feature
Are your phobias controlling your life?
also called classical conditioning. For example, if a dog runs up to you and bites you, Davis says a special kind of learning happens, and you can develop a phobia of dogs.
Living with a phobia can be extremely debilitating. Symptoms of phobias include a racing heart beat, shortness of breath, numbness or tingling in one's extremities, dizziness and uncontrollable crying.
Second, phobias can develop though modeling, or observational learning. If you see something bad happen to someone, you can develop a phobia to it. After seeing her friend get bitten by a brown recluse spider when she was in the second grade, Carly McPeak, Montrose, Colo., senior, says she developed a phobia of spiders. "His skin was eaten away. Now whenever I kill a spider it feels like they are crawling all over me," McPeak says.
Living day to day
Last, you can acquire a phobia to something by simply hearing negative things about it. Davis says a phobia usually develops through a combination of all four methods.
Rarick remembers the time she heard her dad running up the stairs and thought it was a stranger in her house." I was shaking really badly. My heart was racing and I was really scared. I didn't want to move. I thought my family was in trouble but I couldn't move. I was frozen," Rarick says.
"I didn't get too nervous because I knew I wasn't forced to go up, but I did feel a little left out because all my friends did."
Because avoidance is a characterization of phobias, people who have phobias will go out of their way to accommodate their phobia, often rationalizing it. "If you have a fear of social settings and rationalize not going out by saying you like to stay at home, it is interfering with your life, and that's unhealthy," says Vincent Berger, clinical psychologist and founder of the Web site Psychologist Anywhere Anytime (www.psychologistanywhereanytime.com).
To accommodate her fear, Armstrong says she refuses to escalate to the top of any tall buildings. "I wouldn't go to the top of the Sears Tower when I was in Chicago," she says.
It is especially problematic when other people, such as parents or friends, help to accommodate someone's phobia, Davis says. He says he knew a couple whose child was afraid of the dark and would have a panic attack if he heard any noises when it was dark. To accommodate his fear, the whole family would go to bed at 7 p.m. when it was dark outside so they wouldn't make any noise.
Though phobias to specific objects or situations might be easier to avoid, those who suffer from social phobias have a much harder time, especially those in a college setting, Bowman says. "Everything students do in school is associated with people; going to class, living in the dorms. It is different from someone who has a phobia of tornados that only happen once a year."
phobias
Barophobia - fear of gravity
Cyclophobia - fear of bicycles
Euphobia - fear of hearing good news
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedallophobia
- fear of long words
Linonophobia - fear of string
Nephophobia - fear of ulliness
Papyrophobia - fear of paper
Seeing a licensed psychologist is the best way to conquer your phobia, Davis, Bowman and Berger
Somniphobia - fear of sleep
Verbophobia - fear of words
In addition to her spider phobia, McPeak says she also suffers from a phobia of clowns that developed after watching the movie *I* with her sister. Because of her phobia, McPeak simply avoids anything that has to do with clowns. Once while babysitting, she was reading a book and had to stop when she turned the page and an illustration of a clown stared at her.
Vestiophobia - fear of clothing
"I've never listened to the Insane Clown Pose. It's my worst nightmare. It freaks me out. Just seeing a picture of clowns gives me the shivers," she says.
Face your fears
agree. Davis says it is unfortunate that many people who suffer from phobias do not seek help, because it is one of the easiest disorders to treat. He says he sees improvement rates as high as 80 to 90 percent, and therapy can last as short as three hours in mild cases.
The most common way to rid yourself of fears and phobias is through exposure therapy. Exposure therapy works by
slowly getting a person used to the idea of the thing or situation he or she is fearful of. "If you have a phobia of snakes, we would first talk about snakes, then talk about being close to one, then have one in the room, and eventually hold one," Bowman says.
Armstrong says her family has helped her with her phobia when they used to visit Colorado and go hiking in the mountains. "My mom was always really good about getting me to the top, so I've had to face my fear," she says. "It was a good feeling knowing that I could get through it."
Using exposure techniques without the supervision of a licensed psychologist can be dangerous if performed improperly, Davis warns. "When you're talking about something that's entrenched in someone, you have to be really careful with how you do the exposure."
If you think you have a phobia and would like to get treatment, you can call CAPS
psychologist. Bowman says all the psychologists who work at CAPS are trained to treat phobia disorders.
"People aren't supposed
After some time in the air, Ashleigh started to relax. Every time we hit some turbulence, she would unconsciously grab either her armrests or my hand. people aren't supposed
to fly.They aren't.You people are crazy," she repeated over and over again. But after each instance, it only took her a few minutes to calm down and unclench my hand. Now the thought of flying doesn't provoke as much anxiety as it once did, and she says she'll be less scared doing it again.
Davis offers one chief piece of advice to help people combat their phobias:"I hate to use the old adage, but you have to face your fears."
04.24.2008
VOL. 5 ISS. 29
Spider photo by: Kristin Hoppa; All other photos contributed