Phobias Fighting the Fear by Helen Saul

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Imagine walking into a party and thick mob people. A woman walks in at the same time with a horrified look on her face. She grabs her head, she is shaking, her eyes close, and she starts to hyperventilate. This woman has a fear of crowds. Fears like, what this woman has, develop into phobias. People live their lives in fear and are consumed by it but some fear is actually good. Too much fear can result in a phobia. A phobia is a fear that interferes with normal living. This fear can be so over bearing that it can cause someone to have stomach aches, high blood pressure, ulcers, skin rashes, headaches, and other health problems (Orr, 1999). Phobias can cause a person to avoid tasks if their fear gets in the way. According to Abramovitz (2003), “5 to 12 percent of Americans have some kind of phobia.” Phobias are not just a recent discovery. The origins of phobias date back 2,400 years ago when Hippocrates was documenting cases of them. According to Hippocrates the first patient, “through bashfulness, suspicion and timorousness will not be seen abroad, loves darkness as life and cannot endure the light, or sit in lightsome places, his hat over his eyes, he will neither see nor be seen by his good will” and the second patient, he said, ”dared not to come in company for fear he should be misused, disgraced, overshoot himself in gesture or speech, or be sick; he thinks every man observes him, aims at him, derides him, owes him malice.” As Hippocrates observed back then, phobias have not changed. He saw people with all different kinds of phobias. That is anywhere from animal phobias to social phobias and other fears that can be seen in any case today. It just so happens that the Greek word phobos means “intense fear or terror” and it... ... middle of paper ... ...elp. Other ways involve systematic desensitization and virtual reality exposure that are both done by a psychologist or psychiatrist. As Steven Richards says, “Fear can make a moth seem the size of a bull elephant.” Works Cited Abramovitz, M. (2003, 10). Conquering fears and phobias. Current Health 1, 27, 20-22. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/209832694?accountid=14752 Orr, T. (1999, 10). Tackling fears and phobias. Current Health 1, 23, 26-28. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/209837125?accountid=14752 Saul, H. (2001). Phobias: Fighting the fear. New York: Arcade Pub. 18-20, 26, 31-32, 78, 206-207

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