![]() This conditioning is maintained unchanged over time due to the spontaneous systematic avoidance that phobic subjects put in place with regard to the feared situation. It is, in essence, a process of so-called ‘classical conditioning’. It is important to clarify that the type of phobia one suffers from does not have any unconscious symbolic meaning, as is suggested by some psychoanalysts, and the specific fear is only linked to involuntary mislearning experiences (not necessarily remembered by the subject), whereby the organism involuntarily associates danger with an object or situation that is objectively not dangerous. A particular form of phobia concerns one’s own body or a part of it, which the person sees as hideous, unsightly, repulsive (dysmorphia). Where fear is triggered by other stimuli such as: fear or avoidance of situations that could lead to suffocation or contracting an illness (see also obsessive-compulsive disorder and hypochondria), etc. In cases where the fear is provoked by a specific situation, such as public transport, tunnels, bridges, lifts, flying (aviophobia), driving, or enclosed places (claustrophobia or agoraphobia). ![]() In general, if the fear is provoked by the sight of blood or a wound or by receiving an injection or other invasive medical procedures. Blood phobia (haemophobia), needle phobia, syringe phobia, etc. Phobia of thunderstorms (brontophobia), phobia of heights (acrophobia), phobia of the dark (scotophobia), phobia of water (hydrophobia), etc. Spider phobia (arachnophobia), bird phobia or pigeon phobia (ornithophobia), insect phobia, dog phobia (cynophobia), cat phobia (ailurophobia), mouse phobia, etc. More precisely, there are the generalised phobias (agoraphobia and social phobia), which are highly disabling, and the common specific phobias, which are generally well managed by the subjects by avoiding the feared stimuli, which are classified as follows When we talk about phobias, we generally refer to: dog phobia, cat phobia, spider phobia, phobia of enclosed spaces, insect phobia, aeroplane phobia, blood phobia, injection phobia, etc. Someone who is afraid of pigeons does not walk through squares and cannot enjoy a coffee sitting at an outdoor café table, and so on. Those who are afraid of needles and syringes may forego necessary medical check-ups or deprive themselves of the experience of pregnancy. One who has a phobia of flying may, for example, have to forego many trips, and it becomes embarrassing if one has to travel for work. The discomfort thus becomes increasingly limiting. This spiral of progressive avoidance produces an increase, not only in distrust of one’s own resources, but also in the person’s phobic reaction, to the point of significantly interfering with the individual’s normal routine, work or school functioning, or social activities or relationships. The tendency to avoid all situations or conditions that may be associated with fear, although it reduces the effects of the phobia in the moment, in reality constitutes a deadly trap: each avoidance, in fact, confirms the dangerousness of the avoided situation and prepares for the next avoidance (in technical terms, it is said that each avoidance negatively reinforces the fear). With fear, one feels sick and wants only one thing: to run away! Running away, on the other hand, is an emergency strategy. Phobic anxiety is expressed by physiological symptoms such as tachycardia, dizziness, extrasystole, gastric and urinary disturbances, nausea, diarrhoea, choking, redness, excessive sweating, trembling and exhaustion. People suffering from phobias are fully aware of the irrationality of their fear, but cannot control it.
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