Everyone of us have a fear or two like of lizards or insects or anything. For most of us it is mild one but for some of us it’s severe one. When a normal fear becomes a severe it is then called phobia. These phobias cause anxiety and can interfere in our daily lives.
A phobia is something that feels so harmful but in reality is causes little or no harm. It can be anything we can think of. From snakes to needles to height to close spaces to literally anything. It mostly develops in childhood but it can develop later in life too.
According to DSM phobias can be put into 5 general categories:
- Fear related to animals:
(snakes, lizards, spiders, etc)
- Fear related to nature:
(height, darkness, thunder, etc)
- Fear related to medical issues, blood:
(broken bones, injections, blood, injuries, etc)
- Fear related to specific situations:
(driving, riding an elevator, flying, etc)
- Others:
(loud noises, choking, drowning, etc)
There are some wierd phobias too that can develop to handful people at a specific time like fear of names, fear of beards, fear of ice or cold things, fear of chickens and more.
There are some signs or symptoms of phobia and they are:
Physical:
- Sweating
- Difficulty in breathing
- Dizziness
- Chest pain
- Shaking
- Churning stomach
Emotional:
- Feeling overwhelmed
- Feeling anxiety
- Feeling need to escape
- Feeling that we are dying
- Feeling unreal
Phobias can be controlled in some or the other way by self help or therapy, both are effective depending on ones situation and severity of the phobia. Self help is must try because we can control the way we feel and it can be of great help. But if not this there are therapies that are extremely helpful in coming up from phobias and the are tested as well.
