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According to the Cambridge International
Dictionary of English, a phobias is "extreme fear of a particular
thing or situation, especially one that cannot be reasonably
explained." Some mental health professionals
would add that a phobia is a fear that interferes in a person's life. So,
if you have a fear of flying and it causes you to cancel trips or plan
around your fear it would be considered a problem. Some
estimate that twelve percent of the population will experience a phobia at
some point in their lives.
Nature of
Anxiety And Phobias
Phobias can cause intense anxiety, accompanied by its various
physical and emotional symptoms, the phobic individual is reacting to a specific abject or
situation which can to some extent and without great inconvenience, be avoided. As long as
the feared event, object or situation is not an integral part of the persons life, he/she can
remain free from the anxiety effects of phobia. For instance, someone who has an
intense fear of flying, can usually find ways of getting to places without going on an
aeroplane. The anxiety sufferer however, cannot always pinpoint the source of his anxiety.
And even if he can identify the cause, he cannot avoid encountering it; either the demands
of his daily life force him to confront the feared circumstances, or he has so completely
internalised his fear that the source of it is within himself. Sometimes it is necessary
for a person to experience fear in order to acknowledge the threat of a real danger and
prepare himself to meet it. A certain degree of anxiety may accompany such fear. But the
person who suffers from excessive anxiety or phobic reactions is not responding to the
realities of the situation. He may be anticipating a threat to his well being when there
is little likelihood of it happening.
Understandings From
Research
What has been found in research
in the last 20-30 years is that people can learn to overcome their fears through
exposure and other behavioural techniques. Exposure can be a very effective
way of dealing with anxiety, in the long run. It means that you face up to or expose
yourself to those situations, which made you anxious and which you have been avoiding, perhaps for a very long
time. The aim is to learn that you can, in fact, cope with these difficult
situations and that they are in fact not dangerous.
What is Exposure
See the Behavioural Therapy information
sheet on this web site
11 November 2002 14:01:35
© Michael Townend
Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist
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