Phobias

• Phobia:

  A specific phobia is a type of diagnosable anxiety disorder that is categorised by excessive and disproportionate fear when encountering or anticipating the encounter of a particular stimulus.
• Characteristics of a phobia:

  -going to great lengths to avoid the stimulus

  -disruption to an individual's daily functioning

  -low levels of mental wellbeing
• People who have a specific phobia are often aware that their level of fear and anxiety is disproportionate to the phobic stimulus, but are unable to control these feelings.
• The sympathetic nervous system is dominant when an individual is exposed to their phobic stimulus, which can result in physiological stress responses like...

  • increased heart rate
  • rapid breathing
  • increased perspiration
  • dilated pupils