Tag: phobia

PHOBIA

BY: VAIBHAVI MENON

A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder defined by a persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. Phobias typically, result in a rapid onset of fear and are present for more than six months. Those affected will go to great lengths to avoid the situation or object, to a degree greater than the actual danger posed. If the object or situation cannot be avoided, they experience significant distress. Other symptoms can include fainting, which may occur in blood or injury phobia, and panic attacks, which are often found in agoraphobia. Around 75% of those with phobias have multiple phobias.

Phobias can be divided into specific phobias, social phobia, and agoraphobia. Specific phobias include those to certain animals, natural environment situations, blood or injury, and specific situations. The most common are fear of spiders, fear of snakes, and fear of heights. Specific phobias may be caused by a negative experience with the object or situation in early childhood. Social phobia is when a person fears a situation due to worries about others judging them. Agoraphobia is a fear of a situation due to a difficulty or inability to escape. It is recommended that specific phobias be treated with exposure therapy, in which the person is introduced to the situation or object in question until the fear resolves. Medications are not useful for specific phobias. Social phobia and agoraphobia are often treated with some combination of counselling and medication. Medications used include antidepressants, benzodiazepines, or beta-blockers. Specific phobias affect about 6–8% of people in the Western world and 2–4% of people in Asia, Africa, and Latin America in a given year. Social phobia affects about 7% of people in the United States and 0.5–2.5% of people in the rest of the world. Agoraphobia affects about 1.7% of people. Women are affected by phobias about twice as often as men. Typically, the onset of a phobia is around the ages of 10–17, and rates are lower with increasing age. Those with phobias are at a higher risk of suicide. There are various methods used to treat phobias. These methods include systematic desensitization, progressive relaxation, virtual reality, modeling, medication and hypnotherapy. The good news is that over the past several decades, psychologists and other researchers have developed some effective behavioral and pharmacological treatments for phobia, as well as technological interventions.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can be beneficial by allowing the person to challenge dysfunctional thoughts or beliefs by being mindful of their own feelings, with the aim that the person will realize that his or her fear is irrational. CBT may be conducted in a group setting. Gradual desensitization treatment and CBT are often successful, provided the person is willing to endure some discomfort. In one clinical trial, 90% of people were observed to no longer have a phobic reaction after successful CBT treatment. There is evidence that supports that eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is effective in treating some phobias. Its effectiveness in treating complex or trauma-related phobias has not been empirically established yet. Mainly used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, EMDR has been demonstrated as effective in easing phobia symptoms following a specific trauma, such as a fear of dogs following a dog bite

Glossophobia

what comes to your mind when you see the word glossophobia, it may have occurred to you that as it something to do with the fear and then glosso may be, the fear of glasses, or the fear of glossy things. Actually this is a fear of speaking in front of many people, this   may be felt by most of you at first but it does not mean you are phobic. When a person has anxiety attacks and starts to feel really uncomfortable to actually keep his view in public. A fear of getting judged instills that person that stops him from speaking and he feels of just running away from the situation.

This phobia has many causes firstly being that if the person has a past experience of trauma that triggers the person every time one faces the stage. A child is not born with any such fear, there are only two innate fears that is fear of falling and fear of loud sounds. This phobia can be genetic but one comes to know only after growing up as they are put into the circumstances that enables them to recognize their fears. Its not like it does not have a cure, it does but it would take sometime and patience.

In 1860 a headlines was published saying ” The nervous side of Lincoln”  this was a letter which reveals his stage fear. Many people have shared this fear in them so if you have this fear you are not alone my friend!

What is important is to eliminate this fear rather than living with this, for how many days will you run away from presenting an amazing project you have designed, to your boss or to give a seminar in the class. Unfortunately in this present generation it is required that you not only have an amazing idea but also the calibre to present it, in front of the people. The most important thing is to overcome this fear  and to do that you have to work in small steps.

  1. Prepare a speech, and practice it in front of the mirror, till you become confident of delivering it to others without mistake
  2. Then ask your friends and family to listen to it, take their suggestions and improve your speech.
  3. Keep delivering speeches to your family and friends till the time you realize its time to take this to the next level and  that is to speak in front of unknown people.
  4. Then face your fear, go and  talk to unknown people and request them to listen to your speech, slowly and steadily try to increase the audience. Always make yourself remember why are  you doing this.
  5. Do this for a number of times, then lastly to test if your fear is fully gone, arrange audience but  dont prepare any speech let the talk be impromptu.  This guarantees that you are now free from the fear and now there is nothing stopping you from achieving anything in life.                                                                                                   This is just a way that is popularly used , it can take varied time to overcome fear for different people, this depends on how much they are motivated and how much they are learning each day.