It is absolutely natural to be afraid of something. But sometimes this condition gets out of control and begins to affect our lives. We talked with clinical psychologist Marina Gavrilova about how to distinguish an obsessive phobia from ordinary fear, and whether it is possible to get rid of it.
What is fear
Fear is one of the basic emotions. It allows us to recognize threats and protect ourselves from them in a timely manner. We can say that the ability to experience fear is our natural mechanism. As with other basic emotions (sadness, anger, disgust, surprise, pleasure), fear is familiar to every person. It can be associated with various stimuli – potentially dangerous situations.
What is a phobia
A phobia is an irrational fear that is persistently tied to a specific phenomenon or situation. It occurs in the presence of a stimulus or in anticipation of it. Probably, each of you at least once in your life has met people who travel only by land, so as not to end up on an airplane under any circumstances. Or those who run out of the house when they see a spider on a dusty baseboard. The fear that people with phobias experience is not associated with a real threat. However, the psyche reads the stimulus as something truly dangerous. Therefore, a person with a phobia tries in every possible way to avoid “meeting” him.
Thus, a phobia is not the highest degree of fear, but a qualitatively different, more complex state that includes the experience of fear. But besides this experience, there are other components in it – disproportion to the real danger and avoidant behavior.
What are phobias?
From a medical point of view, phobia is a subtype of anxiety disorder. At the moment, the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, is in force in our country. It includes three categories of phobic disorders:
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agoraphobia – fear of situations, the way out of which may be difficult and in which help may not be available (being in a crowd, public transport, or in very crowded places like shopping centers becomes an incentive);
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social phobias — fear of negative evaluation from others (the incentive can be real or potential interaction with people: public speaking, going to the supermarket, or even a Zoom conference);
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specific or isolated phobias – fear of a certain stimulus for no apparent reason (someone is inexplicably afraid of insects, the dark, someone is afraid of water, heights, thunderstorms, the sight of blood or injections).
In my practice, social phobias are most common, usually significantly limiting life. People with such phobias experience difficulties in communication, including everyday communication; they find it more difficult to complete work tasks and build close relationships.
Why specific phobias are the most common
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Lack of motivation to get rid of the phobia. A phobia may not limit a person’s life so much that he wants to solve this problem and consult a psychologist. For example, if I love road trips with my family, I can generally live without flying.
What influences the occurrence of phobias
Phobia, like other mental disorders, is formed under the influence of biology, psychology and a person’s social environment.
Biological factor
Genes, anatomical, physiological and biochemical features play a significant role in behavior. For example, for survival it was important for our ancestors not to fall from a great height, not to walk in the dark, not to lose blood and not to spoil relations with their fellow tribesmen. Consequently, those of them who feared these phenomena survived. It is their genes that have stood the test of time and come down to us.
Psychological factor
A person’s personality traits, behavioral patterns, and character traits also influence his fears. Suppose we are initially characterized by increased sensitivity, anxiety, and a tendency to avoid some tense situations. This greatly increases the risk of developing a phobia.
Stress
When a difficult situation provokes feelings of anxiety or intense mental stress, this can become a trigger for the onset of a mental disorder.
Social factor
We are greatly influenced by the characteristics of family upbringing, cultural environment, and socio-economic context. Thus, vivid and detailed media coverage of news related to plane crashes, coupled, for example, with high anxiety, contributes to the formation of aerophobia.
So-called learning mechanisms
Let’s imagine that throughout his childhood, a child, flying with his parents on airplanes, observes his father’s panic during takeoff and landing. Or he was lucky enough to live in a dacha next door to a very biting dog, which more than once came running in the midst of play and sank its teeth firmly into the leg of a running child. This creates fertile ground for a person to learn to be afraid of dogs and to fly airplanes.
It is important to understand that these factors do not always have one hundred percent influence on the occurrence of a phobia in a person. Here we are talking about probabilities rather than patterns.
How to recognize a phobia
Consultation with a specialist
A psychiatrist has the necessary knowledge to assess the nuances of your condition and make the correct diagnosis, which we cannot do on our own.
“Beacons” that may suggest the presence of a phobia
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Intense anxiety or fear in certain situations. For example, with social phobia, they arise when you have to talk on the phone, give a presentation, go on a date, or simply post on a social network. With specific phobias, you experience fear in situations of expectation or encounter with a frightening phenomenon or object (flying on an airplane, going to a zoo where there are snakes, and so on). If you have agoraphobia, you anxiously await your rush hour ride on the subway.
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Avoidance behavior. Sometimes the emotions of fear and anxiety are so intense that you avoid situations that trigger you at all costs. You don’t use social networks, try not to use public transport, don’t answer the phone, refuse dates.
How to deal with phobias
Exposure therapy
This type of help is built on overcoming avoidant behavior. Its essence is a gradual “approaching” to the object of the phobia. When we stop “running” from a scary object or situation, we have the opportunity to face harmless consequences. This is how the brain gradually stops perceiving an object or situation as a danger.
For example, in the case of a fear of heights, we may first imagine for a long time that we are at a height. Then, together with a psychologist, spend some time on the second, fifth, fifteenth, twenty-fifth floors, and in the finale, spend a long time at altitude alone. It is important to do each exposure for a sufficient amount of time so that anxiety can decrease without avoidance.
Cognitive behavioral therapy
This type of therapy is effective in treating anxiety disorders. Working with a psychologist in this area can help plan exposure therapy so that it does not increase anxiety and avoidance. CBT provides support along this difficult path, supports motivation, and also works with thoughts and beliefs that support the problem.
Independent work
The most important thing to start with is motivation. It doesn’t matter whether we are talking about contacting a specialist or about self-help, the first thing you should decide is how overcoming a phobia will improve your life.
I also recommend checking out the self-help book Freedom from Anxiety by Robert Leahy. It details the rules for preparing and conducting exposures for each type of phobic disorder.
How to behave if a loved one has a phobia
Accept that your loved one is having a hard time
Anxiety and fear are usually not the most comfortable states for us. It is also normal that in a certain situation you remain calm, unlike your loved one. We all really feel differently. If at some point it seems to you that the person is “making it up,” because the situation is “not at all dangerous,” try to accept that he may feel completely different. And such accusations can affect the trust between you.
Provide emotional support
As a loved one, you can be with a person in difficult moments, help in carrying out exposures. To do this, it would be useful to conduct “research” and find out more about the condition of your loved one from literature or other sources.
Don’t take on the role of “deliverer”
There are often cases when close people, seemingly with the best intentions, make unsolicited exposures. For example, they bring a spider into a house, they deliberately turn off the lights in an apartment without asking, or they can push a person into water. Not only can these behaviors affect relationships, but they can also increase fear and avoidance. It is also important to understand that in overcoming a phobia, as in the case of any other problem, the responsibility lies with the person himself.
