Related Research Articles
A phobia is an anxiety disorder defined by a persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. Phobias typically result in a rapid onset of fear and are usually present for more than six months. Those affected go to great lengths to avoid the situation or object, to a degree greater than the actual danger posed. If the object or situation cannot be avoided, they experience significant distress. Other symptoms can include fainting, which may occur in blood or injury phobia, and panic attacks, often found in agoraphobia and emetophobia. Around 75% of those with phobias have multiple phobias.
Specific phobia is an anxiety disorder, characterized by an extreme, unreasonable, and irrational fear associated with a specific object, situation, or concept which poses little or no actual danger. Specific phobia can lead to avoidance of the object or situation, persistence of the fear, and significant distress or problems functioning associated with the fear. A phobia can be the fear of anything.
Aquaphobia is an irrational fear of water.
Panphobia, omniphobia, pantophobia, or panophobia is a vague and persistent dread of some unknown evil. Panphobia is not registered as a type of phobia in medical references.
Fear of needles, known in medical literature as needle phobia, is the extreme fear of medical procedures involving injections or hypodermic needles. This can lead to avoidance of medical care and vaccine hesitancy.
Fear of the dark is a common fear or phobia among children and, to a varying degree, adults. A fear of the dark does not always concern darkness itself; it can also be a fear of a possible or imagined dangers concealed by darkness. Some degree of fear of the dark is natural, especially as a phase of child development. Most observers report that fear of the dark seldom appears before the age of two years. When fear of the dark reaches a degree that is severe enough to be considered pathological, it is sometimes called scotophobia, or lygophobia.
Gerontophobia is the fear of age-related self-degeneration, or a hatred or fear of the elderly due to memento mori. The term comes from the Greek γέρων – gerōn, "old man" and φόβος – phobos, "fear". Gerontophobia has been linked to Thanatophobia as fear of old age can be a precursor to fear of death. Gerontophobia can be caused by harmful stereotypes of elderly people displayed in the media
Mysophobia, also known as verminophobia, germophobia, germaphobia, bacillophobia and bacteriophobia, is a pathological fear of contamination and germs. It is classified as a type of specific phobia, meaning it is evaluated and diagnosed based on the experience of high levels of fear and anxiety beyond what is reasonable when exposed to or in anticipation of exposure to stimuli related to the particular concept. William A. Hammond first coined the term in 1879 when describing a case of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) exhibited in repeatedly washing one's hands.
Phobophobia is a phobia defined as the fear of phobias, or the fear of fear, including intense anxiety and unrealistic and persistent fear of the somatic sensations and the feared phobia ensuing. Phobophobia can also be defined as the fear of phobias or fear of developing a phobia. Phobophobia is related to anxiety disorders and panic attacks directly linked to other types of phobias, such as agoraphobia. When a patient has developed phobophobia, their condition must be diagnosed and treated as part of anxiety disorders.
Exposure therapy is a technique in behavior therapy to treat anxiety disorders. Exposure therapy involves exposing the target patient to the anxiety source or its context without the intention to cause any danger (desensitization). Doing so is thought to help them overcome their anxiety or distress. Procedurally, it is similar to the fear extinction paradigm developed for studying laboratory rodents. Numerous studies have demonstrated its effectiveness in the treatment of disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and specific phobias.
Blood phobia is an extreme irrational fear of blood, a type of specific phobia. Severe cases of this fear can cause physical reactions that are uncommon in most other fears, specifically vasovagal syncope (fainting). Similar reactions can also occur with trypanophobia and traumatophobia. For this reason, these phobias are categorized as blood-injection-injury phobia by the DSM-IV. Some early texts refer to this category as "blood-injury-illness phobia."
Ailurophobia is the persistent and excessive fear or hatred of cats. Like other specific phobias, the exact cause of ailurophobia is unknown, and potential treatment generally involves therapy. The name comes from the Greek words αἴλουρος, 'cat', and φόβος, 'fear'. Other names for ailurophobia include: felinophobia, elurophobia, gatophobia, and cat phobia. A person with this phobia is known as an ailurophobe.
Gymnophobia is a fear (phobia) of nudity.
Gephyrophobia is the anxiety disorder or specific phobia characterized by the fear of bridges and tunnels. As a result, sufferers of gephyrophobia may avoid routes that will take them over bridges, or if they are a passenger, will act very apprehensively when passing over a bridge. The term gephyrophobia comes from the Greek γέφυρα (gephura), meaning "bridge", and φόβος (phobos), meaning "fear".
Fear of fish or ichthyophobia ranges from cultural phenomena such as fear of eating fish, fear of touching raw fish, or fear of dead fish, up to irrational fear. Selachophobia, or galeophobia, is the specific fear of sharks.
Blood-injection-injury (BII) type phobia is a type of specific phobia characterized by the display of excessive, irrational fear in response to the sight of blood, injury, or injection, or in anticipation of an injection, injury, or exposure to blood. Blood-like stimuli may also cause a reaction. This is a common phobia with an estimated 3-4% prevalence in the general population, though it has been found to occur more often in younger and less educated groups. Prevalence of fear of needles which does not meet the BII phobia criteria is higher. A proper name for BII has yet to be created.
Most people have a fear of medical procedures at some point in their lifetime, which can include the fear of surgery, dental work, doctors, or needles. These fears are seldom diagnosed or treated, as they are often extinguished into adulthood and do not often develop into phobias preventing individuals from seeking medical attention. Formally, medical fear is defined as "any experience that involves medical personnel or procedures involved in the process of evaluating or modifying health status in traditional health care settings."
Scopophobia, scoptophobia, or ophthalmophobia is an anxiety disorder characterized by a morbid fear of being seen in public or stared at by others.
Nosocomephobia is defined as the excessive fear of hospitals.
Submechanophobia is a fear of submerged human-made objects, either partially or entirely underwater. These objects could be shipwrecks, statues, animatronics as seen in theme parks, or old buildings, but also more mundane items such as buoys and miscellaneous debris.
References
- ↑ "Oxford Textbook of Psychopathology" by Theodore Millon, Paul H. Blaney, Roger D. Davis (1999) ISBN 0-19-510307-6, p. 82
- ↑ τραῦμα, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
- ↑ φόβος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
- ↑ Page, Andrew C; Benjamin J Tan. "Disgust and Blood-Injury-Injection Phobia". PsychNet. American Psychological Association, n.d. 16 February 2011. Retrieved 2013-10-19.
- ↑ Bienvenu, Joseph O (1998). "The Epidemiology of Blood-injection-injury Phobia". Psychological Medicine. Cambridge Journal 28.05 (1998): 2. Cambridge Journals Web. 16 February 2011. 28 (5): 1129–36. doi:10.1017/s0033291798007144. PMID 9794020. S2CID 21379517 . Retrieved 2013-10-19.
- ↑ "Traumatophobia Treatments". Phobia Fear Release. Alive and Well Online, 17 February 2011. Retrieved 2013-10-19.
- ↑ Kılıç, Cengiz; Ak, Sertaç; Ak, Hacer Birgül (2014). "Anxiety sensitivity: Another reason to separate dental fears from blood–injury fears?". Journal of Anxiety Disorders. 28 (2): 280–282. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2014.01.001. ISSN 0887-6185. PMID 24534565. S2CID 14993584.