Phrightening Phobias

8/12/2019 Phrightening Phobias

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By NATALIE ALARCON

Phrightening phobias



BY NATALIE ALARCON

New York, NY

© 2013

Phrightening phobias



Introduction

Medical Phobias

Animal Phobias

Environmental

Phobias

01 02

03 04 Hemophobia............................ 21

Iatrophobia ............................. 24Dentophobia ........................... 27

Trypanophobia ....................... 29

Ophidiophobia .........................10

Ranidaphobia ......................... 12

Ophidiophobia .........................14

Arachnophobia ........................16

Astraphobia ............................ 31

Aquaphobia ............................. 33

Hydrophobia ........................... 35

What is a phobia?......................4

What are the Symptoms? ........7

How Common Are Phobias? ....9

contents

Table of

4



Situational Phobias05 06 Acrophobia .............................41

Bathmophobia ........................43

Climacophobia ........................47

Aerophobia .............................49

Phobia TreatmentTherapy ................................... 53

Medication .............................. 55

5



AnimalsPhobias of Animals

Imagine being in the dark alone with the largest snake

in the world. Not being able to move chills runs down

your spine and the hair on your body stands tall! You

feel the snake’s slippery rough skin against you arms.

Squeezing its body tightly around your legs, you begin

to feel like you are about to suffocate. As you being to

scream for help, you realize it was just a dream.

9



Fear of snakes is one of the most common

phobias, yet many people have never

seen a snake in person. So how is this fear

generated? New research suggests humans have

evolved an innate tendency to sense snakes — and

spiders, too — and to learn to fear them.

Psychologists found that both adults and

children could detect images of snakes among

a variety of non—threatening objects more

quickly than they could pinpoint frogs, owers or

caterpillars. The researchers think this ability

helped humans survive in the wild.

“The idea is that throughout evolutionary

history, humans that learned quickly to fear snakes

would have been at an advantage to survive and

reproduce,” said Vanessa LoBue, a post— doctoral

fellow in psychology at the University of Virginia.

“Humans who detected the presence of snakes very

quickly would have been more likely to pass on

their genes.”

Previously, anthropologists have suggested

the need to notice snakes in the wild may have

led early primates to develop better vision and

larger brains. The researchers were inspired to

investigate the fear of snakes when they thought

about how universally people dislike the slithering

legless lizards.“This feeling is really common,”

LoBue told LiveScience. “We don’t see snakes

all the time. There’s really no reason for this

overwhelming disgust or hatred of snakes.”

“I have almost a phobia of snakes,” DeLoache

said. “When I see a picture of a snake, I’m like, “Oh

my God, eew! The reason we got into this research

was because I’ve always been fascinated by how

it is that people develop it. My intuition was that

there was something that made me feel afraid of

snakes early on. You react to them very early on.”

said DeLoache

Snakes are often feared as many people nd

their appearance unsightly, slimy and disgusting.

The gliding movement of a snake can literally make

their skin crawl. Evidence suggests that many

individuals suffering from ophidiophobia, do not

actually have any direct contact with snakes. This

implies that ophidiophobia is triggered genetically.

This phobia is sometimes understandable and in

fact, not irrational at all, as some snakes are very

poisoness and can cause harm to humans. Snakes

have fangs and often people are afraid of receiving

a fatal snakebite. Children are often anxious about

snakes as adults tend to tell them that they are

dangerous. The phobia is usually more apparent

in children over the age of four, although, younger

children will often show signs that they are worried

or cautious.

Ophidiophobia Fear of Snakes

10

The fear of snakes is possibly the most common

subcategory of herpetophobia, or fear of reptiles.



Why Do Boys and Girls Respond

Differently to Snakes?It worked for the girls, but not the boys.He found

that “11-month old girls — but not boys of the

same age — associated recurrent threats with

fearful faces,” according to the study. Interestingly,

when the babies were shown owers or other

nonthreatening images along with faces showing

either fear or happiness, it made no difference.

That suggests the presence of a bias to

recognize that snakes may be threatening, but not

owersDeLoache and LoBue tested infants (8 to 14

months old) and 3-year—old children and adults

to see if they found images of snakes more quickly

in a matrix of several images than they found

harmless objects, like owers. In all three cases the

participants found snakes faster than owers.

SymptomsThe fear of snakes can be tricky to diagnose, as

symptoms can vary widely between sufferers. If

you have mild ophidiophobia, you may fear only

encounters with large or venomous snakes. If your

phobia is more severe, you may be afraid of smaller

snakes as well. You may even be unable to look at

photographs or television shows in which snakes

appear.

It is important to distinguish betweenophidiophobia and herpetophobia. If you are

also afraid of lizards, from small geckos to six

foot Komodo dragons, then your phobia is more

properly termed herpetophobia. Your symptoms

may include, but are not limited to, shaking, crying

or running away from snakes. You may experience

heart palpitations or have difculty breathing. You

may nd it difcult or even impossible to remain

in the same room as a snake.

EffectsOphidiophobia can be insidious. Over time, you may

begin to fear things that are not directly related to

snakes themselves. For example, you may become

afraid of pet stores that offer snakes for sale. You

may avoid camping or hiking trips, or even zoos

and nature preserves. You may also develop a

secondary fear of other reptiles.

DiagnosingThere are a number of common myths about

snakes. If you have never handled one, you may

be nervous that it will be slimy or disgusting or

afraid that you will be crushed by a constrictor.

The symptoms listed above, on the other hand, are

out of proportion to normal nervousness and may

indicate an actual phobia.

TreatmentThe most common treatments for snake phobia are

based on cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques.

You may be encouraged to talk about your fear

and taught new messages to replace your fearful

self-talk. You may also be slowly exposed to snakes,

beginning with photographs and gradually building

up to a live encounter with a small snake in a

controlled environment.

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Ranidaphobia Fear of Frogs

Ranidaphobia is considered to be a specic phobia and is

also related to Batrachophobia (fear of amphibians, such

as frogs, newts, salamanders, etc).

Imagine traveling back through time millions of

years to the age of the dinosaurs. Pterodactyls

glide above a soggy marsh. Nearby, a colossal

80-ton Brachiosaurus munches on a tree. On the

ground at its feet, something strangely familiar

hops by: a frog.

Ichthyostega, prehistoric predecessor to the

modern frog, lived 370 million years ago during

the Devonian Period. Sometimes referred to as“the rst four-legged sh,” skeletal remains of this

earliest-known amphibian were rst discovered in

East Greenland.

Surprised? Few people realize just how ancient

frogs are. For 190 million years, the ancestors of

modern frogs have roamed (if not ruled) the earth,

looking much the same as they do today. The secret

to their success is their amazing adaptability.

As amphibians, frogs have one webbed foot in

each of two worlds. The advantages of this double

life are clear to see: Are land predators giving you

trouble? Dive into the water. Not enough to eat in

the pond? Hop out and see what they are serving

on shore.

Frogs have evolved to live in an astounding

variety of climates. They can be found just about

anywhere there’s fresh water, from the desert to

the Arctic, on all continents except Antarctica.

Though they thrive in warm, moist tropical

climates, frogs also live in deserts and high on

15,000 foot mountain slopes. The Australian

water—holding frog is a desert dweller that

can wait up to seven years for rain. It burrows

underground and surrounds itself in a transparent

cocoon made of its own shed skin.

Like all amphibians, frogs are cold-blooded,

meaning that their body temperatures change

with the temperature of their surroundings. When temperatures drop, some frogs dig burrows

underground or in the mud at the bottom of ponds.

They hibernate in these burrows until spring,

perfectly still and scarcely breathing. Wood frogs

can live north of the Arctic Circle, surviving

for weeks in a frozen limbo state. This frog uses

glucose in its blood as a kind of antifreeze that

concentrates in its vital organs, protecting them

from damage while the rest of the body freezes

completely solid.

Frogs have a reputation for leaping that is well

deserved. Launched by their long legs, many frogs

can leap up to twenty times their body length.

(That would be about a 100—foot jump for you or

me!) The longest frog jump on record was made by

a frog named Santjie at a frog derby held in South

Africa. Santjie bested the competition with a jump

of 33 feet 5.5 inches.

12



CausesIt is generally accepted that phobias arise from

a combination of external events (i.e. traumatic

events) and internal predispositions (i.e. heredity

or genetics). Many specic phobias can be traced

back to a specic triggering event, usually a

traumatic experience at an early age. Social

phobias and agoraphobia have more complexcauses that are not entirely known at this time.

It is believed that heredity, genetics, and brain

chemistry combine with life—experiences to play a

major role in the development of phobias.

Symptoms As with any phobia, the symptoms vary by person

depending on their level of fear. The symptoms

typically include extreme anxiety, dread and

anything associated with panic such as shortnessof breath, rapid breathing, irregular heartbeat,

sweating, excessive sweating, nausea, dry mouth,

nausea, inability to articulate words or sentences,

dry mouth and shaking.

TreatmentMedicine can be prescribed,

but please note that these

medications can have side

effects and/or withdrawalsystems that can be severe.

It is also important to note

that medicines do not

cure phobias, at best

they only temporarily

suppress the systems.

However, there are

treatments for phobias, which

include counseling, hypnotherapy,

psychotherapy, and Neuro—Linguistic

programming. Please click on the

link at the top of the page called “Treatment

Information” to nd out more information on

these types of treatments. As we know there are

numerous types of phobias.

The most popular treatment for phobias is to

see a psychologist, psychiatrist, hypnotherapist,

and/or hypnotist. These types of doctors can

try to help the person cope with the phobia or

understand what is causing the problem so it can

be resolved. I have also listed below the types

of treatment which might be recommended.

Hypnoanalysis (Hypnotherapy) is a type of therapy

by which a person, with the assistance of a trained

specialist, has his/her subconscious mind opened

to suggestion for the purpose of changing one or

more behavior patterns. When the subconsciousis spoken to directly, it may be possible to nd the

issue triggering their phobia and introduce new

ideas and positive suggestions. These positive

suggestions may then be used to help make the

changes you desire. Teaching the mind to attach

different feelings to their feared item can usually

be accomplished in a several sessions. Some

people do not like people playing with their minds

at all. However, hypnoanalysis (hypnotherapy)

is considered to be safe and works very fast.

Hypnoanalysis (Hypnotherapy) has been approved

as a method of therapy since 1958 by the American

Medical Association.

NLP is basically the study and practice of

how we create our reality. The basic premise of

NLP is that the words we use reect an inner,

subconscious perception of our problems. If these

words and perceptions are inaccurate, they

will create an underlying problem as long as we

continue to use and to think them.

Our attitudes are, in a sense,a self-fullling prophecy.

In this therapy a neuro

linguistic therapist

will analyze

every word and

phrase you use

in describing

your symptoms or

concerns about your

health. He or she will

examine your facial

expressions and body

movements. After

determining problems

in your perception, the therapist will help you

understand the root cause and remodel your

thoughts and mental associations in order to x

your preconceived notions.

13



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