Phobia
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
A phobia is a strong fear of something. Such fears can be very common. Those who suffer, usually very strongly want to avoid (keep away from) what they fear. People with arachnophobia, for example, do not like spiders, and want to keep away from the places where they might find spiders.
A Phobia is different from normal fear in many ways:
- The fear(Phobia) is much too strong, given the situatation
- The fear lasts much longer than necessary
- Those suffering from the phobia cannot explain why they suffer from it. They also cannot influence the fear; this makes coping with the fear difficult for them.
- Phobias have a direct influence on the life of the sufferers
- Those suffering from phobia will be much more reluctant to contact new people
It is hard to tell how many people suffer from phobias; numbers indicate though that between 5 and 13 percent seem to have a phobia. Women suffer from phobias about twice as often.
There are different ways to help people with phobias. There is treatment available; it focuses on making the patient less sensitive to the fear they suffer from, or showing him or her how the cycle of fear works. There is also medication available (mostly sedatives) that help people cope. Finally there are self-help groups.
