Phobias

• A phobia is an extreme fear that produces a negative behavioural response/ an intense irrational fear
• Unreasonable, irrational persistent fear of a particular situation or object
• What % of the population have an unreasonable fear?

  60.2%
• What % of the population have a diagnosed phobia?

  15%
• For a person to be diagnosed with a phobias they must show:

  1. marked and unreasonable anxiety regarding a specific object of situation
  2. exposure to the phobic stimulus nearly always produces a rapid response
  3. fear of the phobic object or situation is persistent
  4. the phobic stimulus is either avoided or responded to with great anxiety
  5. the phobic reactions interfere with the individual's work or social life, or they are very distressed about the phobia
  6. present for 6 months
• Emotional characteristics?

  feeling fear and anxiety

  unreasonable fear

  anxiety - prevents sufferer relaxing
• Behavioural characteristics of phobias?

  1. may faint, freeze, avoid stimulus completely, crying
  2. avoidance
  3. panic - crying, screaming, freezing, running away
  4. endurance - an alternative to avoidance, whereby the sufferer remains in the presence but remains afraid
• Cognitive characteristics?

  1. think that whatever they are scared of is going to harm them
  2. irrational belief
  3. selective attention
  4. irrational thinking - in relation to the phobic stimuli
  5. cognitive distortions - perceptions of the feared object/situation are distorted
• Specific phobias: sufferers are anxious in the presence of a particular stimulus (object or situation). e.g. animal types, natural environment types, blood types, situational types.

  The most common category

  treatments - talking therapies/CBT
• Social phobias: sufferers experience inappropriate anxiety in social situations - even just thinking about them can cause anxiety

  Leads to avoidance and can negatively affect their quality of life

  Usually starts in adolescence - no clear trigger
• Agoraphobia: sufferers are anxious when in a situation that they cannot easily leave (crowds, open spaces)

  They will avoid such situations and are extremely anxious if anticipating them

  Most cases begin in early to mid 20s and 1st occurrence can happen without warning in a public place

  Avoid going out - leading to serious deterioration of quality of life

  Least common