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XXXXXXXX
Ms. Jarema
College Research and Writing
11/5/2013

Phobias: The Fears Within

Does fear control the lives in which were supposed to live? If fear is in more control than
the person is, then a phobia is probably to blame. A phobia is an intense fear of something that,
in reality, poses little or no actual danger (Smith). When trying to figure out how many types of
phobias there are, there are too many to count. Phobias, though there are a lot, are only classified
into five categories, animals, natural environment, blood/injection/injury, situational, and
miscellaneous.
Every day there is always something bizarre that happens throughout the world. Sure
everyone hears about murders and satanic rituals that happen in bizarre ways, but what about
phobias? Very few people ever hear stories about fears that have altered peoples lives. Phobias
really do change lives, some may not think so until it happens to them, but having an
uncontrollable fear is one of the worst things to live with. To know that any place someone goes
to, there could be a break down or a severe panic attack because fear never leaves. Well now its
time to bottle up the irrational fears that are life controlling and its time to start facing each fear
one at a time.
Most people tend to dislike rats, because of how disgusting rats can be. But to cringe at
the mention of rats, to have a very high anxiety level without even coming into contact with a rat,
is more than just a simple little fear, is and extreme irrational fear known as a phobia. James was
a 22 year old college senior who came very close to letting his fear control his education and his
future. James was majoring in psychology at the time and to graduate James needed to pass a
required course in Laboratory Methods. These laboratory methods required students to conduct
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some learning demonstrations with rats. James was not one bit excited for this experiment due to
his extreme fear of rats which he has had since childhood. James has never had a horrible
experience with rats but the mere thought of interacting with a rat paralyzed him with fear. The
fear of interacting with rats was too much to handle, forcing James to postpone this course for
several years. James was later forced with a terrifying choice, drop out of college or face his fear.
The very first step that James had to complete was realizing that his fear was irrational, and
indeed he knew. James was then faced with a series of fear provoking experiences and was able
to conquer his fear and later graduated (Lilienfeld). See fear is only as complicated as people
make it. The more someone is scared of something and the more its ignored then the more that
fear will try and take over. Fear can be controlled.
Phobias are fears taken to the extreme. Phobias alter lives and can make people turn on
one another. There are both physical and emotional symptoms when it comes to phobias. Some
physical signs of a phobia include difficulty breathing, shaking or trembling of the body,
dizziness, and excessive sweating. As for emotional signs of a phobia this would include anxiety
or panic attacks, the feeling of being detached from yourself, fear of losing control, and knowing
that whatever is causing an overreaction to something cant be stopped (Smith). When phobias
tend to get out of control, things become more difficult in daily life. Sometimes people tend not
to realize that the person with the phobia is not the only one struggling. The families of those
who are diagnosed with a phobia have to see their loved one struggling from day to day. No one
wants to sit by and watch fear begin to consume the life of the one they love. Fear starts to
conquer but it will not win. Phobias are very life changing. When getting rid of fears,
medication does not always work. Having an extreme irrational fear can cause problems at work
and even take a toll on family.
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How much pain does fear, realistically inflict upon its victims? Many people suffer from
numerous problems due to the fear that surrounds them. When trying to separate the problems of
different phobias, some issues encountered are very alike if not the same. There are also
problems that tend to be very different from one another. The basic problems that exist for a
number of phobias would include things like, isolation. A lot of people with extreme fears tend
to feel isolated from the world around them. As their fear gets worse, the more isolated the
victim becomes, as depression begins to take over. Many people may not know that depression
plays a huge part when it comes to phobias. Dealing with a fear that cant be explained is hard.
As people try and cope with each fear, there may be a feeling that their not normal, or that the
world would be better off without them, and having the feeling of embarrassment hanging on
their shoulders, because theyre so embarrassed of their fear. If someone were to be specific
about the problems associated with another phobia then there needs to be more of an explanation.
For example, Cynophobia which is a fear of dogs, presents different problems than a fear of
heights would present. For cynophobia problems could include, not letting children be able to get
the dog they really wanted for Christmas or having to constantly avoid people within the family
that have dogs, and also never going to go to a park where dogs generally play, which is a lot of
parks, if not all. Dealing with the problems presented by fear is hard, but there are always
solutions.
How easy is it to leave a situation in which fear is in control? The fight-flight reaction
can be a serious problem when dealing with a phobia. To make it easier to understand a phobia
and the fight-flight reaction the first thing to do is to look at the psychological effects of a
phobia. According to Walter Cannon, a physiologist of Harvard Medical School, as people
become frightened their heart starts to speed up(Cannon). As the heart speeds up the blood
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vessels constrict. Its hard to realize sometimes the amount of stuff that actually happens when
one becomes frightened. The heart speeds up, the blood vessels constrict and more blood is
allowed to pour into the extremities and it prepares the frightened one to either fight or flee
(Lilienfeld). Its very interesting to think about what everyone goes through when frightened.
Some will choose to fight and some will choose to flee. As the adrenaline pumps and the anxiety
rises, the decision to fight or flee is one that must be made within a matter of time. Another name
for this fight-flight reaction is the fight-flight-freeze reaction. A perfect example of the fight-
flight-freeze reaction is a deer. Some may find themselves asking, what does a deer have to do
with the fight-flight-freeze reaction? A deer is a perfect example because deer tend to become
motionless when scared. When someone is driving down the road, their head lights beaming and
their music blasting, sometimes a deer will happen to be crossing the road. Relying on the deer to
move is a bad decision and one that could result in people getting injured. Deer freeze and tense
up when scared so therefore they cannot move out of the way. Even people can get stopped in
their tracks, frozen with fear.
Usually, if there is someone who is scared around others, there may have been a danger
discovered that is unknown to others around them. Psychologically as fear begins to take control,
it often tends to distort reality. When adaptive conservatism comes in to play, its thought of as a
reminder of the phrase better safe than sorry. Some people when faced with their fear tend to
over exaggerate their feelings towards their fear. Some people with arachnophobia, when shown
a photograph of a spider, may tend to over react and think that the spiders are coming at them.
Fear makes people believe that something is bigger than what it actually is in reality (Lilienfeld).
As people grow there is a discovery that the little things that were once considered harmful are in
fact not harmful things at all but are actually useful in some cases.
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How much fear actually corresponds with reality? As people begin to realize that their
fears, cant hurt them, the quicker people start to see fear disorders as false alarms. Fear will
trigger the fight or flight response even when there is no actual danger present (Lilienfeld).
Obviously, people know that when faced with a dangerous event such as drowning or being
eaten by a bear, that the fight or flight reaction will become very useful in their survival. The
more someone encounters the same fear over and over again the faster the decision will be made,
as to whether one should fight or flee. Fear is controlling and will not always be easy to deal
with. As fear gets stronger, and reality is distorted there is only one decision everyone is forced
to make.
Unfortunately, when it comes to phobias, there is always a lack of logic. There is always
something illogically petrifying (Haslam). Having no understanding of phobias and the
medications used to treat phobias is dangerous and can cause some serious problems. One
treatment used long ago was acetylcholine, a primary neurotransmitter that is involved with
thought, learning, and memory. It helps to sharpen concentration and perception (Child
Wisdom). There was a doctor a long time ago that actually chose to use this drug as a way of
curing his patients. Acetylcholine made the patient terrified and panic stricken. As this drug was
being given to the patient the doctor remained in the room and told the patient reassuring things
to help keep them calm. This experiment was demonstrated to see if when given the drug, the
patient could control their own anxiety attack. There was no proven benefit with this case.
Patients were being given useless drugs, which had proven no actual benefits (Haslam). Imagine
being given the same drug over and over again, being told that it will work, then finding out that
nothing has changed. Being given injection after injection of a useless drug can really cause
internal damage. The testing of drugs is constant, and the effects last a life time.
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Therapy works for a variety of different things, especially phobias. One type of
therapy that one might choose would be hypnosis counseling. Hypnosis therapy is used a
relaxation technique. During hypnosis the patients attention is focused on one thing at a time
with all outside noises or distractions temporarily blocked. If someone were to choose hypnosis
as their treatment option their going to need to be aware that when undergoing hypnosis there
will exposure of painful thoughts, feelings, and memories from their past (Mental Health &
Hypnosis). Imagine being a 16 year old diagnosed with Aichmophobia, a fear of needles or sharp
objects. An only child, with one parent, a mother whos addiction to drugs has led to the physical
abuse of her only child. The opportunity for hypnosis counseling is granted and later accepted.
Imagine sitting in the therapists office waiting, knowing that whats about to happen is going to
release emotions that were hidden in the past. The therapist comes in and begins. Once under
hypnosis the mind begins to travel back, visiting each and every painful moment experienced
since the age of 10. A week after her only kid turned 10, the mother faced with financial burdens
and the everyday struggle to feed her child becomes too much to handle. Drugs become her main
source and supply. When her child turns 12 the drug addicted mom begins to lash out. Anger
becoming uncontrollable as the intense pain inflicted on her kid starts to force tears from the
young ones eyes, having been beaten daily till the age of 14. The further the mind travels the
more painful things become. The mind starts to open up a world of hate and anger. Being 14
years old and scared to get help, thinking she will change. The abuse gets worse, as the mom
starts to force drugs into her kids system. She gives injection after injection of heroin into her
own child, the one who she is supposed to love. Needle after needle pierces the childs sensitive
skin. The pain continues to get worse as time goes by. The needles puncture marks are sore; the
tolerance for needles begins to vanish. 16 years old, having been forced injection after injection
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of heroin for two years. The body starts to break down as the drug begins to take its toll. The
hypnosis is done. As the therapist begins to create another evaluation, the eyes that have been
closed for a long time are now open. The feeling of having to face this fear is clearer than ever.
Some people tend not to realize that seeking help is only the first step, after seeking help they
must be willing to face the fear that consumes their life.
Hypnosis counseling wont always work for everyone, but perhaps immersion
therapy may be the answer. Immersion therapy is a type of exposure therapy that involves
forced, prolonged experience or contact with that persons fear (Phobia Busters: Treating
Phobias) For example, someone with arachnophobia, a fear of spiders, would have a very low
tolerance for spiders. In order for someone to overcome their fear their going to have to face it.
For instance, someone who has a fear of spiders is locked in a room full of all different types of
spiders. The fear starts to become overwhelming and their starting to have a panic attack. Then
there is a voice heard coming from a speaker hidden within the wall. The door will only open
once the fear has been faced. Their only options are to stay locked in a room with their fear or to
face their fear and be set free. Now obviously this example is extreme when talking about
immersion therapy but it does paint a pretty good picture. When someone chooses immersion
therapy its like their choosing to face their fear. Immersion therapy helps the patient to deal with
the emotions towards their fear in a safe, yet real life setting (Phobia Busters: Treating Phobias
with Exposure Therapy). Facing fear is the only way to overcome it.
Can technology really help someone overcome a controlling fear? Computers
were originally just supposed to be number-crunchers, but now their number-crunching has been
harnessed in a thousand imaginative ways to create new virtual machines(Dennett). Virtual
reality has become a huge part of todays world. From having no technology at all to now being
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able to cure disorders virtually, is just astonishing. Virtual reality therapy is a form of therapy
that provides the patient with an in-world experience and results in fewer traumas. There is a
patient nicknamed Miss Muffet who had a fear of spiders. Miss Muffets fear of spiders was so
extreme that she had duct taped all of her windows shut and always hesitated leaving her house.
Researchers decided to combine visual interactions with spiders. A visual environment called
Spider World was soon created and involved exposure to fuzzy toy spiders. After a total of 12
therapy sessions Miss Muffet was finally able to overcome her fear spiders all due to the creation
of a virtual spider world. (Phobia Busters) When a patient undergoes virtual reality therapy they
are placed in a computer generated world where they experience their fear in a world in which it
can cause no physical harm. The patient is faced with a series of anxiety-inducing experiences
and is given the opportunity to have the experience repeated over and over again until they feel
comfortable enough to go further toward their fear. So its pretty obvious that virtual reality
therapy may be the way to go. This type of therapy is so advanced that the patient can take the
sessions right in the therapists office and can take the high tech head set off if the experience
becomes too much. As the days go by it begins to get easier and easier to overcome things such
as fear. It becomes more noticeable that fear is not the only thing that controls the world; virtual
reality keeps getting bigger and bigger. One day the world alone may be nothing but a virtual
reality.
Facing fears is nothing short of nerve wrecking. According to a recent survey
when asked what scares them only 4 out of 31 people stated that there was nothing that scared
them, 7 said things like darkness or heights scared them, and 20 out the 31 people surveyed said
that some sort of animal or rodent made them scared or afraid (Phobia Survey). For a lot of
people its very hard to face a fear that has been trying to take control. When facing fears there
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are four steps that need to be followed. First off, theres exposure. The best or most effective way
to overcome a fear is to repeatedly expose yourself to that fear (Phobias & Fears 5). The more
exposed someone is to their fear the more confident they will be. Next there is a lovely thing
called the fear ladder. The fear ladder is like a list, things are written down in the order of which
they will be accomplished. As the tasks on the list get completed, the higher up the ladder
someone will go. If someone were to create this list they would need to write down scary
situations related to their phobia. Next its time to build the fear ladder. The items off the list
then need to be organized from the least scary to the most frightening. Then it comes down to
where each step must be faced one at a time until the person feels that their level of anxiety has
been gradually getting better (Phobias & Fears pg. 5). The fear ladder is more helpful than one
might think. Another great technique is the relaxation technique. When people become anxious
some of them begin to hyperventilate (Phobias & Fears). If someone was having a panic attack
the best thing they can do to help release the stress of anxiety is to breathe deeply and slowly
when first feeling the signs of an anxiety attack. Ultimately we know deeply that the other side
of every fear is freedom (Marilyn Ferguson).
Fear, does not have to be in control. The solutions for phobias are real and can help.
Everyone needs to be aware that there are all sorts of therapeutic techniques that can be very
helpful. If someone has a phobia and none of the solutions are given a chance or even tried the
phobia could get out of hand. People will never be able to live normal lives if never given the
proper treatment. The longer someone waits to get help the more extreme the problem becomes.
For a phobia lack of any treatment can increase the severity of any problems one might have.
Help is available, so accept. Dont complain later that there was no solution when the
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opportunity to get help was already presented. When offered help, take it. Do not push away the
help that is offered, the regrets could last a lifetime.
Fear may win the fight but it will not win the war. People need to be concerned
about the problems with phobias. Some may ask why? Why should they care if someone has a
phobia? People need to be concerned because as fear starts to control it becomes stronger and
stronger and eventually fear will take over some ones life. Some people might say that as long
as theyre the one who doesnt have a phobia, theres no reason to care. Dont ignore fear, face it.
Fear may never go away, but unless people start to conquer the things their afraid of, fear will
always be the winner. Phobias are very life changing. When getting rid of fears medication does
not always work. Having an extreme irrational fear can cause problems at work and even take a
toll on family.