FEARS AND PHOBIAS

FEARS AND PHOBIAS

·         What are the people in the pictures afraid of?

• Are you afraid of any of these things?

The word "phobia" is a term that refers to a group of symptoms brought on by feared objects or situations.

A phobia is a persistent, irrational fear that causes a person to feel intense anxiety.

People develop phobias about many things like darkness, social situations, spiders, or blood. Agoraphobia, one of the most common phobias, involves the fear of open places. A person with agoraphobia feels anxious in places where it would be hard to escape, like being in a crowd, standing in line, being on a bridge or traveling in a car. In extreme cases, they are so immobilized by fear that they become a prisoner in their own home.

Phobias are the most common form of anxiety disorders, which affect people of all ages, at all income levels and in all geographic locations, according to a study by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), between 5.1 and 21.5 percent of Americans suffer from Phobias. Broken down by age and gender, the NIMH study found phobias were the most common psychiatric illness among women in all age groups and the second most common illness among men older than 25.

In some people, the response to a phobia can be fairly mild. For example, a person who has a phobia about flying might simply avoid airplanes. In other people, the phobia causes, or arises from, full-blown panic attacks with symptoms such as shortness of breath, sweating, irregular heartbeats and the shakes. Just why a person develops a particular phobia is not always clear. There appear to be both biological and psychological reasons. Psychologists classify phobias with other anxiety-caused problems and theorize they are a response to separation or loss. Heredity appears to play a role, and so does brain chemistry.

·         What is a phobia?

·         What does NIMH mean?

·         Who suffers from phobias?

·         What are some symptoms of phobias?

What are you scared of?

Personally I am an ORNITHOPHOBIC. I also have a LYGOPHOBIA. I am a little ODYNOPHOBIC and GLOSSOPHOBIC.

·         Can you guess what I am scared and frightened of?  And what about you?                      

Carmen, 15
I have a phobia of throwing up. It is my worst fear and what I think is the worst experience in the world. If someone is feeling sick near me or throws up I try and stay as far away from them as possible because I'm so scared of catching something and throwing up myself. How can I get over my biggest fear? Someone please help me!

Ella, 14
I have a phobia of 'school germs' which escalated to being scared of nearly all the places I go out in. I have to have a shower everytime I go out when I get home and then I won‘t touch anything that I touched before I had the shower. I have to get a new towel everytime I have a shower and change my clothes if I touch anything that is 'contaminated'.

Adam, 20
I'm 20 years old, and my phobia of spiders is ruining my life!! I can't look at a picture of a spider, I can't even think about them, even the picture at the top of the screen made me jump. I can't even go in the same building if I know a spider is there. I don't know why! It gets worse every year!!

Sian, 17
I'm terrifed of dogs. I don't know why I am because I haven't had a bad situation with one before but I just am. I can look at pictures of dogs, I can cope with dogs coming towards me when they are with their owner and on a lead. But what I don‘t like is when they just run on their own, I know they need their freedom, but it really terrifies me.

Millie, 15
I have a phobia of the dark. It really freaks me out. If I wake up in the night and need the toilet, I will lie in bed until it gets light. Once I was sleeping in a tent in my garden and I needed the toilet, I had to phone my mum (at 2 or 3 in the morning) to turn on all the security lights so it wasn‘t dark. I also have a fear of deep water but it is kind of the same as my fear of the dark, as well as being scared of not being able to reach the bottom I get scared because I can‘t see what is beneath me.

Jade, 16
I have a fear of giving birth, I don‘t know why I have it but when I was in school we watched a film about it and I think it has made me scared. I hate the thought of giving birth, but I think I also have a fear of pain too. It makes me sick of the thought of giving birth but I really want to overcome it as I some day want a family.

Jodie, 23

I really have an unusual phobia. It began when I was a little girl. I was staying with my grandma and she asked me to get her cardigan. I opened the cupboard and saw this big, dark green cardigan with huge, black buttons hanging there – I was terrified. I started screaming. From then on it was a problem. All buttons make me feel uncomfortable. It is difficult for me to buy clothes. I try to find skirts and trousers with just belts and zips, but it’s not easy. About a year ago a button came off a colleague’s jacket and I had a panic attack. I’ve decided to see a psychotherapist, but I am embarrassed to say that I am scared of buttons. It sounds silly.

·         How does their phobia affect their lives?

·         Which of the people has the most difficult phobia to live with?

·         Why do some people get phobias and others not?

·          How do you think they can be cured?

DISCUSSION  STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)