Discussion Of The Different Types Of Phobias

Fifthly, specific phobias tend to be caused by a traumatizing event that occurred in a person’s past. Phobias are an extreme fear of anything. There are many different types of phobias such as agoraphobia, ablutophobia, electrophobia, and social phobia. People with phobias typically have a mixture of anxiety and sometimes have symptoms that mimic a panic disorder, but do not necessarily have both disorders.

Agoraphobia is an extreme fear of places where escape may not be easily done, they may be embarrassed, or even helpless. Someone with agoraphobia may choose to stay home and refuse to go to the grocery store, school, restaurants, public transportation, or even stand in a line. Agoraphobics tend to stay away from these situations, because

This disorder is most commonly found in children or adolescents who are terrified to embarrass themselves in front of others. Those with this disorder have a constant fear of being judged, avoid speaking in most situations, and even have physical symptoms of blushing, sweaty, or trembling (“Social anxiety disorder (Social phobia).” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research). Social anxiety can affect simple tasks such as using a public restroom, eating in public places, talking with others, attending social activities, and even going to school or work. Someone with social anxiety may refuse to stand in front of their college class to give their presentation that may determine whether they get to graduate or not. Any normal person would present their presentation no matter what, even if they were sick, in order to graduate from college. Yet, someone with a social anxiety disorder would try anything to be able to graduate without presenting their presentation to their class. Social anxiety is believed to be a learned behavior that can easily be manipulated the same way as specific phobias, with the help of a trained

For many years, the most common treatment for PTSD was psychological debriefing. It usually consisted of a single session that took less than three hours and occurred within three days of trauma (Thomas 51). With this method, the patient would talk about their traumatic experience and it was believed that they would no longer have any symptoms of PTSD, but for the majority of patients, this method was not successful. Over the last twenty-five years, cognitive-behavioral therapy mixed with exposure therapy has been proven effective. Yet, for those that therapy alone cannot heal, normally are put on an antidepressant medication like Sertraline or Paroxetine. These medications are believed to be able to increase the number of new neurons in the brain and block the conflicting feelings caused by