What are phobias? Understanding this type of anxiety disorder

Specific phobias or simple phobias they refer to disproportionate fears of specific stimuli. We can all have some type of phobia to a greater or lesser degree or know someone who has it.

In this article we will see what phobias are and what symptoms and characteristics they present.

• Related article: "Types of Anxiety Disorders and their characteristics"

What are phobias and how do they appear?

Throughout our life, especially in childhood, a stage in which we still do not know how to fully manage emotions, determined situations in which you have felt a high fear, feeling of disgust, unexpected fright, etc., associated with an object, situation or living being, can be memorized or leave a trace that maintains that association in our brain.

Thus the appearance of the associated stimulus or any other related to it, it generates the same sensation and in the same intensity as when we experienced the traumatic situation or unpleasant in the past.

Sometimes phobias can be so intense that they seriously limit the lives of the people who suffer from it; Let's imagine a severe phobia of birds or any stimulus that is related to them, be it feathers, their song, etc. This disproportionate fear will not allow this person to go out to the streets normally, take a field trip or live in places close to nature.

Their types

We can differentiate between the following types of phobias.

1. Animal type

They refer to a wide range of species, which can cause extreme fear to the child or adolescent, such as dogs or cats, certain types of insects or reptiles, worms, etc.

2. Environmental type

Fear of weather phenomena such as the lightning and storms, the heights, etc.

3. Blood type, injections and damage

They suggest an excessive fear or fear of objects, materials and surgical procedures, so it will generate a intense anticipatory anxiety before a blood test, going to the dentist, gynecologist, going to hospitals. Also there may be intense fear at the sight of blood or wounds (hematophobia), etc.

• You may be interested: "Blood phobia: everything you need to know about hematophobia"

4. Situational type

As their name suggests, they take the form of a disproportionate and irrational fear of situations such as tunnels, bridges, elevators, buses, being alone, the dark, etc.

Phobias They are a sample of how our survival system works, tremendously powerful and related to our hormones and neurotransmitters in the brain. This intense memory of lived and dangerous events is the reaction of our body when it considers that it has to defend itself from that danger in the future.

Characteristics of these anxiety disorders

While fear is a proportionate reaction to the stimulus that triggers it, the phobia is characterized by a disproportionate reaction of fear to stimuli or situations that do not carry real danger.

Even when the person is aware that his fear is irrational and disproportionate, he cannot control the fear, triggering physiological anxiety reactions such as tachycardia, nausea, dizziness, hyperventilation, cold sweats, chills, knot in the stomach, etc.

The symptoms are so severe that many times situations where the phobia may appear are avoided, to the point of being limiting for everyday life.

Your treatment

Psychology has developed techniques to overcome phobias; especially successful is cognitive behavioral therapy, with techniques developed for the "unlearning" of anxiety such as systematic desensitization, gradual exposure and cognitive restructuring.

The latest Advanced Therapies such as EMDR or TIC are giving very positive results in overcoming phobias and trauma, being today one of the most effective and innovative treatments together with the techniques of psychology cognitive-behavioral.

Because of our experience in the field of mental health, in Advance Psychologists we have found that this class of anxiety disorders they can hardly be dealt with by going only to the logical and rational facet of the human mind. The focus of the disturbance is in the way in which emotional memory is experienced, and therefore a complete therapeutic approach should especially affect this component.

Authors: Laura Palomares Pérez and Sofía Rodríguez de la Plaza.