Fears and Phobias
Fear and Phobias
I’m sure that at least one of you is afraid of snakes or spiders. Maybe you have a fear of blood or injections, but the fact is all people have fears or situations they would rather avoid. It is part of everyday life. However, what is fear?
The dictionary explains fear as a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain etc. whether the threat is real or imagined. Biologically fear is necessary, because it warns the organism of life-threatening dangers and with that secures the survival. Jet, fear can be extremely good and can make us handle situations better, increase our creativity and fantasy and with that lets us achieve excellent results, because of high concentration.
Although fear helped our ancestors to survive, we, as individuals but also as a society, are suffering from an over dosage of this essential feeling in the modern world. This fear develops into a phobia.
The difference between a phobia and a sensible fear is the panic that grips the phobic person. A phobia is like a fear gone wild, robbing a person of reason. For example, a respect for the dangers of falling off a cliff reflects a healthy sense of reality; but a panicky preoccupation with heights can prevent a person from working in a tall building or vacationing in the mountains. One of the cruellest aspects of phobia is that it can dominate a person’s thoughts even when the person knows the fear is irrational.
Shockingly 25% of the world’s population suffer at least once in their lives of a phobia, females twice as much as men. It is not only the fear that makes the person anxious, but also the fear of the fear. The American Psychiatric Association separates phobias into three general kinds. The most common kind is agoraphobia, actually a complex group of fears involved with being in public places. Then there are simple phobias and social phobias.
Simple phobias are connected to one thing or to a specific activity, like ophidiophobia; fear of snakes or
I’m sure that at least one of you is afraid of snakes or spiders. Maybe you have a fear of blood or injections, but the fact is all people have fears or situations they would rather avoid. It is part of everyday life. However, what is fear?
The dictionary explains fear as a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain etc. whether the threat is real or imagined. Biologically fear is necessary, because it warns the organism of life-threatening dangers and with that secures the survival. Jet, fear can be extremely good and can make us handle situations better, increase our creativity and fantasy and with that lets us achieve excellent results, because of high concentration.
Although fear helped our ancestors to survive, we, as individuals but also as a society, are suffering from an over dosage of this essential feeling in the modern world. This fear develops into a phobia.
The difference between a phobia and a sensible fear is the panic that grips the phobic person. A phobia is like a fear gone wild, robbing a person of reason. For example, a respect for the dangers of falling off a cliff reflects a healthy sense of reality; but a panicky preoccupation with heights can prevent a person from working in a tall building or vacationing in the mountains. One of the cruellest aspects of phobia is that it can dominate a person’s thoughts even when the person knows the fear is irrational.
Shockingly 25% of the world’s population suffer at least once in their lives of a phobia, females twice as much as men. It is not only the fear that makes the person anxious, but also the fear of the fear. The American Psychiatric Association separates phobias into three general kinds. The most common kind is agoraphobia, actually a complex group of fears involved with being in public places. Then there are simple phobias and social phobias.
Simple phobias are connected to one thing or to a specific activity, like ophidiophobia; fear of snakes or