Symptoms

• Arachnophobia - spiders
• Ophidiophobia - snakes
• Acrophobia - heights
• Cynophobia - dogs
• Trypanophobia - injections
• Mysophobia - germs
• PHOBIA: An irrational fear of an object or situation.
• Specific phobia: phobia of an object, such as an animal or body part, or a situation such as flying or having an injection.
• Social anxiety: phobia of a social situation such as public speaking or using a public toilet.
• Agoraphobia: phobia of being outside or in a public space.
• PANIC - may involve a range of behaviours including crying, screaming, or running away. Children may react slightly differently, for example by freezing, clinging or having a tantrum. A behavioural characteristic.
• AVOIDANCE - unless the sufferer is making a conscious effort to face their fear, they tend to go to a lot of effort to avoid coming into contact with the phobic stimulus. This in turn can interfere with work/a social life. A behavioural characteristic.
• ENDURANCE - the alternative to avoidance is endurance, in which the sufferer remains in the presence of the phobic stimulus but continues to experience high levels of anxiety. This is a behavioural characteristic.
• ANXIETY - phobias are classed as an anxiety disorder. Anxiety is an unpleasant state of high arousal. This prevents the sufferer from relaxing and makes it very difficult to experience any positive emotion. This is an emotional characteristic.
• UNREASONABLE EMOTIONAL RESPONSES - the emotional responses we experience in relation to phobic stimuli go beyond what is reasonable. This is wildly disproportionate to the danger posed by stimulus. This is an emotional characteristic
• SELECTIVE ATTENTION TO THE STIMULI - if a sufferer can see the phobic stimuli, it is hard to look away from it. Keeping our attention on something really dangerous is an evolutionary response. This is a cognitive characteristic.
• IRRATIONAL BELIEFS - a phobic may hold irrational beliefs in relation to phobic stimuli. For example, ‘I must always sound intelligent’ or ‘if I blush people will think I’m weak’. This kind of belief increases the pressure on the sufferer to perform well in social situations. This is a cognitive characteristic.
• COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS - the phobic’s perceptions of the phobic stimulus may be distorted. So, for example, an omphalophobia is likely to see belly buttons as ugly and or disgusting. This is a cognitive characteristic.