Unreasonable Fears - Most Popular Phobias

Unreasonable Fears
The ABC’s Of The Most Popular Phobias

By Michelle Yoffee-Beard

Are you afraid of being tickled by feathers? Then you have pteronophobia. Do you have Dykephobia? If you do, you’re not afraid of lesbians, you’re afraid of justice. And if you’re Bill Clinton these days, you should probably develop a real severe case of ithyphallophobia. You can look that one up.

I personally suffer from Ornithophobia. Take me to the boardwalk where the seagulls are swooping and watch me sweat. It’s not pretty. Their pointy little beaks and their nasty webbed feet send me running for the hills. In case you haven’t guessed, ornithophobia is the fear of birds.

If you look around at everyone you know, you’ll find that just about everyone is afraid of something. For instance, my dear ol’ Dad, who could fight Goliath in all his glory, is terrified of mice. The sight of that teeny little mouse sends him into such state that a super duper dose of Benadryl doesn’t even control his hives.

While sometimes others’ fears seem outlandish and silly to us, they are very real to the sufferer and sometimes debilitating. Funny thing about most phobias is that during the panic situation, the sufferer is completely aware that the fear is illogical and unreasonable.

Phobias are anxiety disorders characterized by exaggerated and persistent fears of specific objects or situations. People who suffer from phobias experience anxiety when certain trigger situations are encountered. Many individuals practically move the earth to avoid the subject or object that evokes such uneasiness. Phobias are as common as fleas on a dog. In everyday life there are typical fears such as school phobias in children, phobic fear of flying, phobias of speaking or appearing in public (social phobias), and phobic fears of heights (acrophobia), closed places (claustrophobia) and spiders (arachnophobia). When the anxiety associated with a phobia is so severe that it causes intolerable distress or interferes with everyday life, psychiatrists diagnose a phobic disorder.

Feelings of fear are normal and good. They prevent us humans from making dangerous decisions. But when these fears become unreasonable and go askew, then there’s a problem. Among the anxiety symptoms associated with phobias are restlessness, shakiness, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, dry mouth, lightheadedness, difficulties swallowing, irritability, and difficulties in sleeping. In attempting to avoid the anxiety provoking situations, phobics often are forced to severely constrict their lives. Travel, interactions with others, even the act of going out of one’s home can be seriously affected by one of these phobias.

Basically, there are three groups of phobias — simple phobias, social phobias and agoraphobia or fear of leaving the house.

Simple Phobias
Unreasonable Fears Fear of flying in airplanes, fear of heights, fear of elevators and other closed spaces, fear of certain insects or small animals, fear of sharp objects, and fear of blood are all simple phobias. Simple phobias are often but not always preceded by a frightening experience with the feared object or situation. Once the phobia is established, encountering the object again elicits marked anxiety. Sufferers typically avoid repeated encounters and go to great lengths not to subject themselves to the feared situation again. Invariably the person recognizes that his or her fear is excessive or unreasonable. Simple phobias, the most common of all phobias, tend to be persistent and can be devastating.

Dr. Pauline Wallin, a local expert on anxiety and phobias, comments, “I once had a patient who was terrified to fly to a point where she couldn’t get on a plane. In this situation, I try first to get them close to a plane and perhaps even seated. The next step is to work on what they are saying to themselves. We then rehearse the fear before the situation.” This type of therapy, she explains, will at least eventually enable someone to fly, but not necessarily feel comfortable in doing so.

Social Phobias
People who suffer from social phobia live in fear of degradation or embarrassment in front of other people. Speaking in public is a typical trigger for the stress caused by social phobia, but the panic can attenuate to an extent of other social situations: use of public bathrooms or eating in public. These fears are enormous and can lead to extreme evasion of the feared situations. Social phobias can incapacitate people in their every day lives, including employment and social situations. They can be profoundly demoralizing.

Most of the time, social phobias rear their ugly head during the teenage years or a little beyond. As opposed to other phobias, in which women clearly outnumber men, social phobias tend to affect both men and women the same. The hard thing about social phobias is that if they are untreated from their onset, they tend to be chronic.

Dr. Wallin comments on various therapeutic techniques to be able to cope, “One approach that I try is stress inoculation training. That involves getting relaxed, deep breathing, telling yourself, ‘It’s okay, I’ve done it before.’ Say encouraging things to yourself, rather than having those ‘uh-oh’ feelings. This doesn’t make people feel necessarily relaxed but can get through it as long as they have the skill to begin with and know the stuff.”

Agoraphobia
Agoras is greek root word and literally means market. Therefore, agoraphobia is fear of open spaces or of being in crowded, public places like markets. Agoraphobia is generally understood as fear that results in extreme avoidance of crowded places, heights, standing in line, or travelling on public transportation. In some people, this type of phobia can lead to people becoming housebound.

Recalls Dr. Wallin of one past patient, “One of my very first patients was an agoraphobic man who lived in the midwest. He was referred by his minister, and he wouldn’t come downtown to see me. I started out at his house, then I moved downtown and met him in successive of churches instead of coming downtown. Eventually, he wasn’t homebound anymore, although I was never able to get him downtown.”

So, this Halloween, it’s okay to be scared out of your wits. It’s not a bad thing to go to a horror movie or a haunted house as long as your fears are kept in check and stay within the parameters of sound mental health. Dr Wallin concludes, “When you find your life is limited and you’re making decisions based on how you feel rather than practicality, you should seek professional help.”