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What Is a Phobia?
A phobia is defined as the unrelenting fear of a situation, activity, or thing that causes one to want to avoid it. Women tend to be twice as likely to suffer from a phobia compared to men.
Phobia - dx
Q. DSM-IV-TR, list five criteria for specific phobia in adults, what are they?
Phobia dx - 1
Ans. 1. Excessive and persistent fear, cued by an object or situation. 2. Exposure to the object or situation causes anxiety response. 3. Pt recognizes the fear is unreasonable. see next slide
phobia dx - 2
4. The phobic situation is avoided or endured with intense distress. 5. [usually DSM expectation that] causes dysfunction or distress.
Phobic Disorders
1. 2. 3. Phobias Specific phobias Social phobia Agoraphobia
Specific Phobias
Social Phobia
Also known as social anxiety disorder, social phobia is an excessive fear of embarrassment in social situations. Examples include fears of public speaking, meeting new people, and other social situations.
Agoraphobia
Agoraphobia is a fear of in a situation from which one either cannot escape or from which escaping would be difficult or humiliating. Although agoraphobia, like other mental disorders, it also tends to run in families and for some people, may have a clear genetic factor.
Claustrophobia
Claustrophobia is an abnormal and persistent fear of closed spaces, as in elevators, tunnels, or any other confined space. This type of fear is excessive and quite common.
Zoophobia
Zoophobia is a term that encompasses fears of specific types of animals such as spiders (arachnophobia), snakes (ophidiophobia), birds (ornithophobia), bees (apiphobia), etc.
Acrophobia
Acrophobia is an abnormally excessive and persistent fear of heights.
Aerophobia
An abnormal and persistent fear of flying is called aerophobia. This phobia generally develops after a person witnesses a plane crash or loses a family member in a plane crash or accident.
Blood-Injection-Injury Phobias
Blood-injection-injury phobias consist of several specific phobias including fear of blood (hemophobia), injury phobia, and fear of receiving an injection (trypanophobia or aichmophobia).
Effects of Phobias
If left untreated, a phobia may worsen to the point at which the person's life is seriously affected. There may be periods of spontaneous improvement, but a phobia does not usually go away unless the person receives treatments. Alcoholics can be up to 10 times more likely to suffer.
Treatment of Phobias
Exposing them to circumstances that are increasingly close to the one they are phobic. A second method is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which helps in changing the way of thinking of the sufferer.