The Confinement Of Phobias

The Confinement of Phobias An average of about 8.7% of people in the United States suffers from various phobias. A phobia is an anxiety that is best described as an irrational fear that prohibits individuals from engaging in certain activities and causes them to avoid specific situations and objects. As a result, a person's quality of life may decline due to fearful hindrances. At times, some may successfully mask their anxiety and learn to cope with them, thereby leading normal lifestyles. Others, perhaps those with more aggressive phobias, become debilitated by the fear and go to extremes to avoid confronting the triggering stimulus; hence, they become imprisoned in their own minds. Furthermore, intense phobias may be so powerful, one
In fact, due to the fears exhibited by our ancestors, many calamities were prevented which resulted in the existence of the present generation. For instance, human's would not approach dangerous animals or poisonous creatures, a fear instilled by previous generations who witnessed such disasters. A problem arises when these natural inherited fears spiral out of control and develop into phobias that interfere with life. It is easy to condition but hard to extinguish fears of such stimuli (Davey, 1995; Ohman, 1986). (Exploring Psychology 7th Edition, page 471) On the other hand, certain incidents from the past prevent us from possessing some fears. For example, during World War II, constant air raid sirens and rumbling of low, overhead airplanes made many indifferent to the threats; hence, evolution has not prepared us to fear bombs dropping from the
The most common form of phobias is referred to as the specific phobia which is manifested due to an encounter with a specific object or situation such as driving, tunnels heights, snakes and animals. Commonly, one is not aware as to why a phobia developed. The individual facing specific phobias might just avoid the object or situation or in extreme cases one will experience panic attacks. Often, the onset of the phobia occurs during the teen years or early adulthood with the person being aware as to the irrationality of phobia. Specific phobias are often a result of one's heredity, where the person did not actually experience something terrifying, yet, the fear was ingrained in the individual through observation of one's parents. In contrast to adult phobias, specific phobias in children usually diminish as they mature and they may develop complete extinction to the trepidation. Consequently, when the situation dooms an individuals life, treatment becomes necessary. The most effective treatment of specific phobias would be a form of psychotherapy known as exposure therapy. During this treatment a person is slowly acclimated to the source of the fear until the individual feels comfortable approaching. Once the person comes in contact with the source and realizes that nothing cruel manifested, a breakthrough to the phobia gets