Phobias

            
             In "Phobia," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2004, A phobia is an intense and persistent fear of a specific object, situation, or an activity. The intense fear usually causes the person to live a constricted life and the person usually is fully aware the fear is irrational. Phobic anxiety is easily distinguished from other types of anxiety because it usually occurs in response to a certain object or person.
             There are many common symptoms of a phobia. Usually they consist of anxiety and discomfort that is out of proportion to the actual threat of the object, sweating, poor motor control, and feelings of weakness, cowardice, or losses of self-esteem are symptoms. .
             According to the World Book Encyclopedia P: 354, Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, thought that in phobia the thing feared only served as a symbol for some other fear. Usually, the other fear came from an event that occurred in early childhood, and had been repressed, or forgotten. The person does not consciously know what the original fear is. But it produces feelings of anxiety, which they attribute to the object for which they now have the phobia. Phobias also commonly can be passed on from other members in a family if there is a history of a certain phobia in the family.
             There are three different categories of phobias. Simple phobias are fears of specific situations such as animals, closed spaces, and heights. The second category, agoraphobia, is the fear of open public spaces or places which escape would be difficult. The third category of phobias is social phobias. With social phobias the fear is of appearing shameful or stupid in social situations.
             The most common treatment for a phobia is systematic desensitization. Systematic desensitization is a technique where the subject is told to relax, then imagine the components of the phobia starting with the least fearful and gradually moving up to the most fearful.