Mental Health Focus on Phobias

From the webmaster: A phobia can be anything about which you have an irrational fear. Almost everyone has some kind of mild phobia about something and these mild fears are often triggered by an event in the person's life.

For example, I tripped and stumbled while going up the stairs at an event once and I had a mild phobia about that for some time, because it was embarassing. However, it never kept me from walking up stairs and that's where fear can become a debilitating phobia.

I also have one of the most weird phobias I've ever heard about. When I have to wait for a train to cross the tracks, and then I have to drive over the tracks immediately, I have this irrational fear that the tracks will be so hot from the friction and weight of the fast-moving train, that it will melt my tires and stick me to the track.

Although I'm sure many of you find that humorous, as I do myself, but if that fear were to grow so great that I couldn't cross a railroad track after a train, it's easy to see that it would become a major problem for me, at least when driving.

It's important to be sensitive if you have someone in your life who has phobias because something you think is perfectly harmless might be terrifying to them. For example, I got sucked into watching that reality show "Armed and Famous" (it's about celebrities who become cops and I'm sorry to say I have watched it a few times) and happened to see the episode where LaToya Jackson went to a house to answer a police call and the woman in the house had a little kitten. For most people, the presence of that cute little kitten would have elicited no response or a positive one. For LaToya the reaction was instant and intense fear. She could not go near the cat.

This type of inability to deal with a common situation is what often happens when a person is derailed by a phobia. Here's some more info about phobias:

A phobia is a fear gone haywire. Fear so strong, of something or someone, that it impedes natural action. If a specific fear of something prevents you from enjoying life fully, you may find that very phobia listed below. I was totally amazed at the, apparently endless variety of phobias. Did you know that some people fear depth? Enough for that phobia to have a name? Or that others fear slime, plants or anything new? Not only does this comprehensive list address hundreds of phobias but if you click over to the site from which we took this info, you'll read more about phobias, what causes them, and what you can do to effectively manage them in your own life.

Although there are many hundreds of different phobias, all phobias are in fact very similar: a particular stimulus, be it spiders, snakes, or pretty well anything else triggering the phobic individuals fear response when it isn't appropriate. This list covers common phobias such as fear of spiders, fear of flying, fear of heights, etc but also lists even the most obscure phobias. Visit the website for more detailed information on each phobia listed below.

This information courtesy of Change That's Right Now

click here for the complete list of phobias

What to do if you have social anxiety disorder
This condition is actually a form of social phobia which can manifest in a general way (acute anxiety whenever in any social situation) or specifically (anxiety when in specific social situations).

If you feel you may have a social phobia (read more on this below) read about the treatment options which include Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Exposure Therapy and Medication.

What are social phobias?
A person suffering with this type of anxiety disorder feels unable to be in public for fear of something terrible happening.

They will often imagine that they are being watched by others and evaluated in a negative way or that they are about to do something that will humiliate them or embarass them in some traumatic way.

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