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Objectives
I chose this topic to expand my knowledge on the topic
‘PHOBIAS’.
I am very interested in psychology and related things.
I was keen to know about different types of phobias
and psychology behind them, why they occur, their
symptoms and their treatments.
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Certificate
This is to certify that ________________ of class
_______ have successfully completed the research on
the project ‘PHOBIAS’ under the guidance of
___________________ during the year ________.
Teacher’s signature Principal’s signature
________________ ________________
Action Plan
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First of all, the research work of the sub topics was decided
for the content.
Then all the content was arranged and a draft was prepared.
After getting it sanctioned, I started working on it.
Acknowledgem
ent
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I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my
____________ teacher ____________________ as well as my
principal __________________ who gave me the golden
opportunity to do this wonderful project on the topic
‘PHOBIAS’.
Secondly, I would also like to thank my parents and our
siblings who helped me a lot in finalizing this project within
the limited time frame.
Index
S. TOPIC PAGE NO.
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NO.
1 Introduction 7
2 Symptoms 8-9
3 Complications 10-11
4 Causes 12
5 Pathways 13
6 Risk Factors 14
7 Diagnosis 15
8 Prevention & Treatment 16-17
9 Interview 18
10 Movies 19-20
Introduction
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● A phobia is an irrational and exaggerated fear of an object or a
situation that poses little or no actual danger in reality. Simple fears
become phobias when a person goes to extreme lengths to avoid the
distressing object or situation. Phobias seem like irrational fears, but
most people have a reason associated with their fears. People of all ages
and from all walks of life across the world can develop phobic reactions.
● People display certain typical emotional and physical reactions to objects
and situations they dread. The fear may be so extreme that they may
not be able to perform normal tasks and may even become totally
paralyzed and immobile.
● Phobias result in an irrational and
instant response that creates anxiety
when exposed to the object of fear. It
is not unusual for a person to take
extreme steps to avoid the object or situation that causes fear.
● There are 530 officially recognized phobias.
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Symptoms
A person with a phobia will experience the following symptoms. They
are common across the majority of phobias:
Cognitive symptoms: -
► a sensation of uncontrollable anxiety when exposed to the source
of fear
► a feeling that the source of that fear must be avoided at all costs
► not being able to function properly when exposed to the trigger
► acknowledgment that the fear is irrational, unreasonable, and
exaggerated, combined with an inability to control the feelings
► A person is likely to experience feelings of panic and intense
anxiety when exposed to the object of their phobia.
A feeling of anxiety can be produced simply by thinking about the object
of the phobia.
In younger children, parents may
observe that they cry, become very
clingy, or attempt to hide behind the
legs of a parent or an object. They
may also throw tantrums to show
their distress.
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Physical symptoms: -
► sweating
► abnormal breathing
► accelerated heartbeat
► trembling
► hot flushes or chills
► a choking sensation
► chest pains or tightness
► pins and needles
► dry mouth
► confusion and disorientation
► nausea
► dizziness
► headache
psychological
symptoms: -
► stress
► anxiety
► depression
► embarrassm
ent
► a fear of
fainting
► losing
control
► a fear of dying
► dissociation.
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Complicatio
ns
Although specific phobias may seem silly to
others, they can be distressing and
damaging to the people who have them.
These phobias can cause problems that affect many areas of life.
They can result in:
⮚ Mood disorders. Phobias can limit
your daily activities and may cause
severe anxiety and depression.
Complex phobias, such as agoraphobia
and social phobia, are more likely to
cause these symptoms. People with phobias often purposely avoid
coming into contact with the thing that causes them fear and anxiety.
⮚ Social isolation. Staying away from places and things that are feared can
cause problems at work or school, or in connections with others.
Children with these disorders are at risk of problems at school and
loneliness. They also may have trouble in social situations if their
behaviors are very different from their peers.
⮚ Substance abuse. The stress of living with a severe specific phobia may
lead to misuse of drugs or alcohol. The unpredictable nature of phobias
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makes a person incredibly anxious and on-edge, and cause them to turn
to drugs or alcohol for relief from their anxiety. People with phobias
know that what they fear and their
response to it is irrational, but they can't
help themselves.
⮚ Suicide. Some people with specific
phobias may be at risk of suicide.
⮚ Strain on loved ones. To try to keep from feeling anxious, people often
rely too much on being reassured by others. Sometimes this leads to
others becoming too protective over the person with anxiety. For
example, a parent may become too protective of a child, resulting in
more stress for the parent.
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Causes
Phobias are when your brain takes fear and anxiety to extreme degrees.
Under ordinary circumstances, these emotions can be protective and helpful.
They’re your brain’s way of warning you that something is wrong and you
might be (or currently are) in danger. But experts don’t fully understand why
these emotions can turn into phobias.
However, several factors and processes may contribute to having a phobia.
These include:
● Traumatic experiences. These can be experiences that happen to you or
that you see happen to someone else.
● Genetics. Certain types of phobias
are more likely to happen in people
who have a relative with that type
of phobia. The types with higher
rates in family members are
animal, blood/medical
procedure/injury and situational
phobias.
● Informational transmission. Some phobias may happen because of
things you learn about or things you see or hear repeatedly.
● Learned fears. People can learn about the phobias or fears of others and
may develop a phobia as a result. This may be a factor in why people
with overprotective parents may be more likely to have specific phobia.
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Pathways
In the real sense, though, a phobia is the fear of fear itself. “A phobia is a
fear of one’s own feelings and impulses. It’s a fear of having a panic attack,
feeling trapped, of losing control or getting sick.
According to Rego, there are 3 common pathways to
phobias: -
⮚ direct conditioning, in this, an experience earlier in
life leads to the phobia—for example, being bitten
by a dog causing a fear of dogs.
⮚ vicarious conditioning in this an experience of
someone close to you leads to a phobia.
⮚ receiving information or
instruction, this can include fear of
flight after September 11, or a fear
of pit bulls after negative news
reports about them.
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Risk factors
These factors may increase your risk of specific phobias:
⮚ Temperament. Your risk may
increase if you're more sensitive
to anxiety or you're more
reserved or negative than what's
typical.
⮚ Age. Specific phobias can first
appear when you're a child, typically by age 10. But they can occur later
in life too.
⮚ A bad experience. A specific phobia can
start when something distressing
happens to you, such as being trapped
in an elevator or attacked by an animal.
⮚ Relatives. If a family member has a
specific phobia or anxiety, you're more
likely to develop it too. This could be
something passed down to you from a blood relative. Or children may
learn specific phobias by watching how a family member reacts to an
object or a situation.
⮚ Learning about bad experiences. Hearing about bad experiences, such
as a plane crash, can cause a specific phobia to start.
Avoidance is the most common way people cope with phobias. By doing so,
their anxiety typically gets worse.
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Diagnosis
● When someone recognizes that the feelings of anxiety or distress in any
type of phobia become worrying, or are interfering with daily life or
relationships, a doctor or
therapist can help pinpoint the
problem. A health professional
may start with a range of
questions to evaluate if
symptoms and behavior are
consistent with a phobia.
This can include asking about:
✔ the person's specific responses to certain situations
✔ how long the condition has been evident
✔ how often the person experiences the symptoms of a phobia
✔ how much of the person's time is taken up by thoughts of encountering
something that's feared
Based on the answers, the particular type and cause of the phobia can
be pinpointed.
Usually, the best clue to a diagnosis is if someone often or always tries
to avoid any situation that triggers the symptoms. Symptoms need to
have been present for at least six months for diagnosing specific phobias
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Prevention
& treatment
Development of a phobia cannot be prevented in the first place, but it
can be treated by various ways and techniques.
Treatment can either take place through use of medications or
psychological interventions.
Treatment using medications: -
⮚ ANTIDEPRESSANT medications are effective in treating the various
symptoms associated with social
phobia, panic attacks, and co-
occurring depression.
⮚ BENZODIAZEPINES are effective
anti-anxiety medications that
can be very helpful in the short-
term treatment of anxiety, for
immediate use during an acute
panic attack, and during
behavioral treatment as a person attempts to face their feared situation
or specific phobia. Generally, they are not used for long-term treatment.
⮚ BETA-BLOCKERS – normally used in the treatment of heart conditions –
are effective in the treatment of social phobia. They are specifically
prescribed for individuals who must perform or talk in public and require
short-term medication to stop the associated physical symptoms of the
phobia.
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Treatment using psychological interventions: -
⮚ COGNITIVE
BEHAVIOR THERAPY is a
powerful non-medicinal
psychological intervention in
the treatment of social
phobia, panic disorder, and
specific phobias.
⮚ BEHAVIOURAL
THERAPY, specifically
desensitization therapy, is
effective for certain phobias
where the person is gradually
exposed to the feared
situation while they are taught how to cope with and manage the
resultant anxiety.
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Interview
“So, there is an exposure therapy for
treatment of phobias?”
“Yes, actually after getting an exposure now you’ve got an internal
model that describes the input that you brain is receiving and that
model takes him into account a sort if model
of itself so your brain now understands the
limitations of its own system that it is part of
and the idea like I’m experiencing a certain
sort of demon running across the room. It’s
not because there is actually a scary demon but because the area of my
brain that deals with the hallucinations that create dreams is still
awake.”
“It’s like understanding things makes it way
less scary and like having things that aren’t
unpredictable happening is less scary. If you
can predict things and understand things it’s
like way less scary.”
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Movies
(Related to phobias)
● PHOBIA
Mehak Deo is a highly talented artist. An
unfortunate traumatic event - being molested by a
taxi driver, causes her to develop extreme
Agoraphobia, a condition in which the individual is
paranoid about being in public places and dislikes
socializing with large groups of unknown people.
● FEAR CLINIC
Five people with incurable phobias
seek therapy from a doctor who uses
a machine to animate their fears and
produce hallucinations. However, the
patients are unaware that the
machine's operator nurtures a
creature that feeds on horror.
Sara is one of five people that developed PTSD after surviving a bloody
shooting attack in a small diner by a masked shooter, which had the
unfortunate side effect of either worsening pre-existing phobias or
developing new ones. Like the others, she sought treatment from Dr.
Andover, a brilliant scientist and doctor that developed a new way of
treating fear-related ailments by way of his "Fear Chamber".
● ARACHNOPHOBIA
Arachnophobia is a fear of spiders. After a
nature photographer dies on assignment
in Venezuela, a poisonous spider hitches a
ride in his coffin to his hometown in rural
California, where arachnophobe Dr. Ross
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Jennings has just moved in with his wife, Molly, and young son. As town
residents start turning up dead, Jennings begins to suspect spiders, and
must face his fears as he and no-nonsense exterminator Delbert
McClintock fight to stop a deadly infestation.
● THE WALK
Acrophobia is one of the most common types of fear. Heights can be
scary, even to those who aren’t truly acrophobic. However, Joseph
Gordon-Levitt doesn’t seem to have any fear of heights at all in this film.
As a boy, Philippe Petit dreams
of performing daring feats for
dazzled crowds. As an adult, his
life's ambition comes true
when he becomes a high-wire
artist who stares death in the
face with every step. Under the
guidance of mentor Papa Rudy,
the French daredevil devises a
plan to walk on a tightrope attached to the north and south towers of
the World Trade Center. With help from his team and against all odds,
Petit attempts the seemingly impossible stunt on Aug. 7, 1974.
● THE DESCENT
Claustrophobia is the fear of enclosed
spaces. Nyctophobia is an extreme fear of
the dark. There are two phobias you
should watch out for in this movie:
claustrophobia and nyctophobia. A year
after a severe emotional trauma, Sarah
goes to North Carolina to spend some time
exploring caves with her friends; after
descending underground, the women find
strange cave paintings and evidence of an earlier expedition, then learn
they are not alone: Underground predators inhabit the crevasses, and
they have a taste for human flesh
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Student’s
Reflection
I had a really good time doing research on such an interesting
topic.
I got to know about a lot of new things and gained so much
knowledge about the phobias that I never knew existed.
This project gave me a better understanding of psychology
and how strong can some fears be that sometimes they can
even interfere with proper functioning of one’s life.
Bibliography
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Wikipedia
YouTube
Google images
www.mind.org.uk
www.medicalnewstoday.com
www.prevention.com
www.mayoclinic.org
www.medindia.net
