Phobias

In the beginning, while talking about the phobias, we should most certainly clarify its description. A phobia is an intense, overwhelming, uncontrollable, and irrational fear of something, whether it is a physical something or simply a situation.
The majority of people do have some minor irrational fears, but it is only considered as phobia if it interferes with daily life and the person cannot function because of the extreme fear reaction. Most often phobias are also fallowed by these physiological symptoms: a tightening of the throat, shortness of breath, queasy stomach, elevated pulse rate and blood pressure, flushing of the face, and trembling.
Phobias are generally divided into three major types:
1) simple phobias (related with specific objects or situations);
2) phobias, from which escape is difficult (for example agoraphobia - fear of open, public places and situations);
3) social phobias.

(There are other ways to categorize phobias, eg. : 1) animal type; 2) natural environment type; 3) blood-injection-injury type; 4) situational type; 5) "other type").

While some phobias are related to a certain event or experience a person has had, many phobic people do not recall a situation that has lead them to being afraid of something so strongly. Usually phobias begin to appear during adolescence or adulthood; nevertheless they can affect at any age, in any profession and can even vanish with no time. Number of phobic people is able to confront their fears, though more commonly they avoid the situation or object that causes the fear. This avoidance impairs person’s freedom, therefore it must be treated.

There are several psychological approaches used to treat phobias. These would be so called behavioral techniques (using classical conditioning, positive reinforcement, exposure therapy and modeling), desensitization, emotive imagery, relaxation techniques (used by the hypnotist or therapist) and meditation techniques. Phobic patients who are well familiar with their own phobia can use many of the mentioned techniques on their own. Nonetheless, if the phobic patient cannot do this and phobia interferes with his daily life, individual should seek psychiatric help.