Phobic Anxiety Disorder, Agoraphobia, Social Anxiety Phobias

A phobia is a fear that is out of proportion to the situation that causes it and cannot be explained away. The person typically avoids feared situation, since this helps to reduce the Anxiety. Phobia disorder is common in the general population.

Some phobias represent heightened normal Anxiety towards situations that we might say we have been prepared to fear by evolution e.g. snakes, heights, etc. In other instances, a phobia may arise from a non-theatening situations being associated with a traumatic experience. The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) defines "specific phobia as a strong, persisting fear of an object or situation, whereas social phobia is a strong, persisting fear of a situation in which embarrassment can occur."

Type of Phobias

Simple Phobia - Simple phobias are phobias that are specific to objects or situations. Examples include -

Animal phobias - the start of these phobias is often in childhood, usually before the age of seven years.

Blood and injury phobias - the fear of blood tests or the sight of blood. It can result in fainting.

Vertigo - a fear of heights.

Agoraphobia

Agoraphobia is more complex phobia characterized by an intense fear of leaving the home, being in crowded spaces and being in place that is difficult to leave. Around 75 percent of sufferers of this kind of phobia are women and it occurs in just under 1 percent of people.

Agoraphobia may follow a life event. It commonly occurs with panic attacks. The person may have panic attack when outside the home. Agoraphobia is often associated with depression.

Social Phobia - It is a fear of social interaction with others, talking to people, eating, drinking and speaking in public. Social phobia can be confused with panic disorder. In social phobia, panic attacks are restricted to feared social situations (or anticipation of those situations), whereas in panic disorder they occur unexpectedly in social encounters or when alone. Social phobia is also a common symptom of depression. There are two sub-types of social phobia:

specific , when the feared situation is discrete (such as public speaking);

generalized , when it involves most social situations.

Phobic Anxiety Disorder, Agoraphobia, Social Anxiety Phobias

Type of Phobias

Agoraphobia

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