Monday, March 12, 2012

Don't let phobias affect you

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Fear grips most of us. It is a strong, nasty reaction to danger or risk. Anxiety, fright, panic, paranoia, persecution complex and terror can trigger fear in our mind, whether it is real or imagined.

   Some psychologists believe that, like anger and joy, fear is innate in all human beings. Fear is a defensive, survival tool; it is usually a response to a particular stimulus. In many instances, it spurs people of all ages to escape to safety.

   People cower, freeze, shout or cry when something horrible and shocking seizes them. Fear can be self-created, imagined or instilled into people. The effect can be paralyzing or lasting.

   There are two main types of fear – serious or trifling. Serious fear develops when people are confronted by something – or someone – that poses sudden peril. Trifling fear happens in the face of a likelihood of harm.

   Distrust can cause fear in the form of an inward feeling of caution. Doubt and insecurity creep in when something or someone is questionable and unknown. For instance, you may be distrustful when you meet a stranger who acts suspiciously. You have the same uneasy feeling when you stay in a dilapidated house or operate a defective machine.

   In a heightened state of fear, you may be beset by terror. This may occur when you have a sense of immediate danger, and you are likely to act irrationally or impulsively.

   People who have a profound, sometimes inexplicable, perception of being persecuted develop paranoia. Their behaviour becomes radical and rash, and when it is unchecked, it may result in phobia.

   A traumatic experience can give rise to fear. For instance, if a child falls into a pool and struggles to seek safety, he may later be afraid of going into an enclosed space, a case of claustrophobia. He may also be frightened to step into water which, in medical terms, is aquaphobia.

   Influenza epidemic
   Social norms and values can also trigger fear. Many Britons in the 19th century dreaded dying poor, unmourned and unremembered. A lot of people feared polio and malaria in the 20th century. Americans were highly sensitive towards terrorism after the September 11, 2001 attacks by A-Queda upon New York City and ArlingtonVirginia. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed more than 230,000 people in 14 countries, and the Influenza A (H1N1) epidemic in 2009 sparked widespread fear.

   The adrenaline levels rise when humans are intimidated by fear. The victims can be manipulated by others, become violent and even deadly. Fear is registered on their faces: eyes widening, pupils dilating, upper lips rising, brows drawing closer and lips stretching horizontally.

   Reactions can come in various forms. A victim’s body sweats profusely, his muscles tighten for emergency, the senses are sharpened, the hands cover the face. He or she may give a start or jump. The heart rate and heartbeat may race.

   In legal practice, victims are excused from some actions when they are done under stress of grave fear or when the victims act in self-defence. Contracts signed may therefore be judged invalid, since fear strips a person of his freedom to think and act. The threat must be real and inevitable.

   Fear is classified into hundreds of types, ranging from acrophobia (fear of heights), agliophobia (fear of pain) and bacteriophobia (fear of bacteria) to catoptrophobia (fear of mirrors), dentophobia (fear of dentists) and gamophobia (fear of marriage). Some children have achluophobia (fear of darkness), apiphobia (fear of bees) and atychiphobia (fear of failure). Adults may be overcome by carnophobia (fear of meat), doxophobia (fear of expressing opinions) and peniaphobia (fear of poverty).

   Fear of dinner conversations
   There are children and adults of various cultures who get gymnophobia, a fear or anxiety about being seen naked or seeing others in the nude. On the other hand, nudists delight in basking exposed under the sun and think the phobia is irrational.

    The fear factors can range from a sense of guilt, disgust or discomfort at certain activities to intense fear and panic at the notion of anything sexual. Specialists call this sexual avoidance. Agraphobia (fear of sexual abuse), androphobia (fear of men), haphephobia (fear of being touched) and coitophobia (fear of coitus) are some of these fears.

   Consciously or subconsciously, some people grow up with intense fears for things and events. They may develop centophobia (fear of new things or ideas), chorophobia (fear of dancing), climacophobia (fear of stairs) and deipnophobia (fear of dining or dinner conversations).

   Flying is generally considered to be one of the safest modes of public transport. Statistics show that airline travel is 29 times safer than driving a car. However, surveys and figures do not stop people from being scared of flying.

   Just as with any activity in life, flying has some chance of an accident. Some passengers are sometimes disabled by fear and they experience the symptoms that make flying a nightmare. Once they are airborne, they feel vulnerable. When they are not “in control” of the flight, they somehow lose the command of their thoughts and feelings. 

   Some passengers complain of ear pain, which may be eliminated by taking a chewing gum, sinus pain caused by atmospheric pressure changes, muscular or joint pain at high altitudes, venous thrombosis or “economy-class syndrome” and low blood pressure from not eating.

    The fear of flying boils down to an anxiety disorder. High altitudes, enclosed spaces, crowded conditions and air turbulences compound the fear of some passengers. The fear can be so intense that some travellers choose to drive or take a boat trip.

   Don't be afraid, counsel psychologists. It's all in the mind. Dispel it like it is a bad dream.

   

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