Psychology for Everyone

Specific phobias – one type of anxiety

From the book – Chapter 8: Anxiety Disorders

Specific phobias

Main feature: marked fear or anxiety about a specific object or situation (heights, flying, animals, blood, injections, enclosed spaces, storms).

Characteristics: fear is out of proportion to actual danger; the situation is avoided or endured with intense anxiety; the fear causes significant distress or impairment. Phobias are common and highly treatable, often with exposure-based therapy.

Read the full chapter – Chapter 8: Anxiety Disorders

Stories from real life

  • The Night My Heart Raced – Arjun, twenty-nine, was in a crowded Mumbai local train when his heart suddenly pounded, his hands tingled, his chest tightened and he felt sure he was…
  • What If Tonight Goes Wrong? – Meera is a forty-two-year-old mother in Hyderabad who cannot remember the last day she did not worry. What if her son fails? What if her husband's…
  • The Back Row – Tomás, nineteen, studies engineering in Lisbon. He is clever, but he sits at the back of every class, never asks a question and hurries out. Eating…
  • The Lizard on the Wall – Sunita, thirty-eight, lives in a village near Nashik and cares for her family with great energy, except when a lizard appears. Last month one dropped near…

Shloks

  • Bhagavad Gita 6.34 – The mind is restless, agitating, strong and stubborn. To hold it, I think, is as hard as to hold the wind.

More on this topic: Anxiety, panic attacks and fear – signs, causes and what helps

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