Phobic Anxiety States

A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder (neurosis) that is characterized by an uncontrollable and inadequate fear of a specific object or situation. The patient has insight into the disease, he is fully aware of the senselessness of fear, but he is unable to suppress it by his own will. We know many different types of phobias, which are named after the object that is the source of the morbid fear.

Individual types of phobias:

1. Social phobia – fear of interpersonal contact, the patient's fear that he will be embarrassed or ridiculed in public, he is afraid of vegetative reactions due to the looks of others (from blushing, from shaking hands).
2. Agoraphobia – Agoraphobia used to be described as a fear of large open spaces. Currently, this term covers a large number of specific situations. Most often, it is a fear of places where there are more people (cinema, theater, streets, shops, means of transport) or, conversely, places where the patient is alone (in a car, at home, in an elevator). The fear most often concerns that he will be ridiculed, that he will suddenly need medical help that will not reach him in time, or that he will have to leave the area quickly and he will not make it. Agoraphobia is usually associated with avoidance behavior, i.e. that the patient acts in such a way as not to reach the feared place.
3. Specific (isolated) phobias:
   • zoophobia – fear of certain animals (of insects – entomophobia, of snakes – ophidiophobia, of dogs – cynophobia, of spiders – arachnophobia, of mice – musophobia);
   • acrophobia - fear of heights;
   • claustrophobia – from closed spaces;
   • aerophobia – fear of flying;
   • pyrophobia - fear of fire;
   • mysophobia – fear of dirt;
   • ataxophobia - from dirt or mess;
   • pathophobia - fear of illness, disease (from cancer - carcinophobia, from venereal diseases - venerophobia).

Links

Related Articles

• Other Anxiety Disorders
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder

Used literature

• RABOCH, Jiří – PAVLOVSKÝ, Pavel. Klinická psychiatrie v denní praxi. 1. edition. Praha : Galén, c2008. pp. 105–112. ISBN 9788072625864.