Specific Phobia

Specific phobias are intense fears that may come to limit your life. Specific Phobia is characterized by intense, irrational fear reactions to a particular object, place or situation leading people to dread confronting common, everyday situations, or avoid them altogether, even though they know that there isn't any threat of danger in reality.

In specific phobias people experience intense, irrational fears of certain objects or situations such as dogs, closed-in places, heights, escalators, tunnels, driving, swimming, flying, and injuries involving blood are a few of the more common ones.

Diagnoses Criteria for Specific Phobia:

• Persistent fear that is unreasonable due to the presence of a specific object or situation (swimming, flying, heights, animals, seeing blood).
• The person realizes that the fear is unreasonable or out of proportion.
• The person avoids the phobic situation or is endured with intense fear.
• Exposure of the phobic situation to the person can almost invariably provoke an immediate anxiety response, which may take the form of panic attack.
• The Specific phobia interferes significantly with the person's normal routine, occupational functioning and social activities.

Causes of Specific Phobia:

• Direct experience of the object that a person is afraid.
• Person having a panic attack in the presence of the traumatic situation.
• Observed someone facing the traumatic situation.
• The person develops anxiety as he hears about traumatic object or situation.

Categories of Specific Phobia:

• Animal type: Phobias relating to animals, insects etc.
• Blood/injury type/injection: This Phobia consists of a persistent, fear of blood, bodily injury of any type, and getting injection with a needle.
• Environment type: Phobias relating to heights, water or even thunderstorms.
• Situational type: Phobia related to small confined spaces and being afraid of the dark.

Treatment of Specific Phobia:

Treatment of phobias usually has a behavior therapy focus but in some instances drug therapy may also be tried.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy:People with specific phobia are gradually introduced into the very situation that normally causes them anxiety. Through this they learn how they can control their anxiety while gaining greater and greater exposure to their phobic situation. Behavior therapy can be extremely effective when used in conjunction with relaxation techniques.
Medication: Medications such as monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) or imipramine, benzodiazepines, can be very effective in helping people control their anxiety caused by their phobia.