Agoraphobia and Specific Phobias

Agoraphobia is described as severe and pervasive anxiety being in situations from which escape might be difficult or avoidance of situations such as being alone outside of the home, traveling in a car, bus, or airplane, or being in a crowded area.

Most people who present to mental health specialists develop agoraphobia after the onset of a panic disorder. Agoraphobia is best known as an adverse behavioral outcome of repeated panic attacks and the subsequent worry, preoccupation, and avoidance.

Agoraphobia happens about two times more commonly among women than men. The gender difference may be attributable to social-cultural factors that encourage, or permit, the greater expression of avoidant coping strategies by women, although other explanations are also possible.

Specific Phobias

These common conditions are characterized by marked fear of specific objects or situations. Exposure to the object of the phobia, either in real life or via imagination pr video, invariably elicits intense anxiety, which may include a panic attack. Adults generally know that this intense fear is irrational. Nevertheless, they typically avoid the phobic stimulus or endure exposure with great difficulty.

The most common specific phobias include the following feared stimuli or situations: animals, insects, heights, elevators, flying, automobile driving, water, storms, and blood, injections or social phobia. Approximately 8 percent of the adult population suffers from one or more specific phobias in 1 year. Much higher rates would be recorded if less rigorous diagnostic requirements for avoidance or functional impairment were employed.

Typically, the specific phobias begin in childhood, although there is a second “peak” of onset in the middle 20s of adulthood. Most phobias persist for many years or even decades, and relatively few remit spontaneously or without treatment.

The specific phobias generally do not derive from exposure to a single traumatic event (i.e. being bitten by a dog or nearly drowning). Rather, there is evidence of phobia in other family members and social or vicarious learning of phobias. Spontaneous, unexpected panic attacks also appear to play a part in the development of specific phobias, although the particular pattern of avoidance is much more focal and circumscribed.

Useful information Agoraphobia:
http://www.panicattackpedia.com/agoraphobia.html

Useful information social phobia:
http://www.panicattackpedia.com/social-phobia.html

Useful information panic attacks:
http://www.panicattackpedia.com/