Common Causes
The goal of treatment is to improve quality of life so that you're no longer limited by your phobias. As you learn how to better manage and relate to your reactions, thoughts and feelings, you'll find that your anxiety and fear are reduced and no longer in control of your life. Treatment is usually directed at one specific phobia at a time.
Related Conditions
If a phobia starts impacting mental wellbeing and physical wellbeing, it is time to seek professional help. As related to anxiety, phobias have to be treated mind, body, and spirit.
What is the goal of treatment for phobias?
By “unlearning” the response and substituting rational reactions, the phobia can be cured. This model favors therapy as a preferred treatment. Many phobia sufferers are best treated with a combination of medication and therapy. Most psychiatrists do not perform the types of therapy best suited to phobia treatment.
When is it time to seek professional help for a phobia?
There are currently several types of medication that are prescribed for phobias. In most states, psychologists are not permitted to prescribe medications, although this is slowly changing. However, no mental health practitioner with less than a doctoral degree is permitted to prescribe medication in any state.
Can phobias be cured?
Can a psychologist prescribe medication for phobias?
When should you seek help for fear and phobias?
Consider treatment for your phobia if: It causes intense and disabling fear, anxiety, and panic. You recognize that your fear is excessive and unreasonable. You avoid certain situations and places because of your phobia.
Do people with phobias seek treatment?
If the object of the fear is easy to avoid, people with phobias may not seek treatment. Sometimes, however, they may make important career or personal decisions to avoid a situation that includes the source of the phobia.
What happens if phobia is not treated?
If not treated, a phobia may worsen to the point where the person's life is seriously impacted by the phobia and by attempts to avoid or hide it, resulting in problems with physical health, friends and family, failure in school, and/or lost jobs while struggling to cope.
What is the treatment for phobia?
Phobias are typically treated with therapy, medication, or a combination of both: Exposure therapy. During exposure therapy, which is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy, you work with a psychologist to learn how to desensitize yourself to the object or situation that you fear.
Is a phobia considered a mental illness?
Phobias are among the most common of all mental illnesses, and they are usually the most successfully treated. Phobias are divided into categories according to the cause of the reaction and avoidance. Agoraphobia is the fear of being in situations in which a person cannot get help or escape.
What type of therapy is best for phobias?
Talking treatments, such as counselling, are often very effective at treating phobias. In particular, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and mindfulness have been found to be very effective for treating phobias.
Why should phobias be taken seriously?
It is important to realize no matter how obscure or irrational these fears seem to us, we can't judge or make fun of someone for it. Having a phobia is a real mental illness that cannot be controlled and no one deserves to to belittled because of something they can't control themselves.
What should you not say to a phobia?
What Not to Say“You'll get over it./Snap out of it.” Anxiety disorders don't work like this. ... “I know, ___ makes me feel really anxious, too.” ... “Have you tried ___?” Don't ask someone with anxiety if they've tried certain health or wellness techniques to overcome their feelings.
What qualifies as a phobia?
A phobia is an overwhelming and debilitating fear of an object, place, situation, feeling or animal. Phobias are more pronounced than fears. They develop when a person has an exaggerated or unrealistic sense of danger about a situation or object.
What is the difference between a fear and a phobia?
Key takeaways: Fear is a normal reaction to a threat while a phobia leads to a fear response even when you're not in danger. Phobias can be associated with many different objects or situations, such as a fear of heights, flying, spiders, needles, or vomiting.
What is the most common phobia?
Arachnophobia – Arachnophobia is possibly the most well-known of all phobias. It is the fear of spiders, or arachnids. Estimates put arachnophobia at affecting roughly 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men.
What are the 3 types of phobias?
There are three main groups of phobias which include:Specific (simple) phobias, which are the most common and focus on specific objects.Social phobia, which causes extreme anxiety in social or public situations, and.Agoraphobia, which is the fear of being alone in public places from which there is no easy escape.
How does treatment help with phobias?
The goal of treatment is to improve quality of life so that you're no longer limited by your phobias. As you learn how to better manage and relate to your reactions, thoughts and feelings, you'll find that your anxiety and fear are reduced and no longer in control of your life. Treatment is usually directed at one specific phobia at a time.
What is the best treatment for phobias?
The best treatment for specific phobias is a form of psychotherapy called exposure therapy. Sometimes your doctor may also recommend other therapies or medication. Understanding the cause of a phobia is actually less important than focusing on how to treat the avoidance behavior that has developed over time.
How to help phobias?
Generally psychotherapy using exposure therapy is successful in treating specific phobias. However, sometimes medications can help reduce the anxiety and panic symptoms you experience from thinking about or being exposed to the object or situation you fear.
How to overcome phobias?
You can also take some steps on your own: Try not to avoid feared situations. Practice staying near feared situations as frequently as you can rather than avoiding them completely.
How to help a child cope with a dog?
Instead, help your child cope when confronted with the dog and show ways to be brave. For example, you might offer to be your child's home base, waiting and offering support while your child steps a little closer to the dog and then returns to you for safety. Over time, encourage your child to keep closing the distance.
What is cognitive behavioral therapy?
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) involves exposure combined with other techniques to learn ways to view and cope with the feared object or situation differently. You learn alternative beliefs about your fears and bodily sensations and the impact they've had on your life.
How to help a child overcome phobias?
Don't reinforce specific phobias. Take advantage of opportunities to help children overcome their fears.
How can a phobia be cured?
This model favors psychotherapy as a preferred treatment. Many people who live with phobias are best treated with a combination of medication and psychotherapy.
What is the best medication for phobias?
Beta blockers, including Tenormin (atenolol) and Inderal LA (propranolol), are sometimes prescribed as a short-term treatment to help control trembling, sweating, and other physical symptoms of phobia-related anxiety. While medication is helpful for some, others find the benefits aren't worth the side effects.
What is the medical model of phobias?
The medical model places emphasis on the genetic and brain chemistry components of phobias. Medications are prescribed to reduce the symptoms associated with phobias. Studies show that in phobias, cognitive behavioral approaches tend to be more effective long-term than medication approaches.
What causes phobias in 2020?
The latest studies show that there is likely a complex interaction of factors including genetics, brain chemistry, environmental triggers, and learned behavior.
What is exposure therapy?
Exposure therapy is often part of a cognitive behavioral treatment program, but can also be incorporated into your daily life.
Can you get help for a phobia?
Getting help for your phobia may feel uncomfortable and anxiety-provoking—but you can take comfort in the fact that you are taking the best first step to alleviate your anxiety, manage your phobia, and start enjoying your life.
Is phobia a first line treatment?
Increasingly, mental health professionals and patients are turning to alternative treatments to augment traditional means of treating phobias, but these options are not considered first-line treatments and often come with their own set of side effects.
How to deal with a phobia?
It it often the case that the object of a phobia might present itself without warning. In these instances, there may not be time for a person to seek professional help, and it may be necessary for them to use relaxation techniques in order to cope and avoid escalating their fear response. Coping strategies people may use when forced to expose themselves to a phobia include: 1 Focusing on or slowing down breathing. 2 Learn about your phobia. Sometimes, education about the object of a phobia may help slow down the fear response associated with it. 3 Progressive muscle relaxation. Practice tensing up and relaxing different muscle groups, focusing all attention on that activity.
What is the best therapy for phobias?
Many therapeutic approaches to phobia treatment involve slowly exposing a person to the thing they fear and addressing underlying beliefs that may be contributing to the phobia. Exposure therapy , also known as systematic desensitization, has been shown to be an effective phobia treatment method.
How to overcome a phobia?
Hypnotherapy may help some manage and overcome a phobia. Most often led by a therapist, hypnotherapy involves taking the person with a phobia through the process of guided visualization. They may imagine they are encountering the object of their phobia and then practice self-soothing techniques. Eye movement and desensitization ...
What is Claudia's phobia of hot water?
Addressing phobia of hot water in therapy: Claudia, 23, enters therapy, reporting an extreme fear of being burned by hot water. Her phobia is such that she experiences extreme anxiety when showering, doing dishes, or washing her hands because she worries the water will suddenly become hotter and burn her.
What is content vs phobia?
Contents v. Phobias. Treatment for Phobias. Types of Phobias. A phobia is a fear related to certain objects or situations. When a phobia is so severe that it interferes with a person’s ability to function, a therapist or other mental health professional may be able to help them address and explore ways to overcome fear, anxiety, ...
Can phobias present themselves without warning?
It it often the case that the object of a phobia might present itself without warning. In these instances, there may not be time for a person to seek professional help, and it may be necessary for them to use relaxation techniques in order to cope and avoid escalating their fear response.
Does Claudia remember her phobia?
The therapist asks Claudia if she remembers when the phobia began, but she cannot tell him. It takes some time in therapy, but eventually Claudia is able to recall several instances from early childhood—the memories of which she had buried—of her mother punishing her by holding her hands under running water.
How does a phobia become diagnosable?
A phobia becomes diagnosable when a person begins organizing their lives around avoiding the cause of their fear. It is more severe than a normal fear reaction. People with a phobia have an overpowering need to avoid anything that triggers their anxiety.
When do phobias start?
It is unusual for a phobia to start after the age of 30 years, and most begin during early childhood, the teenage years, or early adulthood. They can be caused by a stressful experience, a frightening event, or a parent or household member with a phobia that a child can ‘learn.’.
What is a phobia?
A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder that causes an individual to experience extreme, irrational fear about a situation, living creature, place, or object. When a person has a phobia, they will often shape their lives to avoid what they consider to be dangerous. The imagined threat is greater than any actual threat posed by the cause ...
What are the symptoms of a phobia?
They are common across the majority of phobias: a sensation of uncontrollable anxiety when exposed to the source of fear. a feeling that the source of that fear must be avoided at all costs.
What are the most common phobias?
The most common specific phobias in the U.S. include: 1 Claustrophobia: Fear of being in constricted, confined spaces 2 Aerophobia: Fear of flying 3 Arachnophobia: Fear of spiders 4 Driving phobia: Fear of driving a car 5 Emetophobia: Fear of vomiting 6 Erythrophobia: Fear of blushing 7 Hypochondria: Fear of becoming ill 8 Zoophobia: Fear of animals 9 Aquaphobia: Fear of water 10 Acrophobia: Fear of heights 11 Blood, injury, and injection (BII) phobia: Fear of injuries involving blood 12 Escalaphobia: Fear of escalators 13 Tunnel phobia: Fear of tunnels
How many people have phobias?
This can prevent them from functioning normally and sometimes leads to panic attacks. In the United States, approximately 19 million people have phobias.
How does anxiety feel when you have a phobia?
headache. A feeling of anxiety can be produced simply by thinking about the object of the phobia. In younger children, parents may observe that they cry, become very clingy, or attempt to hide behind the legs of a parent or an object. They may also throw tantrums to show their distress.
How to help phobias?
Talking treatments. Talking treatments, such as counselling, are often very effective at treating phobias. In particular, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and mindfulness have been found to be very effective for treating phobias.
What is CBT for phobias?
This is known as desensitisation or exposure therapy.
What is CBT therapy?
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) CBT is a type of counselling that can help you manage your problems by changing the way you think and behave. It can be used to develop practical ways of dealing with your phobia.
What is the name of the drug that is used to treat phobias?
Clomipramine (Anafranil) is a type of tricyclic antidepressant (TCA) that's licensed to treat phobias. Side effects include: Moclobemide (Manerix) is a type of antidepressant from the monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) group of antidepressants. It's sometimes prescribed to treat social phobia.
What is the best medication for anxiety?
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are most often prescribed to treat anxiety, social phobia or panic disorder. These can include: Venlafaxine (Efexor), a serotonin and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) may also be prescribed for anxiety. Common side effects of these treatments include:
How does exposure therapy work?
Exposure therapy works by gradually increasing the level of exposure to your fear, which allows you to gain control over your phobia. As the treatment progresses, you should begin to feel less anxious about your phobia.
Can you avoid flying phobias?
However, it may not always be possible to avoid certain phobias, such as a fear of flying. In this instance, you may decide to get professional help and advice to find out about treatment options.
What is the first line of treatment for phobias?
The first-line treatment for specific phobia is exposure therapy . Prescription medications are not considered to be effective as the only treatment. But antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, and beta blockers might be used in addition to therapy or to treat comorbid conditions.
What is the best medication for anxiety?
Anti-anxiety medication can help rapidly reduce the symptoms of anxiety and panic attacks. The most common of these are called benzodiazepines, which are a type of sedative. These include Klonopin (clonazepam), Valium (diazepam), and Ativan (lorazepam) .
Can you avoid phobias?
While avoidance can be useful for some with specific phobia, it can be damaging if it involves changing your life dramatically. Seeking treatment from a medical professional may help you live a healthier and less restrictive life.
Can medications be used for phobias?
As mentioned above, it is believed that medications by themselves are of limited use in the treatment of specific phobias. But there have been investigations into whether some medications might be effective at enhancing therapy treatment of specific phobias when taken alongside, before, or after exposure therapy.
What happens when you have a phobia?
When you have a phobia, you tend to overestimate how bad it will be if you’re exposed to the situation you fear and underestimate your ability to cope. The anxious thoughts that trigger and fuel phobias are usually negative and unrealistic. By writing down the negative thoughts you have when confronted by your phobia, you can begin to challenge these unhelpful ways of thinking. Many times, these thoughts fall into the following categories:
How do you know if you have a phobia?
Signs and symptoms of phobias. The symptoms of a phobia can range from mild feelings of apprehension and anxiety to a full-blown panic attack. Typically, the closer you are to the thing you’re afraid of, the greater your fear will be. Your fear will also be higher if getting away is difficult.
What is a fear of something that poses little or no actual danger?
A phobia is an intense fear of something that, in reality, poses little or no actual danger. Common phobias and fears include closed-in places, heights, highway driving, flying insects, snakes, and needles. However, you can develop phobias of virtually anything. While most phobias develop in childhood, they can also develop in later life.
What is it called when you are scared of spiders?
But when fears become so severe that they cause tremendous anxiety and interfere with your normal life, they’re called phobias. A phobia is an intense fear of something that, in reality, ...
What is the fear of public speaking?
Fear of public speaking—an extremely common phobia— is a type of social phobia. Other fears associated with social phobia include fear of eating or drinking in public, talking to strangers, taking exams, mingling at a party, or being called on in class.
What is a situational phobia?
Situational phobias (fears triggered by a specific situation) including the fear of enclosed spaces (claustrophobia), flying, driving, tunnels, and bridges. 4. Blood-Injection-Injury phobia, the fear of blood, injury, illness, needles, or other medical procedures.
What does it feel like to be afraid?
When you’re afraid or anxious, you experience a variety of uncomfortable physical symptoms, such as a racing heart and a suffocating feeling. These physical sensations can be frightening themselves—and a large part of what makes your phobia so distressing. However, by learning how to calm yourself down quickly, you can become more confident in your ability to tolerate uncomfortable sensations and face your fears.
What to do if you have a phobia?
If you suspect that you have a phobia, talk to your doctor or mental health professional. These conditions can lead to significant distress and disruptions in your normal life, but effective treatment options are available including behavioral therapy and medications .
How to diagnose a phobia?
One of the most important steps in diagnosing a phobia is deciding whether the symptoms are better explained by another disorder. This process, which is undertaken by the health care provider, is known as differential diagnosis. Phobias can be traced to specific, concrete fears that adults often recognize as irrational.
What are the three types of phobias?
A phobia can be defined as an intense and irrational fear. There are three types of phobias, as defined by the DSM-5: specific phobia, social phobia, and agoraphobia. Each type of phobia has its own unique diagnostic criteria.
Why do people with phobias feel anxious?
People with this type of phobia feel intense anxiety when forced to endure social situations. These situations almost always trigger the fear response and the amount of anxiety the person experiences is out of proportion to the actual threat that the situation poses.
What is the fear of public places?
Diagnosing Agoraphobia. Agoraphobia is characterized by a disproportionate fear of public places. People may have difficulty leaving the house or being in a public place where they cannot easily escape.
How long does it take to get diagnosed with social phobia?
In order to be diagnosed with social anxiety disorder, the symptoms must be present for six months or longer and must not be better explained by another disorder such as panic disorder.
What are the symptoms of fear?
Symptoms that a person might experience when faced with a situation they fear include rapid heartbeat, shaking, shortness of breath, numbness, stomach upset, a sense of unreality, and a fear of losing control.
Diagnosis
Excessive, extreme, irrational, fear or panic reaction about a situation, living creature, place or object.
Phobia is not always related to an underlying condition. It may be caused by:
- Traumatic experiences
- Substance abuse
- Being raised by adults with phobia or anxiety
Treatment
Lifestyle and Home Remedies
Coping and Support
Preparing For Your Appointment
- The best treatment for specific phobias is a form of psychotherapy called exposure therapy. Sometimes your doctor may also recommend other therapies or medication. Understanding the cause of a phobia is actually less important than focusing on how to treat the avoidance behavior that has developed over time. The goal of treatment is to improve qual...