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Phobia The word Phobia itself runs a quiver thru the nerves of many people. The best synonym of phobia is fear. Fear in simpler form is an emotional reaction to something that seems dangerous. It is normal that people fear those things which they would feel unsafe or doubtful. As it was said by H. P.
Lovecraft, The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear. A fear can be healthy if it cautions people to stay safe or away from those things that could bring some kind of danger to them. But a phobia is a strong irrational or excessive fear of something that poses little or no actual danger. To a person with phobia the danger feels so real that it preoccupies their minds. In fact, it is a disorder out of anxiety or fear for certain objects or situation created out of imagination. Phobia makes people continuously worry about certain thing or situation thereby making them distracted from their normal activities.
The symptoms or signs that are shown by the people with phobia are feeling of panic, shortness of breath, tremor, and rapid heartbeat. These signs are automatic and uncontrollable causing people to get away from their thoughts and activities. Some phobias develop after a person has a scary experience with a particular thing or situation. It is caused by an abnormal fearful response to an imaginary danger that is irrationally exaggerated. Phobic reactions can be developed towards animals, activities or situations, etc.
Phobias are of different types. Phobic people try their maximum to avoid the feared situation or object. Psychologists categorized phobia according to the cause of the reaction and evasion. The most common kind of phobia is Social Phobia. A person with social phobia fears being watched by others. They fear being humiliated while doing something in public.
People are often afraid of public speaking which is the most common social phobia. In this, people try to avoid social interaction and interpersonal relation as it would bring phobic reactions to them. This is not a very silly matter as it makes them difficult at their work, school and all other phases of life. Studies show that social phobia generally develop after puberty.
Another major type of phobia is Agoraphobia where people fear of being alone in any place or situation where they feel escape or a help would be difficult. People with Agoraphobia may avoid being alone on bridges, busy streets and other crowded areas. These kind of people even hesitate to get out of their homes without a company with them. It is a difficult situation as they might always need someone to accompany them even for any urgent need of going out. Apart from the above mentioned, there is phobia on certain specific object or situations like fear of animals, fear of height, fear of darkness, etc. This would be more difficult when the specific object is common and unavoidable.
Phobia is not a sign of weakness or silliness. It is a response of the brain to any danger in order to protect a person from it. It is a small structure of brain called amygdala that records the experiences that generate strong emotions. Once a strong emotion or fear is generated by some situation, then the amygdala gives an alarm every time the person comes accross the same fearful situation. For example, if a person has phobic reaction to height (acrophobia), the person might avoid a rope way which is safe otherwise.
Psychologist advice that any phobia that get in the way of ones daily activity and create extreme difficulty should be treated. Cognitive behavioral therapy, medication or both can help relieve phobia. In medical science phobia is quite an interesting disorder to learn. But definitely it is a grave experience that cannot be taught plainly by words. A fear is feared when one experiences the fear.
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Research essay sample on Thing Or Situation Phobic Reactions Phobia
