Phobias are a perception of danger associated with specific situations that can be avoided, such as heights, elevators, certain animals, social situations, or too much confinement in a space. The phobic person can live quite a normal life, as long as the phobic situations are avoided. When it becomes necuse one wais to overcome the whoa, theres it can be a mixture of emotional and physical symptoms of fear and anxiety.
Phobias come in many sizes, shapes, and colors. Some of the more exotic ones, according to Aaron Beck, are ailurophobia (cats), antho-phobia (flowers), brontophobia (thunder), and mysophobia (dirt or germs). Different phobias come into existence as society changes, with modern fears including fear of subways or radioactivity from electronic devices.
Extreme, Exaggerated Responses
Aaron Beck describes several types of beliefs held by people who are phobic. A person who is afraid of heights may believe that a building will tip over while he is toward the top or that he will fall off the landing at the summit of a skyscraper. Others with fear of heights may believe that a window will crack open, sucking them out into space with a dreadful fall. Those afraid of tunnels may be sure that the space will collapse while they are inside or that the air is contaminated, creating certain illnesses.
Masked Fears
Often phobias hide an underlying fear. For example, a person who is agoraphobic is possibly not actually afraid of space. She is afraid of something terrible happening to her while she is out in the world. It may have to do with loss of control, possible humiliation, or any number of things that can happen in this random existence we call life. A young girl who professed fear of solid food was actually, upon examination, found to be afraid of choking to death, as she had had a dreadful experience of seriously choking on some meat.
CBT for Phobias
The primary method for overcoming phobias is the behavioral practice of exposure to extinction. For example, if a person is terrified of flying, he might first look at pictures of airplanes, and then watch films of planes.
Next he might book a flight with a helpful, supportive companion, friend, or therapist. It could be a short jaunt to a nearby city. The person might use imagery to mentally rehearse each part of the experience-checking in, checking the luggage, going through security, waiting near the gate, boarding the plane, stowing the carry-on luggage, fastening the seatbelt, chatting with seat companions and attendants, enjoying a drink or a meal, reading the airline magazines, feeling the G forces of takeoff, breathing deeply and looking at the scenery, walking about the cabin, feeling the G forces of land-ing, and perhaps a bounce or two, and then deplaning and meeting family and friends at the gate. This mental rehearsal conditions the mind and body to be calm and unsurprised with each step of the process. The final step is to take an actual flight.
As with other troublesome thinking, feeling, and behavior, it may help the person to talk with a therapist about the origination of the problem and to write it all down in a journal. Giving it form and sitting it in a chair, Gestalt fashion, may help detach the phobia from the person.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) first became commonly known following the Vietnam War, when many veterans returned from the battlefield scarred with troubled memories and recurring flashbacks. Flashbacks are occurrences of the past seeming like they are happening in the present with similar emotions, visions, and even incorporation of present stimuli into the former scenario. A slammed door can seem like the thud of a mortar, and a tree is the enemy in camouflage. Such a time warp can be immensely confusing for the person experiencing PTSD, as well as friends and family close to the person.
The memory function of the brain seems to fracture in those with PTSD, awareness as broken pieces of a movie, usually with very strong emotion. War and parts of the originating trauma are hidden, sometimes coming back into veterans sometimes have blackouts during the worst of their experiences. serious injuries and deaths of buddies nearby. It is a phenomenon of human experience that when one cannot escane from what is happening, the person mentally dissociates or splits off, and the memory of exactly what happened may not be clear to the person until years later, if ever.
Flashbacks occur when one encounters a current experience that is similar to a past trauma. For example, people who are similar to an alcoholic parent precipitate reactions of panic and wanting to run away or shut down emotionally. Realizing the root of the extreme reaction and talking it through with someone helps to dissipate the power of the flashback.
