Phobias 2 Essay, Research Paper

Most people have a phobia or fear of something, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH); about four to five percent of Americans (at least 7.2 million people) experience a clinically significant phobia. To be able to actually treat a phobia, a person must have to understand it. The kinds of phobias, symptoms, and treatments can all be related in the world of phobias.

There are many different phobias within the human population such as Social, Agoraphobia, and Acrophobia. Social phobia is the overwhelming and disabling fear of disapproval in social settings. Social phobia is also one of a wide variety of phobias that has been known as far as research can explain. Social phobia may develop as a result of panic attacks. On the contrary, Agoraphobia is the fear of open places. It is also the fear of being in a place or situation from which escape might be difficult or embarrassing. On the other hand, Acrophobia is the fear of heights or unable to be in high places. This is also known as a common fear that most people have that have a fear of falling from high places.

Many people may feel the same symptoms, even though they might have a different phobia than one another, but have different causes. Most of the time, a person reacting to their phobia usually experiences blushing, sweating, trembling, rapid heart beat, muscle tension, nausea or other stomach discomfort, lightheadedness, or other symptoms of anxiety. Similarly, phobic disorders are also involved and that a phobia may focus on something as common as water and the person may not shower. Another cause is psychological disorders. Psychological disorders are caused by unconscious desires. These are desires that a person has that had been taught badly such as bad childhood memories, solitary confinement over a period of time, and many other bad experiences may be a cause towards a person’s phobia.

Different types of treatments may be used to help a person with their phobia. Antianxiety drugs are one of them. This drug helps to reduce panic, anxiety symptoms, and help confront phobic situations and antidepressant medication could be used too. The most popular prescription medication is Monoamine Oidase Inhibitors (MAOI’s), Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI’s), and High-potency Benzodiazepines. On the other hand, exposure therapy is a way to face fear. A patient in exposure therapy would be exposed either quickly or incrementally to the feared object or situation. By confronting, it makes the patient get used to their phobia and loses their fear.

Summarizing, there are three main kinds of phobias, which are social phobia, agoraphobia, and acrophobia. Seeing the symptoms and causes, anxiety, phobic, and psychological disorders are all a part of phobias. Also, learning about treatments of phobias, a person should use antianxiety drugs, antidepressant medications, and /or exposure therapy.