Charles Best, one of the pioneers in the search for a cure for diabetes, once explained what interested him so much in medical research: "It's not just the satisfaction of knowing you're helping people," he confided, "although it's probably a more heroic and selfless motivation. The isolation of the enzyme insulin has reversed what was once a death sentence for anyone with diabetes. One of the few things doctors know about phobias is that they're terribly common.
Using virtual technology, a modern Damocles can simulate standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon and face his fear.
14CHAPTER ONE
What Is a Phobia?
For example, a person with a fear of heights will probably avoid going on a mountain hike. This is not always the case for people with the third type of simple phobia: a fear of natural phenomena. The fear of writing in front of someone, even just to sign a paper, is a common social phobia.
However, one social phobia appears more often than all others: the fear of speaking in front of a group.
30CHAPTER TWO
Who Gets Phobias?
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 19 million Americans admit to having a specific phobia—a fear of a specific thing or situation, such as wasps or heights. An extreme fear of heights can cause some people to refuse a job that would require them to work in a skyscraper. By the age of seven, the fear of the dark can turn into a fear of something more specific, which can actually happen, like being caught in a storm, being bitten by a dog, or being hit by a bicycle.
The fear of giving presentations in class, taking tests in front of a teacher, or going to school at all tends to surface around this time. A little girl checks to see if there are monsters under her bed, a fear of imaginary things typical of young children. Fifteen million Americans over the age of eighteen have a type of social phobia: the fear of doing something in front of someone else.
People with social phobias are sensitive to the scrutiny of others, and their fear of embarrassment can cause them to avoid situations where they are around other people. A woman whose fear of eating in public started when she was fourteen has found it very difficult to have a normal social life now that she is an adult. Many live in constant fear of embarrassment, whether they are men or women, adults or teenagers.
The widespread fear of panicking in a new situation has nearly two million American adults stuck in their homes for much or all of the time. The widespread fear and anxious feelings of agoraphobia often start with the same types of concerns that plague social phobia, such as shame and the fear of being bullied.
Living with a Phobia
CHAPTER THREE
When it happens in a safe place, like on a school bus, in a movie theater, or in the middle of a restaurant, the fear is completely out of proportion to the danger, and the memory of the panic is what ultimately feeds the phobia. It might be too humiliating to go to the doctor and say, "I'm deathly afraid of shoelaces." A person may instead choose to suffer in silence and wear flip-flops for the rest of their lives. Sometimes the fear of embarrassment itself becomes a real phobia, and this opens the door to a whole new class of fear that is much more difficult to live with.
Anxiety," says author Helen Saul, "can cause sufferers to blush, sweat, shake, and draw attention to themselves by looking visibly uncomfortable—the very situation they wanted to avoid at all costs."37 This they are exactly the same panic reactions. which strike people with specific phobias unless they are triggered by something like a storm or the sight of a needle. Others are uncomfortable going to the store - Fear of public speaking, such as having to surrender the classroom. For the socially phobic, however, a strong fear of public speaking can cause many obstacles in life.
What starts as a fear of one kind of situation can grow into a fear of many situations. Marshall describes a patient whose fear of eating in public began with an embarrassing situation at a dinner party when she was twelve. Meg often laments her struggles to deal with situations that are "not at all threatening to normal people" and her fear of doing things that are "not at all scary," Capps and Ochs say.
Add the fear of random and unpredictable panic attacks, and many who struggle with agoraphobia begin to find it difficult to leave their own home. Because of the fear of having a panic attack, the list of places or situations to avoid may grow to include wide open areas, closed areas such as elevators, shopping malls, theaters, concerts, public transportation, being alone, and anywhere close there might be a crowd or the need to stand in line,” says Marshall.
56CHAPTER FOUR
Treating a Phobia
On the air, I noted that I was surprised and even a little disappointed that most of the people who called in seemed to have anxiety-related disorders other than social phobia, says Marshall. When doctors prescribe medication for phobias, they are really just trying to temporarily reduce the person's fear response so they can get to the root of the problem. People with phobias are far more afraid of some things than they logically should be.
Socially anxious people also overestimate the degree to which their nervousness is evident to other people.”53 For Courtney, realizing that her fear of being A person with a phobia may seek the help of a cognitive therapist, who can help patients to rationally examine the details of the things and situations they find terrifying so that they can eventually overcome them. The trick is the right approach, one that doesn't require the person to face too much of the fear too quickly. Overcoming a fear of public speaking is one of the most well-known uses of behavioral therapy.
Lyman Macinnis, author of The Elements of Great Public Speaking, believes that exposure A person with a fear of public speaking can practice giving a speech to a small group as part of her efforts to overcome her fear. Although few snake species pose any real danger to humans, many snakes have fallen victim to the "kill first, ask questions later" approach. Most people with a specific phobia know they have it (it's pretty obvious because they panic in the presence of spiders, clowns, or anything else they can easily identify).
However, researchers know that all types of phobias affect a significant percentage of the population. The boy who sits in the back row of the classroom with the hood of his sweater pulled over his head may never talk to anyone.
72CHAPTER FIVE
Phobias and Technology
- What Is a Phobia?
- Who Gets Phobias?
- Living with a Phobia
- Treating a Phobia
- Phobias and Technology
VRT can overcome some of the difficulties inherent in the traditional treatment of phobias,” says VRT pioneer Max M. They can experience the very situations they are most afraid of, but all the time they are in the therapist's office. Slowly, the patient can build up to the point where he can actually touch the spider, at least in the virtual reality world.
Virtual behavioral therapy thus allows patients to experience what they fear, just as if they were exposed to it in the real world. These reactions included anxiety, avoidance, and physical symptoms.”65 Basically, people who have a phobia in the real world also have a phobia in the virtual world. She was flown, accompanied by the therapist, in a helicopter for approximately 10 minutes at low altitude over a beach on the Gulf of Mexico,” they say.
Once they realize they can survive a situation they once thought could kill them, they slowly become able to perform the same types of activities in the real world. It's possible that technology is making social phobias a bigger problem than they've ever been in the past. Your newborn is dying in the middle of the night due to sudden infant death syndrome.
Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, the fear of terrorist attacks has risen to one of the twenty things Americans fear the most. For example, the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon led to an increase in the fear of terrorism among Americans.
Glossary
The Anxiety Disorders Association of America is a national network founded in 1980 to promote the health of people with phobias and other anxiety disorders.
Organizations to Contact
Its purpose is to provide public health information and help people find resources, research, and services to deal with mental health problems, including anxiety and phobias. The National Institute of Mental Health, the world's largest scientific organization dedicated to mental health, has information, resources, and research for a wide variety of mental conditions, including anxiety and phobias. A research facility at the University of California, Los Angeles, the Semel Institute offers one of the best programs in the United States for the study and treatment of anxiety disorders and phobias.
This biography gives readers a close look into one person's phobic life and how fear creates serious boundaries. This self-help book, a selected resource from the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, describes panic disorders such as phobias and different ways sufferers can cope with them. Explaining more than two thousand different phobias and stressors, this encyclopedia is a great place to look up anything from the fear of bees to the fear of knees.
This collection of short stories about people with phobias contains ten different stories of what life is like under the burden of a crippling fear. Richard Morris, "Famous People and Their Fears: Who Shares Your Phobia?" Associated Content, 16 Mar. 2007, www. This site provides an overview of phobias; treatments, including virtual therapy; and a "What's Your Phobia" interactive quiz.
Find almost any fear you can think of in this alphabetical, online list of hundreds of phobias. You can also order a Phobias List poster and find links to useful sites about phobias.
Index
Index 99
Picture Credits
About the AuthorAbout the Author