2009). The large proportion of the population that have a fear of spiders highlights the importance for various treatment measures to be developed. These are created in order to help phobics deal with the
Exposure therapy is a treatment measure that counteracts the avoidance behaviour that individuals go through when they are fearful of a specific object or situation (American Psychological Association). As avoiding the phobic stimulus may have benefits in the short-term, the fear will still be prevalent in future. Therefore, exposure therapy is a means of helping the individual have contact with the phobic stimulus in a non-harmful environment. This, in turn, reduces fear and decreases avoidance, with the aim of reducing the effects of the phobia in the