PHOBIAS

Natalia Cuesta RossoPaula Andrea Pardo Ramos

What is a phobia?

Fear is a natural defense mechanism that prepares our body to cope with a hazard. At one time or another all people can be afraid of a certain stimulus. However, there are times when we feel fear is irrational, excessive, intense, uncontrollable and persistent to objects or situations, not necessarily defined in origin and that affects our daily lives. That is when we talk about phobia.

The limbic system revised through the cerebral amygdala, all information we receive through our senses and controls the basic emotions like fear, also locating the source of danger. When activated the amygdala activates the sense of fear and anxiety, resulting in a flight or fight response. Always that we are faced with similar situations or just think about them, our amygdala becomes active again, causing the phobia is maintained or even become more intense and assuming an enormous energy expenditure in principle to situations that are every day, causing a feeling of anguish and helplessness.

What happens in the brain when we suffer a phobia?

Limbic System

What physiological changes the body has when experiencing a phobia?

When a person has a phobia in turn produce physiological changes such as blocking all non-essential activity, increased cellular metabolism and brain activity, increased blood pressure or increase in blood glucose. The heart pumps blood at high speed to transport hormones like adrenaline to cells. Enlarge the eyes to improve vision and pupils are dilated.

Entomophobia: Insect’s fear. Arachnophobia: Spider’s fear. Claustrophobia: Indoor’s fear. Agoraphobia: Outdoor’s fear. Acrophobia: Heigt’s fear. Algophobia: pain’s fear. Antrophofobia: people’s fear. Astrophobia: Fear of presence of

weather Escotophobia: Darkness’s fear. Aerophobia: Fear of flying.

Common society phobia’s types?

Famous people phobias

Robert Pattinson: Coulrophobia, clown’s fear. Juanes: Aerophobia, flying’s fear. Paulina Rubio: Arachnophobia, spider’s fear and

claustrophobia, indoors fear. Johnny Depp: Coulrophobia, clown’s fear. Jennifer Lopez: Bacteriophobia, bacterium fear. Brad Pitt: Selacophobia, shark’s fear. Nicole Kidman: Lepidopterophobia, butterfly’s fear. Salma Hayek: Ophidiophobia, snake’s fear. Madonna: Astrophobia, fear to the presence of

weather (thunders).

TREATMENT Find information about phobias and relation

explication between thought, emotions and actions.

Control and progressive exposure to situations that produce phobias.

Systematic desensitization: Combine relaxes technics with gradual exposure to the phobic stimulus. Depending on the degree of phobia, we can start to attend a very reasonable distance to controlled explosions of which the patient is unaware.

Medication: If is a simple phobia, discourage the use of drugs. If not, and is linked to persistent anxiety or even depression, treatment should always be supervised by a professional.

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