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Anxiety is a
normal response to stress or danger, but it can be debilitating. At times it
is helpful because it can help prepare the body for action, and it can
improve performance in a range of situations. Anxiety however starts to becomes a problem when
it is experienced intensely and it persistently interferes with a person's
daily life.
A phobia is an
excessive or unreasonable fear that is out of proportion to the situation that causes it and cannot be
explained away. The person typically avoids the feared situation, since this
helps to reduce the anxiety.
Some phobias
represent heightened normal anxiety towards situations that people are
evolutionarily prepared to fear, e.g. snakes, heights, sharp objects and
loud noises.
In other
instances, a phobia may arise by a non-threatening situation being
associated with a traumatic experience.
Phobias
typically occur in specific situations. People
experience anticipatory anxiety when thinking of the situation and so
attempt to avoid it.
Phobias are
often the result of a one time learning process whereby a single
experience is processed into a phobic response very, very quickly. This
tendency is increased if the person is stressed and anxious at the time or if
the person's nervous system is being over stimulated by the direct or after
effects of recreational drugs or alcohol.
Commonly people
try to escape, and then to avoid the feared situation wherever possible.
This may be fairly easy if the feared object is rarely encountered (like if
there is a fear of snakes) and avoidance will not therefore restrict the
person's life very much.
At other times (like with for example agoraphobia and social phobia)
avoiding the feared situation limits their life severely.
Escape and avoidance also make the feared object/situation more frightening.
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