Phobia

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Phobia

• The word phobia is Greek, therefore any word that
  is connected to it should be Greek.
• But, Latin suppletion affixed to the Greek stem
  is common
• From www.phobialist.com/phobia_names.htm

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Three Categories

• Modern Psychiatry identifies three different
  types of phobias
• Agoraphobia
• Social phobia
• Specific phobia

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Pathophysiology

• Sympathetic nervous system activation is common
  in the phobic disorders, resulting in elevations
  in heart rate and blood pressure, as well as
  symptoms such as tremor, palpitations, sweating,
  dyspnea, dizziness, and/or paresthesias..

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• Cognitive distortions, such as fear of scrutiny
  by others or fear that one is trapped without
  escape, also are common

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• Collectively, these disorders are the most
  common forms of psychiatric illness, surpassing
  rates of mood disorders and substance abuse.
  Anxiety linked to a specific object or situation
  is the most common subtype. Severity can range
  from mild and unobtrusive to severe and can
  result in incapacity to work, travel, or interact
  with others.

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Agoraphobia

• Irrational anxiety about being in places from
  which
• escape might be difficult or embarrassing.
• (Fear of outdoors, fear of everything)
• with panic attacks without panic attacks

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Social phobia

• Irrational anxiety elicited by exposure to
• certain types of social or performance
• situations, also leading to avoidance behavior.
• Most frequent fear reported by Americans is
  Public Speaking

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Specific phobia

• Persistent and irrational fear in the presence
• of some specific stimulus which
• commonly elicits avoidance of that
• stimulus, i.e., withdrawal.

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Specific Phobia Sub Types

• animal type - cued by animals or insects
• natural environment type - cued by objects in the
  environment, such as storms, heights, or water
• blood-injection-injury type - cued by witnessing
  some invasive medical procedure
• situational type - cued by a specific situation,
  such as public transportation, tunnels, bridges,
  elevators, flying, driving, or enclosed spaces
• other type - cued by other stimuli than the
  above, such as of choking, vomiting, or
  contracting an illness

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Emotion and Behaivor

• Fear alone does not distinguish a phobia
• both fear and avoidance must be evident.

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Causes -- Explanations

• The Freudians might think that as young children
  agoraphobics feared abandonment by a cold,
  withholding mother and the fear has generalized
  to a fear of abandonment or helplessness
• (bit of a reach dont ya think)

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Conscious Experience

• modern learning theory suggests that agoraphobia
  may develop because people avoid situations they
  have found painful or embarrassing learning
  from negative reinforcement Phobia includes
  avoidance

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Direct Experience?

• However almost half of all people with phobias
  have never had a painful experience with the
  object they fear ???
• Perhaps we hear that someone has been injured by
  a snake, for example, and we become afraid too.

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What about this?

• . . . And, almost no one is afraid of cars,
• even though almost everyone has experienced or
  witnessed a car accident in which someone got
  injured.

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Evolution and Genes

• Are we inherently "prepared" to learn certain
  phobias?
• For millions of years people who quickly learned
  to avoid snakes, heights, and lightning probably
  have had a good chance to survive and to transmit
  their genes.
• We have not had enough time to evolve a tendency
  to fear cars and other modern, dangerous things.

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Possible explanations

• Another suggestion is that people generally
  develop phobias for objects they cannot predict
  or control.
• Danger is more stressful when it takes us by
  surprise

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• Humans seem biologically prepared to acquire
  fears of certain animals and situations that were
  important survival threats in evolutionary
  history
• People also seem predisposed to develop phobias
  toward creatures that arouse disgust, like
  spiders, slugs, maggots, rats, or cockroaches

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• Neuroscientists are finding that biological
  factors, such as greater blood flow and
  metabolism in the right side of the brain may
  also be involved in phobias.
• Identical twins reared apart sometimes develop
  the same phobias one pair independently becoming
  claustrophobic, for example

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• Cross-cultural psychologists point out that
  phobias are influenced by cultural factors.
• Agoraphobia is much more common in the United
  States and Europe than in other areas of the
  world

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Bee Bit Phobia

• Little girl Learned bee phobia from her mother
• High emotional imitation learning

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Agoraphobia

• Two common meanings
• Fear of crowds or situations where escape
• is difficult
• Fear of the out doors or fear of everything

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Agoraphobia

• House Bound
• Panic attack leads to decreased activity and
  ultimately to never leaving home
• Agoraphobia secondary to Panic Attack

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Agoraphobia

• Other cases where activity decreases gradually
• as fear increases, or as more and more situations
  evoke fear and avoidance
• Some of these fears can be similar to Social
  Phobia

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Social Phobia

• Very common
• Several forms
• Irrational anxiety elicited by exposure to
  certain types of social or performance situations

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Social Phobia

• is an intense fear of becoming humiliated in
  social situations, specifically of embarrassing
  yourself in front of other people.

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Genetic ?

• It often runs in families and may be accompanied
  by depression or alcoholism.
• Social phobia often begins around early
  adolescence or even younger.
• (Anxious families)

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Self image

• People with social phobia tend to think that
  other people are very competent in public and
  that they not.

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Can be very specific

• giving a speech,
• talking to a boss or other authority figure,
• dating
• Or general fear of certain social situations such
  as parties

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Normal activities

• fear of using a public restroom,
• eating out in public restaurants alone or with
  others,
• talking on the phone,
• or writing in the presence of other people, such
  as when signing a check.
• (restrooms restaurants, public places in
  general can be similar to germ phobia)

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formal summary

• marked and persistent fear of one or more
  social or performance situations in which the
  person is exposed to unfamiliar people or to
  possible scrutiny by others.
• The individual fears that he or she will act in
  a way (or show anxiety symptoms) that will be
  humiliating or embarrassing

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Specific Phobias

• Marked and persistent fear that is excessive or
  unreasonable, cued by the presence or
  anticipation of a specific object or situation
• (e.g., flying, heights, animals, receiving an
  injection, seeing blood).

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Superstition

• What is superstition?
• Similar to Phobia?

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• The word "superstition" means something standing
  above, or set above. The earliest English uses of
  the word in the modern era refer critically to
  Catholic practices such as censing, rosaries,
  holy water and other practices that Protestants
  believed went beyond - or were set up above -
  their own interpretation of the New Testament
  practices of Christianity. From there the uses of
  the term expanded to include non-Christian
  religious practices, and beliefs that seemed
  unfounded or primitive in the light of modern
  knowledge.

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• Many extant superstitions arose before and
  during the time of the Plague that swept over
  Europe. During the time of a plague, Pope Gregory
  the Great made a decree for people to say God
  bless you when somebody sneezed this was said
  to prevent the spread of the disease

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Modern meaning

• From the Reformation the uses of the term
  expanded to include non-Christian religious
  practices, and beliefs that seemed unfounded or
  primitive in the light of modern knowledge.

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• In Western folklore, superstitions associated
  with bad luck include Friday the 13th and walking
  under a ladder

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• When a person goes out to hunt animals, the
  people who stay at home may not touch oil or
  water with their hands during the absence of
  their friend for if they did so, the hunters
  would all be "butter-fingered" and the prey would
  "slip through their fingers".

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• Many believe that if all of the candles on a
  birthday cake are blown out with one breath,
  while making a silent wish, the wish will come
  true.

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• If a penny is found heads up, it will grant good
  luck, however, tails up will grant bad luck. This
  can be "undone " by then giving the penny to
  someone else heads-up

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• Good Luck Superstitions A frog brings good luck
  to the house it enters. A spider spinning in
  the morning. Carry an acorn to bring luck
  ensure a long life

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Treatment