Preview

Phobia Definition Essay

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1655 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Phobia Definition Essay
Fear: it is constantly around us and apart of each of our lives. Everyone at some point has had that feeling of butterflies in your stomach. Irrational fears are everywhere are known as phobias. Phobias have the potential to greatly affect the way we live our lives. However, there are different ways to overcome a phobia. It is never easy to get over something that constantly haunts you or makes you nervous, but nothing is ever as impossible as you may think. The word Phobia is from Latin and directly from Greek, meaning “panic fear of” or “fear”. Phobia is a term used to describe an irrational or excessive fear of a particular object or situation. Phobias can be acquired through classical conditioning, which is when two stimuli are repeatedly paired. People who have a phobia are constantly alert to threatening stimuli. There are hundreds of different phobias in the world and they each have their own name. Almost 2,400 …show more content…
My heart starts pounding and my pulse races. I can feel my face flush and my palms start to sweat. It is all I can do to prevent myself from breaking into a full-blown panic attack. And yet I’m not in any real danger. I’m just at the top of an escalator, making my way down to a London Underground rail platform, along with hundreds of other Londoners who don’t seem phased in the slightest, but the sight of the drop below me is the stuff of my nightmares.” This is a scenario of someone who has a phobia of dropping and their symptoms. There are many physical symptoms a person can get when they have developed a phobia. The most common symptom for a phobia is having a panic attack. Whenever a person has a panic attack over a harmless situation or an object they are reacting to their phobia. Although, you can still develop a phobia without ever having a panic attack. Some other typical symptoms include, sweating, trembling, chills or hot flushes, nausea, dry mouth, dizziness, pain or tightness in the chest, rapid heartbeat,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    An psychological explanation to understand phobias are classical conditioning which is defined as a learning process which occurs when you have two stimuli and they are repeatedly…

    • 1941 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    A phobia is a persistent fear that is excessive or unreasonable which must meet a set of criteria given in the DSM. A clinical diagnosis is made if there is no other possible physiological cause and if the symptoms cannot be better accounted for by another disorder. The individual also recognises their behaviour is unreasonable and the severity of the fear interferes with an individual’s normal functioning.…

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A phobia is an irrational fear which interferes with daily life. For a phobia to be diagnosed it must meet the criterion set by the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Reliability and validity are two important factors when considering classification of mental disorders; they must be present for an accurate classification to be made. Reliability and validity are linked because a diagnosis that is not reliable is not valid.…

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Psych 115

    • 9499 Words
    • 38 Pages

    Phobias- are anxiety disorders where an irrational fear that causes the person to fear and object, situation, or activity. It disrupts the lives of the people affected.…

    • 9499 Words
    • 38 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    A phobia is when the level of anxiety or escape behavior is severe enough to disrupt the person’s life.…

    • 1853 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    A phobia is a fear that is so irrational that the amount of fear is not warranted by cause and it interferes with the daily functioning of the sufferer (Antczak, 2011). Classical conditioning leads to phobias by way of learning. An example of a phobia is seeing a needle and fainting. You may have had a bad experience with getting a shot so once you see the needle it may cause you to have a reaction to just the sight of it (Kowalski & Weston, 2011). You know as an adult that it is painless, but the phobia kicks in and may even cause you to faint. Another example of a phobia could be to sound. If you hear a car horn honk or tires screech, followed by a crash, you then may associate every honk or screech to a car accident and you will probably stay away from that part of the road in the future to avoid these…

    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Millions of Americans suffer from phobias and addictions. Classical conditioning and Operant conditioning are psychological processes in which a person learns. Webster defines a phobia is an irrational fear towards a situation, object or thing, which in turn becomes a strong desire to prevent or avoid it. Common phobias include claustrophobia a fear of tight and closed in spaces, necrophobia is a fear of dead things in general however it is used to describe the fear of corpses. People who suffer from these and other phobias go to extensive lengths to avoid these things in question, when a sufferer cannot avoid the situation they will become overwhelmed with anxiety during the encounter or said activity. Many people have phobias from traumatic experiences that have taken place at different points in their lives. Phobias can also be caused by life experiences. If someone experiences a traumatic house fire they can develop the unreasonable fear of fire. This occurs when similar conditions are displayed or fire is present in certain situations.…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fear Vs Phobias Essay

    • 972 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Nearly everyone in the world is scared of something, for example mice or needles. For many people these are minor fears. A fear is a rational response to a situation that possibly poses a threat to our safety. It is normal to experience fear in a dangerous situation. Sometimes these fears can be very serious and interfere with day to day life and create anxiety. This is called a phobia. Phobias are said to affect 11% of the Australian population.…

    • 972 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Catcher In The Rye

    • 459 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Phobias: Is an unreasonable yet strong fear of a certain objects, class of objects or situation. Nearly half of all people report having phobia. Common phobias include fear of crowds, darkness, heights and animals such a snakes or spides. Phobia sufferers experience fear and a strong desire to escape whatever they encounter the phobic object or situation. Most people are able to aviod the object of their phobia cause personal distress or when aviodance of it interferes with a person’s ability to carry out normal activities, mental health professionals classify it as ‘ Anxiety Disorders “. These sufferes may need specialized treatment to overcome their phobias.Many phobias have a special names.The fear of heights is ‘‘Acrophobia”. Agoraphobia is the dread of open…

    • 459 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Some people may even enjoy having a strange phobia, not forgetting that some fears that clients have are realistic but it is the reaction to the situation that can be addressed. Symptoms of a phobia include excessive or unreasonable fear, recognising the fear is excessive or unreasonable, the trigger of phobic response always causing anxiety and avoidance in whatever causes the phobic response. Physical and emotional reactions to a phobia include; shallow breathing and increased heart rate at just the thought of the possibility of encountering the phobia, anxious and tense, shame, embarrassment and possibly…

    • 2002 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jermaine

    • 1105 Words
    • 5 Pages

    "Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake".(Edgar Wallace) The quote means that fear can rule your life, they can be very dangerous if you let them take over. Phobias can control a person’s life. They can cause a person to act in an undesirable fashion and do undesirable deeds. The word phobia comes from the Greek word Phobos meaning fear. A Phobia is a continuous, excessive fear response to objects or situations that are for most people are scary or mildly scary. Phobias can be life controlling. They are controlling because phobias usually involve common life situations. “If the feared situation is frequently encountered, can greatly interfere in the general conduct of life...”(Friedman 157) “Even though phobias can be overcome, while a person has one they live to avoid it. Most people let the phobia terrorize their lives while they try to avoid it, Instead of just getting help to get past it.”(Denny 125) Even though that is easier said than done it is possible to overcome a phobia with time. Phobias are terrible life mental fears that if not taken care of can control your life.…

    • 1105 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    My paper

    • 624 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Panic disorder: People with this condition have feelings of terror that strike suddenly and repeatedly with no warning. Other symptoms of a panic attack include sweating, chest pain, palpitations (unusually strong or irregular heartbeats), and a feeling of choking, which may make the person feel like he or she is having a heart attack or "going crazy."…

    • 624 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Explaining Phobia

    • 1099 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Phobias are very common. The Association of Psychiatry defines phobia as an excessive and persistent fear of a specific thing (American Psychiatric Association, 2012). Sally, who has a dog phobia since she was in second grade because of a negative experience has anxiety when she meets someone and is asked to go to a new place where she does not know if there is a dog present or not. To explain Sally’s phobia and how it was developed theories are used on how or why she developed the fear of dogs. Phobias can be explained by classical conditions, operant conditioning, and observational learning. Overcoming phobias can be done with extinction and cognitive theory.…

    • 1099 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Good Paper

    • 696 Words
    • 3 Pages

    There are literally thousands of different types of Psychological disorders among the most common are phobias. Phobia is the suffix meaning “Fear of”. Acrophobia, the psychological disorder that makes patients feels incredibly uneasy being any amount of distance from the ground depending on the severity of the condition. When Acrophobia kicks in it causes instant panic. Having Acrophobia myself, I know the feeling of being off the ground. There are treatments that are meant to help individuals cope and/or overcome the phobia of height. Acrophobia is amongst the most common of phobias.…

    • 696 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Do you have something you’re afraid of? Almost everyone does and it is completely normal to have fears. But when those fears are excessive, unreasonable, and effecting your well being, they are called phobias.…

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics