A Kind of Life

Terrified. Afraid. Frightened. An individual learns to fear something, terrified of any fearful condition. He or she becomes increasingly afraid of it. He or she is in trauma to fear stimuli linked with his or her experiences. Such fear may be developed to phobia.

“Phobias: Living in Terror” program, run for 51 minutes by Discovery Channel Production, covered the two types of phobias recognized by the experts: specific phobia and  social phobia. Both of these embodied in the program a few of the huge and still-growing number of phobias. The specific phobias in the program were arachnophobia or fear of open spaces or crowd, ophidiophobia or fear of snakes, siderodromophobia or fear of trains, acrophobia or fear of heights, and highway driving phobia. The social phobias viewed were glossophobia or fear of public speaking, and agoraphobia or fear of being outside.

Many people with phobias do not figure out if they have phobias not until they are diagnosed with. Commonly, every phobia may be diagnosed in terms of the symptoms experienced and inhibited by the individual and diagnosed by either psychologist or psychiatrist taking necessary actions to confirm phobia. It is the feeling of intensive dread that makes a dreadful or phobic individual panicked, light-headed, distorted, and disoriented with increased heart palpitation and respiration or anxious for short. An anxious individual painfully experiences an emotional threat or danger to a stimulus. In the program, different phobic cases were presented such as glossophobia, arachnophobia, opinophobia, sideromophobia, and highway driving phobia where a phobic have panic attacks by coming across stimulus that trigger his or her phobia. The opinophobic panics as she comes to think of her dreadful past experience in her childhood when she accidentally saw a snake at their backyard. From then on, every time she comes across a sight of a snake she panics. The highway driving phobic panics as he comes to think that it is difficult and dangerous to drive in highway while he actually drives on a highway. He thinks this way because he was brought up strictly careful by his parents that may be another stimulus to triggering of his phobia, thinking that he has to be strictly careful driving on highway. As such it could be said that thoughts (e.g. of past experiences, difficulty to drive, and getting in danger), sights (e.g. accident, snakes), and anticipatory anxiety are triggering stimulus that when a phobic comes across any of these will cause him or her panic attacks. The agoraphobic in the program dreads and panics a difficult or embarrassing situation outside the house wherein no escape is possible. Like other phobias, agoraphobia involves panic attacks but because of reluctance to go outside the house having no companion. It also involves disorientation, dizziness, and defense mechanism such as avoidance and rationalization. Symptoms of phobias include feeling of choking sensation, feeling unreal and detached, noticing of ringing in their ears, and going crazy. Symptoms also included are nervousness, chest discomfort, and stomach distress. But all in all, the common symptom is a mild feeling to severe panic attack of anxiety. Experiences or things that produce these sensations are avoided or escaped by the phobic.

Anxiety may result to worries to phobias to lifetime tough suffering. In cases when phobic’s anxiety is disabling the individual is highly urge to seek professional help. A phobic may overcome anxiety with the helpful treatment. Treatments viewed in the program are “virtual reality” and other innovative therapies by experts. Therapist offers a solution for phobias using Virtual Reality (VR). Virtual reality exposure therapy provides an individual a high-tech alternative in treating his or her phobia. Experts combine visual interactions with stimulus that trigger phobia in a virtual environment to treating a phobic in a number of sessions (Henderson, 2011). Therapists also deal with the stimulus by desensitization. A phobic is observed in sessions to work toward dealing with the phobia himself or herself. Phobias: Living in Terror particularly presented a therapist accompanying a female siderodrophobic where trains are used as public transportation by commuters like herself. An expert did a session with the siderodrophobic along the crowding people at a train station. More than just the expert observing how the exposed sidedrophobic will respond and react to the condition, the expert did talk to the phobic understanding where she is coming from and making her understand her irrationality. This treatment is called, cognitive-behavior therapy along with the exposure therapy.

An individual living in phobia has to take hope in his or heart because a kind of life he or she lives in phobia is good. Though phobia is bad that people say it is a disorder, the good thing is it may be treated. A phobic may undergo treatment and overcome phobia. A phobic must be treated by an expert or therapist who treats phobia, that may be no good for it is a disorder, yet may be treated because life is good. Phobic must believe of how he or she is not far different from any other individual without phobia because they still fear death for example. Academically speaking, in one way or the other, fear of death is a phobia and is actually called necrophobia. The good thing is people may prepare themselves to death and not be afraid of death. People must accept Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior and trust that death is not something to fear but something to hope for because Christ Jesus rules and saves us and assures us of a splendor heaven of God to live, if and only if we believe and follow Him. Therefore, people have an everlasting life with Him for God is good. A phobic may have what can keep him or her courageous against her phobia, treatment to overcoming phobia, because life is good just as how people have who they need, Jesus, because God is good. A kind of life that untreated phobic lives may be good because of God, He who puts hope into people’s hearts does not only rules and saves lives but makes a way to treat phobias too.

REFERENCE
·    Audrey Henderson. Phobia Busters: Treating Phobias with Exposure Therapy. Retrieved  June 2011, at http://www.salon.com/technology/feature/2001/01/09/schizophrenia.