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Phobias
Background information on phobias and .
Treating causes instead of symptoms!
Phobias definition
Anxiety disorders as mental disorders that are characterized by strong, barely controllable fear reactions despite the absence of an external threat can be divided into two forms:
Non-specific and diffuse fears occur randomly, i.e. undirected, without a specific trigger.
Phobic fears, on the other hand, are always directed towards a specific situation, a place or a specific triggering object.
Examples of specific phobias include arachnophobia (fear of spiders), acrophobia (fear of heights), aviophobia (fear of flying) or dental phobia (fear of the dentist). However, people can develop a phobic fear in relation to any situation, any place and any object.
Agoraphobia, claustrophobia and social phobia are particularly well-known and widespread.
In the case of agoraphobia (also known as “claustrophobia” or “claustrophobia”), phobics are afraid of being in large public places or in front of large gatherings of people. Those affected are afraid that they will not be able to flee quickly to a place they perceive as safe and withdraw. In the background is the fear of losing control, attracting attention, behaving embarrassingly. The fear of suddenly passing water or having to vomit, blushing, fainting out of nowhere and thus attracting attention often leads to avoiding such places and situations and withdrawing.
In contrast, people who suffer from claustrophobia are afraid of confined and closed spaces. Phobics quickly feel trapped, are afraid of not being able to escape and are afraid of suffocating. For example, they avoid elevators, crowded trains and buses, airplanes, basements and changing rooms.
This form of social phobia is a massive fear of getting into social situations in which the affected person is the center of attention.
At this moment, fears of not being able to meet expectations, embarrassing themselves and being rejected as a result prevail. Such a fear of negative evaluation by others can occur, for example, before conversations with superiors, public speaking or visits to the authorities. But potential criticism and examination situations are also perceived as threatening. Depending on the severity, the mere thought of such a situation is enough to trigger feelings of anxiety.
In most cases, social phobia is the result of low self-esteem and the conviction that one cannot successfully cope with and master situations independently.
Social phobias can occur as a separate illness, but can also be a symptom of another mental disorder such as depression.
Basically, phobias can be directed towards an infinite number of situations or objects. The only question that always arises is whether they are pathological. Does the avoidance have a negative impact on everyday life? If an affected person is afraid of flying in an airplane, but does not have to do so on business and prefers to stay in their own country anyway or uses another means of transport for (vacation) travel, the fear is not further restrictive. Another decisive factor is the severity. It makes a difference whether a person only has respect for snakes or cannot enter a room in which a snake is kept in a terrarium and reacts massively with anxiety symptoms.
Phobia symptoms
Phobic fears are often accompanied by physical symptoms such as muscular tension, palpitations, feelings of breathlessness, increased sweat production, nausea, trembling or fainting. These vegetative symptoms, for which no organic cause can be found, intensify the anxiety. The mere thought of known anxiety triggers often leads to feelings of anxiety that are difficult to control, even panic attacks. Sufferers usually know that, objectively speaking, the anxiety reaction is inappropriate to the prevailing situation, but are still unable to avert the feelings of anxiety without treatment.
As the human brain filters stimuli that are important for survival from the environment, phobics react more strongly to stimuli that are relevant to the phobia, resulting in distorted perceptions. For example, people with arachnophobia may perceive a spider discovered in their surroundings as much larger than another person present who is not afraid of spiders.
Because the fear-inducing thoughts and situations are strongly feared by those affected, they try to avoid the triggers. This leads to massive restrictions on their freedom of action in everyday life and affects their quality of life. A fear of anxiety and social withdrawal are often the result.
Causes of phobias – depth psychological explanations
Depth psychological and psychoanalytical models are based on the assumption that the anxiety symptoms of phobias are an expression of an unconscious inner-psychological conflict. Such a conflict can be, for example, on the one hand wanting to act in a certain way (i.e. following the instinctive impulse), but on the other hand being opposed by a strict conscience. The conflict between desire and conscience is repressed. This results in a shift to meaningless or irrelevant situations or objects. The latter can usually be avoided more easily than the inner psychological conflicts. For example, if a person was painfully separated from a close attachment figure in childhood, the unconscious fear of experiencing separation again by being left alone or rejected can lead to phobias or other anxiety disorders. Displacement is therefore basically an avoidance strategy. The trade-off is that forbidden aspirations remain unconscious, i.e. hidden, but can be partially acted out as phobias in a distorted form.
The disadvantage is that the actual directed fear becomes an undirected, diffuse and randomly occurring fear as a result of the shift.
If the inner conflict is not uncovered, attempts can be made to alleviate the symptoms of the phobia, but the actual “cause” is not worked through.
In some cases, it is also a case of transference. This means that the fear may have been learned or adopted from a close person. For example, if a mother has a panic fear of wild boars, this model can be transferred to the child so that the child does not dare to go for a walk in the woods without the child being able to explain the cause of the exaggerated fear in adulthood.
Because the triggers of phobias can be so varied, there is usually no clear explanation as to how they came about. This must be found out and dealt with in each individual case by means of psychotherapy.
Phobias treatment
Overcoming phobias
But whatever the reason you have certain phobias, knowing about them alone will not help you. You can, however, treat the phobias/fears. Even thoroughly!
Dissolve a phobia
If you are not sure whether you really have this phobia inside you, you can test it effectively and quickly here. To open the fear test, please click on the blue circle at the bottom right of the screen. Then enter the fear to be tested in the fear test in the following format:
fear of making decisions
etc.
If the test is positive, the corresponding fear can be resolved with our Fear Therapy app. You can find the link below. The app works without confrontation and without traveling into the past! So you don’t need to be afraid of the treatment itself and can therefore do it quite comfortably on your own.
Good luck!
Question How long does the treatment take?
Answer: Every fear is different, so it is not possible to make a general statement. But it should be obvious that if you have a strong fear within you, you will also spend a long time avoiding/combating the symptoms (unconsciously and consciously).
Fear Therapy
Effective fear treatment in an app!
Effective content and techniques for treating fears/anxiety.
Thoroughly dissolve any fear, including the associated negative cognition/belief!
No direct confrontation (exposure) with the fear!
Also deals with individual cognitions and all other emotions such as shame, sadness, hate, anger, etc.
Phobia list
List of phobias
Here you will find a small list of typical phobias. The International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) defines specific phobias (ICD-10 F40.2) as fears that are limited to narrowly defined situations such as proximity to certain animals, heights, darkness or flying.
Phobia name // Fear of… // ICD-10 code
Achluophobia // Fear of darkness, also nyctophobia
Aelurophobia // Fear of cats // F40.2
Agoraphobia // Fear of (spatially) wide open spaces, travel, crowds // F40.0
Aichmophobia // Fear of pointed or sharp objects (see also trypanophobia, syringes) // F40.0
AIDS phobia // Fear of AIDS // F45.2
Ailurophobia // Fear of cats // F40.2
Acarophobia // Fear of Insect bites/infection by mites and ticks // F40.2
Algophobia // Fear of pain
Acrophobia // Fear of Height and depth // F40.2
Amaxophobia // Fear of driving // F40.2
Androphobia // Fear of men
Anthropophobia // Fear of people and society // F40.1
Aphephosmophobia // Fear of touch by other living beings; a // form of fear of contact
Aquaphobia specific // Fear of water, also known as hydrophobia
Arachnophobia // Fear of spiders // F40.2
Workplace phobia // Fear of workplace // F40.8
Doctor phobia // Fear of Doctors // F40.2
Autophobia // being alone and/or on one’s own or fear of oneself
Fear of contact // Fear of physical contact
Coitophobia // Fear of sexual intercourse
Dentophobia // Fear of dentist, dental treatment
Dysmorphophobia // Fear of disfigurement // F22.8
Enochlophobia // Fear of crowds // F40.0
Emetophobia // Fear of vomiting // F40.2
Erythrophobia // Fear of blushing // F40.2
Ergophobia work // Fear of working
Gelotophobia // Fear of being laughed at
Gephyrophobia // Fear of stepping on/crossing bridges // F40.2
Gravidophobia // Fear of pregnancy // F45.2
Gymnophobia // Fear of nudity // F40.2
Haematophobia // Fear of blood // F40.2
Heterophobia // Fear of people with different characteristics and/or attitudes
Cardiophobia // Fear of heart disease // F45.2
Homophobia // Fear of homosexuality
Hoplophobia // Fear of firearms // F40.2
Cairophobia // Fear of decisions
Cardiophobia // Fear of heart disease // F45.2
Carcinophobia // Fear of cancer // F45.2
Claustrophobia // Fear of confined spaces // F40.2
Coitophobia // Fear of sexual intercourse and sexual acts
Cynophobia // Fear of dogs // F40.2
Logophobia // Fear of speaking
Necrophobia // Fear of dead people, death and things associated with it
Pregnancy phobia // Pregnancy // F45.2
Social phobia (sociophobia) // Fear of being judged negatively by society or people in general/in social situations // F40.1
Animal phobia also zoophobia // Fear of animals // F40.2
Trypanophobia // Fear of syringes, injections // F40.2
Xenophobia // Fear of strangers
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