Phobia, which is a type of anxiety disorder, is defined as the severe fear of a certain situation, living-inanimate entity or place. People with phobias perceive certain dangers to be more threatening than they actually need to be, and significantly avoid these perceived dangerous situations. When these people are faced with the conditions that are the object of the phobia, they experience great distress, which can manifest itself in the form of a state of complete panic and horror.

Phobia

How do phobias start?

Phobias emerge at the stage where conditions such as a certain object, animal and place, which are the object of fear, are tried to be avoided and life is shaped accordingly. Phobias are much more severe and serious than the ordinary feeling of fear, they affect the person's life much more deeply.

When the phobic object is a situation that the person will encounter very rarely (e.g., in the phobia of snakes), it is unlikely that daily life will be affected. However, in some complex types of phobias, the life of the person is affected more seriously (e.g., when there is fear of going out of the house and being in crowded places, as in agoraphobia, or when there is a fear of being with other people or speaking in public, as in social phobia).


How many types of phobias are there?

Specific phobias: It is the state of extreme fear of specific and specific living-inanimate objects, places or activities. The following examples are the most common types of such phobias:

 Phobias for situations such as encountering animals such as dogs, snakes, spiders, going to a high place, entering water

Complex phobias: As in social phobia and agoraphobia, the person's fear and anxiety do not appear in a single object, but in many different fields.

Social phobia (social anxiety disorder):  It is defined as the state of being highly anxious in certain social conditions. Social phobia is defined as the state of extreme anxiety that occurs in environments such as weddings, conferences, where the person may feel unfamiliar, and during actions such as public speaking that he thinks will attract all attention to himself. The underlying idea is exaggerated assumptions about being misjudged, ridiculed, or ridiculed by people. As a result, the person begins to isolate himself from many fields in which he can be successful. Social phobia usually emerges during adolescence and early adulthood.


Agoraphobia (fear of open spaces):  Agoraphobia can be defined as the person avoiding being in places that he thinks he can easily escape and experiencing extreme fear when he is in these places. In agoraphobia, the behavior of avoiding closed places such as buses, minibuses, shopping malls and cinemas is evident. Agoraphobia is a condition that almost always occurs with panic attacks. A person who has a panic attack will tend to stay away from any place where he thinks that he will be unaided and lose control if he has a panic attack. For example, patients with agoraphobia may not want to leave the house without someone else's presence, and may avoid places where they cannot easily reach the doctor and hospital.


How common are phobias?

About 8% to 18% of the population has some type of phobia. Phobias are more common in women. Simple phobias often appear in childhood. Complex phobias appear in early adulthood or later.


What symptoms are seen in phobia?

Uncontrollable anxiety when confronted with the fear object. Absolute avoidance of the fear object, even visualization of the fear object in some patients, can be extremely disturbing. Panic seizure symptoms that occur when the fear object is encountered, e.g., sweating, shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, chills, hot flashes, choking sensation, chest pain, nausea, numbness in the hands and feet, dry mouth, dizziness and headache.


What is the cause of the phobia?

In simple phobias that begin in childhood, an unpleasant and unexpected experience can cause phobia. Sometimes phobias emerge as learned behaviors, a child who experiences the phobia of another person in the same house may develop a phobia against the same object. However, blood phobia and phobia of medical procedures have inherited features.


In the development of complex phobias seen in early adulthood, the effects of hereditary features and life events are more evident. The fear of open spaces, called agoraphobia, is almost always due to panic attacks. During the development of phobia in people with phobia, some chemical changes occur in the fear-related centers of the brain.


How is a phobia diagnosed?

Phobia patients are often aware of their phobia. However, since simple phobias do not usually cause serious life problems, people with this type of phobia do not complain much about their phobias and usually do not consult a physician. The situation is different for complex phobias. Serious functional impairment is seen in these phobias and these patients come to the physician much more frequently.


Could you have a phobia?

If you are seriously worried about at least one of the following situations, you are likely to have some type of phobia:

• go out of the house

• Queue, stand in line

• Using the subway, crossing bridges or underpasses

• Being alone at home

• Being in crowded areas

•being in confined spaces such as Cinema, minibus, elevator etc

• Encountering a specific object