Fear and Loathing: Why Phobias Occur and How to Deal with Them. What is irrational fear, its differences from normal, ways of struggle What does irrational fear mean?

04.07.2020

Phobia is a strong, uncontrollable, irrational fear that arises when interacting with a phobic object or when certain circumstances arise that a person is not able to control and perceive objectively.

The state of fear in the presence of a phobic disorder is pathological in nature, not amenable to control and logical explanation. An intense feeling of fear is present permanently or manifests itself in connection with a variety of stressors, stimuli or events. With a phobia, most often fears are imaginary - that is, they depend on the individual, biased perception of a particular situation or object by a person.

What is a phobia?

The term phobia came to psychology from the Greek language. "Рhobos" means "horror" in translation. In psychology and psychiatry, this term has several official interpretations. Singling out the most authoritative of them, we can outline the main symptomatic manifestations phobic anxiety disorder:

Fear is biased and pathological.
The object of fear is clearly defined.
Anxiety-phobic disorder is intense, progressing over time.
The individual evaluates his fear critically, denies it, is ashamed or does not recognize the presence of pathology.

We all experience fear, anxiety, and even panic attacks in one way or another. However, they do not always transform into diseases. After all, the human psyche is arranged in such a way that the mechanisms of psychological, emotional protection react to any stress. Thanks to the "forgetting" effect, we quickly get rid of the consequences of any negative emotions and stress. In the case of a phobia, the protective mechanism of the brain does not work, or it does not work correctly. Fear, which cannot be explained logically, which does not lend itself to conscious control, is considered a phobia.

Common phobias: how many of us suffer from them?

According to research by American specialists, the spread of phobias throughout the world ranges from 2 to 9%. According to Russian scientists Karvarsky and Polyakov, 15 to 44% of patients who seek psychological help suffer from anxiety disorders. According to statistics, most people suffering from various phobias and phobias are included in age category from 25 to 45 years old.

How are fears and phobias related to other mental illnesses?

Phobic disorder is a common companion of many others mental pathologies... Often, a phobia necessarily accompanies some kind of neurosis. According to the results of Karandasheva's research, only such a pathology as hysteria can be accompanied by more than 14 anxiety disorders. In turn, neuroses and obsessive states are accompanied by a list of 13 phobias, while neurasthenics can simultaneously be subject to 4 types of phobias. In psychology, phobias and fears are traditionally considered in the context of neurotic and obsessions... According to the results of Gannushkin's work, phobias are characteristic of patients with different kinds schizophrenia and asthenic disorders.

How does a phobia manifest?

An individual with pathological anxiety is constantly under the influence of his fear. He almost never experiences serenity and peace of mind. He has the feeling that he is permanently on the verge of nervous breakdown... Panic attacks, despair, hopelessness and confusion are the constant companions of a person suffering from phobias.

Description of a person with a phobia

An individual suffering from a phobic disorder begins to avoid the objects of his fear, deliberately avoids any situations in which a collision with a stressor is possible. Also, a person prone to anxiety has difficulty coping with professional activity... After all, constant anxiety and its symptoms, both psychological and somatic, significantly reduce the effectiveness of brain activity. It becomes difficult to perform intellectual work, attentiveness and efficiency are reduced. A person suffering from any type of social phobia, in addition to all of the above, is constantly worried about how colleagues evaluate her, what others think of her, what impression she makes on them.

An individual's tendency to avoid stressors, to avoid frightening situations, significantly reduces the quality of his life in all areas. He minimizes communication with others, refuses new, unknown activities, from meeting new people. This, in turn, inhibits his development as a person, puts an end to career growth and implementation in professional activities. By reducing communication with others, a person deprives himself of leisure, visiting interesting and crowded events. Depending on the object of the phobia, the quality of certain aspects of his life deteriorates.

How to distinguish a phobia from ordinary fear?

According to the thesis put forward by A. Svyadosch, a normal, natural feeling of fear, in contrast to phobic anxiety, has nothing to do with certain stressors or circumstances, with a person's attitude towards them. Natural fear manifests itself on a short time and in a situation or in front of an object that really threaten the life, health, normal psychological state of a person. It stops almost immediately after the objective stressor is eliminated, without leaving behind long-term experiences and somatic disorders.
Phobic anxiety can be single-object and multi-object, but the semantic load of emotional experiences, situational circumstances and the object of the phobia are always the same. Natural fear, in contrast to pathological anxiety, is always changeable, has a number of good reasons, manifests itself in relation to really existing factors (and not imaginary, as is the case with phobias).
So, for example, a person is frightened by a snake that wants to attack him, and jumps to the side or freezes in place. When the danger is over, he can survive for several more days. But then his fears no longer bother him, and the next time he meets the snake, he will be careful, but will not experience anxiety and tension. Ophidiophobia (fear of snakes) manifests itself on an ongoing basis. Panic occurs when meeting with any snake (even a defenseless and non-poisonous one), when watching videos and photos with images of these animals.

Phobia study theory

Phobic disorders have relatively recently been attributed to an independent type of mental pathology. They have previously been considered in the context of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Already in the works of the doctor F. Plater in 1617, there are the first scientific descriptions of anxiety-phobic disorder. And in 1858, the Russian physician I. Balinsky gives a new, independent definition of pathological anxiety, highlighting it as an independent class of mental deviations. He defines a phobia as a psychoemotional state, which is characterized by fear, anxiety, negative obsessive emotions, which cannot be controlled, which are beyond the control of consciousness and visit the individual against his will. Psychiatrists and psychologists note that many patients critically assess their fears, realize their bias. But they cannot get rid of the phobia on their own.

In modern psychology and psychiatry, it is customary to classify obsessive-compulsive disorder syndromes as phobic (based on anxiety), compulsive (based on behavioral manifestations) and obsessive (based on emotions and thoughts).

More in-depth studies of phobias as a separate class of diseases began in 1871, after the publication of the works of the German scientist Otto Westphal. When describing a clinical case of anxiety disorder, he mentions that fear arises in the patient against his will, does not lend itself to conscious control. However, it does not affect other functions. nervous system, clarity of thinking, intelligence, clear consciousness are preserved outside the sphere of influence of the stressor.

At the moment, phobia is a relatively uncomplicated anxiety disorder and has been successfully treated.

“If I were on the edge of an abyss and a grasshopper jumped in my face, I would rather throw myself into the abyss than endure these touches,” admitted Salvador Dali. Hitchcock was cringing from one kind of eggs, and Stephen King still falls asleep with the lights on and writes novels, never stopping at multiples of 13. Theories and Practices explain how irrational fears work, what determines the "choice" of an object and how new technologies will help to cope with the problem.

The term "phobia" comes from the Greek "phobos" - "fear", "horror", but not every fear can be called a phobia. This concept denotes a persistent, irrational and uncontrollable fear that makes a person feel bad in certain situations and try to avoid them in every possible way. Unlike ordinary fear - an emotion that helps us adapt to the world around us (it allows us to assess the situation and avoid real dangers), phobia, on the contrary, leads to maladjustment and a feeling of helplessness.

“He washed his hands at the slightest pretext and wiped them off with a fresh towel each time. I absolutely did not tolerate a handshake. He had a strange disgust for pearls; if there were ladies in pearls at the dinner, he could not eat. In general, the smooth round surfaces disgusted him; it took him a lot of time to get used to billiard balls ... " This is how his biographer John O "Neil describes the oddities of Nikola Tesla in his book Electric Prometheus. Irrational fear can be completely absurd - as in the case of pearls, in other cases it is based on some kind of logic, but the individual's reaction to the stimulus is pathologically One thing is simply to be afraid of getting sick, and another thing is because of this fear of wiping every object with a napkin and avoiding touching.In a phobia, anxiety is so strong that a collision with an unwanted object / situation is accompanied by psychosomatic reactions - a person turns pale or blushes, he has shortness of breath, nausea, palpitations, he is thrown into cold sweat etc. Usually, the very expectation of a phobic situation causes premature anxiety - and in severe cases, anxiety may arise several hours before actual contact with the source (in the case of aerophobia, for example, half a day before boarding a flight at the airport). This aggravates the situation, and sometimes even prevents doctors from making a correct diagnosis - such a prolonged manifestation of a phobia can be mistaken for generalized anxiety disorder.

The realization that fear is irrational or hypertrophied does not solve the problem - the owner of the phobia cannot do anything with himself and continues to avoid the source of anxiety. And if you can isolate yourself from mice or spiders without much damage to everyday life, then, for example, ablutophobia (an abnormal fear of washing - from wet cleaning the house to a warm bath) or antophobia (fear of flowers) can cause great difficulties. In cases where a phobia seriously interferes with a person's life, we can talk about a mental disorder.

Don't leave the room

By International classification diseases phobic disorders fall into three main categories:

Specific(isolated) - this includes phobias clearly limited to specific objects and situations. Popular specific phobias include, for example, fear of certain species of animals (rodents, insects, reptiles, dogs, etc.), heights, darkness, thunder, airplane flight, enclosed space, blood type, or medical intervention. There are also much more atypical options: for example, people suffering from trypophobia - fear of clusters of holes - cringe at the sight of honeycombs or lotus fruits, and those with omphalophobia are afraid of both the sight of other people's navels and touching their own.

Sociophobia is a fear of close attention from other people, leading to avoidance of various social situations - from phone calls to unfamiliar subscribers to house parties or public speaking. Serious social phobias are associated with fear of criticism and low self-esteem - they are more likely to develop in those whom parents in childhood compared to “good” peers against them, or in those who were victims of attacks and ridicule from their peers in childhood.

Highlighted separately agoraphobia, the essence of which is easiest to describe with the famous quotation of Joseph Brodsky - "do not leave the room, do not make a mistake." It is usually considered a fear of open spaces - as opposed to claustrophobia - but primarily, it is a fear of leaving the house or leaving another small comfort zone (such as a room). This diagnosis can also include fear of crowds and public places, a fear of traveling alone, and an unwillingness to be in a place that is difficult to leave quickly without drawing attention to itself (such as a barber chair). Anxiety can be caused both by the fear of embarrassment in public, or simply by the inability to control the environment, and the fear that the panic attack will be noticed by others, further exacerbates the phobia. In contrast to social phobia, which most often develops during adolescence, agoraphobia, as a rule, manifests itself in already adult individuals, at the age of 20-40 years.

How do we “choose” what to fear

What happens to our body when we are faced with a source of anxiety? It is believed that the amygdala, an area of the brain located inside the temporal lobe (one amygdala in each hemisphere), is responsible for the feeling of fear and the instinct for self-preservation. It is connected, among other things, with the emergence and consolidation in memory of associations between the source of fear and the feeling of danger. Upon repeated collision with a "dangerous" object, the amygdala triggers the secretion of hormones that make the body ready - to run, fight, or, conversely, hide in the face of danger. Subjectively, this state is perceived as unpleasant: there is an adrenaline rush, the heart beats quickly, blood pressure rises, sweat appears, but in fact, in a state of panic, the body is not in danger.

But why is one person scared to death of butterflies, and the other cannot stand the sight chewing gum? Do we choose our own fears? Although scientists have not yet come to a single explanation, there are several hypotheses about the causes of phobias.

First, the appearance of irrational fears can be explained by Pavlov's model - when a negative stimulus is combined with a neutral one, a negative reaction to a neutral stimulus is fixed in a person. The most striking example is the experience of John Watson, the founder of the behavioral trend in psychology. Watson was interested in childhood emotions and, in particular, the formation of fear responses. He wanted to know how a child develops a fear of objects that previously seemed safe.

To do this, he launched, to put it mildly, an ambiguous experiment, the hero of which was the 9-month-old boy Albert, notable for the fact that he was not at all afraid of white rats. During the study, the baby was shown a tame white rat, a white rabbit, cotton wool, a Santa Claus mask with a beard and other objects for two months. white... Two months later, Albert was seated in the middle of the room and allowed to play with the former rat. Some time after the start of the game, Watson began hitting the metal plate behind the child's back with an iron hammer every time Albert touched the rat. After some time, the frightened toddler began to avoid contact with the animal. A week later, the experiment was repeated - this time the plate was hit five times, simply by launching the rat into the cradle, which made the child cry. Five days later, it turned out that Albert was afraid not only of rats, but also of white rabbits, cotton wool and Santa Claus. So Watson concluded that fear reactions can be transferred from the real cause to the accompanying stimulus, and the child has a strange phobia for life.

In addition, fear can be acquired by observing others. Thus, for example, one can "inherit" fear of dogs from someone from close relatives, drawing conclusions from his behavior on a walk (the closest relatives of people with phobias are almost three times more likely to suffer from phobias than those who do not have such relatives - but if the general tendency to anxiety is partially of genetic origin, the very "choice" of a phobia depends more on the example of others than on heredity). And sometimes there are enough picturesque stories heard in early childhood - so you should not tell children horror stories about dangerous bacteria, aggressive animals or monsters crawling out of the dark. Phobias can also arise as a result of very vivid stressful experiences - for example, a person who once accidentally almost got run over by a train may be afraid of trains all his life ever since.

And from the point of view of psychoanalysis, increased anxiety, and, in particular, phobic disorders are caused by a person's collision with some kind of forbidden desires that he does not want or cannot accept. Desire begins to be perceived as a danger, and not internal, but external - since the individual includes a kind of psychological defense, not wanting to admit that the source of fear is actually in himself. Interestingly, the founder of psychoanalysis, Freud, also had a strange phobia - he was afraid of the fern. The professor did not get to the bottom of the cause of this fear.

Benzodiazepines and relaxation

One of the most effective ways treatment of phobias is considered cognitive-behavioral therapy, aimed at combating conscious and unconscious negative beliefs and attitudes, leading to increased anxiety, neuroses, panic attacks and other disorders. During the appointment, the psychotherapist not only understands the causes of irrational fear, but also develops a system of exercises to combat new attacks.

In addition, psychotherapy is often combined with medication. Three groups of drugs are commonly used to treat a phobic disorder - beta blockers, benzodiazepines, and antidepressants - selective inhibitors serotonin reuptake (SSRI). Beta blockers inhibit the stimulating effect of adrenaline and relieve psychosomatic symptoms. SSRIs regulate the level of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that affects mood, including feelings of security. And benzodiazepines have sedative and anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) effects.

It is also helpful to master relaxation techniques to deal with irrational fears. In some cases, the “ladder of fear” technique, based on careful and gradual contact with the source of the phobia, also helps. For example, if you are afraid of dogs, then you should start by watching photos and videos about dogs, then move on to observing dogs on the street from afar, and finally begin to carefully approach the animals. In any case, you should not self-medicate - it is better to consult a psychotherapist.

6 apps to get rid of fears

In addition to psychotherapy and medication, technology helps to cope with phobias. T&P has compiled a list of applications that aim to alleviate and prevent anxiety and anxiety in the future.

SOAR has been operating since 1982 - now they are the leading experts in the field of aerophobia, using cognitive behavioral techniques in practice. The app was written by Tom Bunn, a pilot and licensed therapist. SOAR covers absolutely everything from claustrophobia to behavior in extreme situations. In fact, the meaning of his work is to eliminate illiteracy. Anxiety can be overcome by knowledge about the structure of the aircraft, the mechanics of its operation, about the safety system and how it prevents pilot errors, about turbulence and whether it poses any kind of threat. Other apps that might help you drink less during your flight are VALK and Take off Mode, initiated by Japan's All Nippon Airways.

Andrew Johnson is a physician specializing in clinical hypnotherapy, a type of psychotherapy aimed at altering the patient's subconscious mind through hypnosis. Beat Social Phobia is an audio guide to help you cope with social anxiety and stress levels. You can access the application as needed, or, if your daily schedule does not require time for reflection, also enable reminders: the application will invite you to take a deep breath and think about good things. Beat Social Phobia's content is divided into four sections: introduction, relaxation, social phobia surge, and awakening. These are exercises to relieve the feeling of heaviness in the body, relieve paranoia about what others think of you, increase awareness, self-confidence, and so on.

The application helps to get rid of fears associated with the animal world, the first issue is devoted to its most frightening representatives - spiders. According to statistics, arachnophobia is characteristic of 6% of the world's population, among the famous sufferers are Johann Schiller, Ronald Reagan and Johnny Depp. The mechanism of operation of Phobia Free is aimed at gradual desensitization. The therapy takes place in the format of an interactive storytelling, during which from the pink cartoon spider Itsy it comes to quite realistic tarantulas crawling on the work or kitchen table, that is, very close. At the end of the last session, as an exam, the application will offer you to find and photograph a live spider on your smartphone, preferably larger and more hairy. Phobia Free is approved by the UK National Health Service.

(psychiatrist)

Phobia: manifestation, features

20.11.2014

Maria Barnikova

Phobia is an intense fear, exacerbated by the approach and / or the onset of certain situations, not under the control of a person and not amenable to logical explanation. Pathological fear is a persistent, constant and prolonged change in the emotional sphere of a person, in which the individual experiences intense anxiety towards a large number a wide variety of problems and events. Often, the feeling of fear is not tied to a specific real situation, but [...]

Phobia- intense fear, exacerbated by the approach and / or the onset of certain situations, not under the control of a person and not amenable to logical explanation.

Pathological fear- a persistent, constant and long-term change in the emotional sphere of a person, in which the individual experiences intense anxiety towards a large number of a wide variety of problems and events. Often, the feeling of fear is not tied to a specific real situation, but exists in a fictional "fantasy" world, trying on a reason that has minimal similarity.

Manifestation of a phobia

A person with pathological anxiety is held captive by his fears almost constantly, very rarely feels safe, feels calm and peaceful. He seems to be balancing on the blade.

Characteristics of the phobia sufferer

A person subject to phobias begins to resort to "avoidance" behavior, deliberately not visiting certain objects and not performing certain activities. The phobia sufferer is unable to perform normally due to increased irritability, difficulty concentrating, constant excitement about the effectiveness of their activities, the impression made on colleagues. The desire to get rid of the growing, constant, exhausting fears forces us to narrow the circle of hobbies and interests to a minimum, abandon the implementation of plans for the future, and limit social contacts.

Signs of a phobia

The name "phobia" comes from the Greek meaning " phobos"- horror, fear. Modern definitions of the term "phobia" are very diverse. Summarizing the most authoritative definitions, one can clearly distinguish the main diagnostic criteria phobias:

obsessive and irrational nature of fears;
clarity and clarity of the plot of fear;
intensity, intensification and persistence of the flow;
maintaining a critical attitude of the patient to their fears.

The spread of phobias among the population

Prevalence of phobias in the general population according to Sartorius and Rouillon hesitates within 2-9%... According to Karvasarsky, and Polyakova phobias are present in 15 to 44% of patients. The main age of those with phobias: from 25 to 45 years.

Structural analysis of the concept of "phobia"

Almost every person in some life situation experiences a certain anxiety and natural excitement. Anxiety and fear are a common reaction of the body to real non-standard events, and it does not necessarily bode well for the emergence of long-term psycho-emotional problems. While a well-formed, chronic, non-explainable strong is classified as an anxiety-phobic disorder ( otherwise - a phobia).

Phobias associated with other mental illnesses

Phobias are present in many mental illness... Most often fears are companions different forms neuroses. According to research Pencil, "Allies" of hysteria - 14 types of phobias, with obsessive-compulsive disorder, 13 types of fear were observed, and neurasthenia was accompanied by 4 types of phobias. Therefore, traditionally, phobias are described in the framework of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Also, according to the classification Gannushkina phobias are present in the clinic of asthenic (),. Research Nabiulina show that phobias are observed in depression ( read in detail about depression), epilepsy, schizophrenia, psychosis, organic diseases of the central nervous system: infectious and vascular genesis, various tumors, traumatic brain injuries.

Distinguishing fear from phobias

According to the doctrine A. Svyadoscha, natural natural fear, in contrast to phobias, does not depend on certain situations or existing ideas of the individual. Fear - unmotivated, meaningless, short-term reaction aimed at a really existing threat with its termination after the disappearance of the negative factor ( read in detail about).

Phobic anxiety can be monothematic or polythematic ( see section), but their content (situation) and focus (object) are constant... Unlike phobias, natural fears are fluid, relatively realistic, and objective. So, if a snake rushes to a person, his reaction of affect and fear is explainable and logical.

Development of the theoretical basis for the concept of "phobia"

More recently, traditionally, the study of phobias took place in the framework of consideration, which is a manifestation of thought disorder. Some forms of obsessional phenomena were described as early as 1617 ( the works of the Swiss physician Felix Plater). Russian scientist I. Balinsky in 1858 he put forward his own version of the definition of these states. Phobias are phenomena in the psychoemotional sphere, which are characterized by fears, worries, drives that arise, "imposed" against the will of a person. Despite the preservation of self-criticism to such conditions, the individual often cannot get rid of fears on his own.

Most modern scientists distinguish three main classifications of obsessive compulsions, dividing phobic (fears),obsessive (thoughts) and compulsive (acting) syndromes.

The systematic study of phobias began in 1871, after the publication of the work of a German psychiatrist and neuropathologist Otto Westphal. When describing the author, it was indicated that pathological anxiety emerges in a person's mind against his will and does not affect intellect in other aspects. He noted that the basis of the phobia is thought disorder. French psychiatrist Benedict Morel put forward a different theory, believing that the cause of the appearance of phobias is a violation of the emotional sphere. The attribution of phobias to various phenomena of the mental sphere not only reflects the likelihood of the multifaceted disorder, but also causes a number of difficulties in their study.

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Phobia: what is it?

In psychology, such a concept as a phobia implies uncontrollable irrational fear... Many people understand what phobias are in their own way, but, from the point of view of logic, the manifestation of this feeling defies explanation. This mental disorder in a person can also manifest itself as a result of hostility or hatred for something in the outside world.

The manifestation of this quality of the psyche is inherent in humans at the genetic level. This factor helps a person to keep life in dangerous situations. Fear refers to the emotional sphere of a person and is innate. But phobias can be caused not only by a real danger to human life or health, but can also be triggered by imaginary situations.

Phobias respond well to treatment for early stage manifestations of the disease. If you miss the time, it will be much more difficult to cope with this ailment. This fear takes root in the human brain, and it will take a lot of effort to cope with it.

In the early stages of the manifestation of a phobia, you can use the help of a psychologist... A well-designed treatment will help get rid of obsessive fears... But if you do not engage in treatment, then the situation can get out of control and simple experiences will develop into a real panic. This condition disrupts the normal way of life of a person.

It is possible to distinguish a phobia from a simple fear by the signs of constant obsession, acuteness and pain of manifestation. A person cannot cope with this condition on his own. Intellect does not suffer with such a disease.

Causes of phobias

A phobia never appears out of nowhere. Depression, stress, and prolonged anxiety are frequent prerequisites for the appearance of this ailment. Phobia is nothing more than a hidden and often unconscious person emotional experience... This type of fear most of all attacks people who put reason above feelings.

The most important thing in life for such people is the ability to control the situation. This category includes men who hold high positions in the service or are engaged in private activities and they have to bear great responsibility.

Such people are often in stressful situations without being able to relax, which leads to a malfunction of the brain and nervous system. Most often, this disease begins to manifest itself from the moment when a person wants to live without the subject of his experiences.

And often a person succeeds if one object or object, for example, an animal, influences the formation of fear. But when a phobia is triggered by complex fears, it can be difficult to deal with. Such concepts include the fear of being in public places (social phobia).

Phobias: main categories

By its manifestation and mechanism of occurrence phobias fall into categories:

Most common fears

Among the most common phobias today are eremophobia - fear of loneliness... Such people are afraid to be completely alone. Some fears are divided into subgroups, among which the most common ones can be distinguished:

What are the symptoms of phobias?

Among the most noticeable signs, characterizing the manifestations of a panic attack, can be distinguished:

Panic attack symptoms usually do not appear all at once, and every sufferer knows what symptoms to expect when another attack occurs.

Are phobias fraught with danger and who suffers from them?

Such mental disorders in modern life not uncommon for a long time. Not all mental disorders are of a pronounced nature and therefore the life of such a patient and his loved ones is not significantly disturbed.

Only two out of a thousand people need qualified help and treatment, due to the violation of their living standards. Such low rate of people who need the help of specialists is primarily due to the infrequent meeting of the patient and the object of his disease. So, for example, a person who is afraid of public speaking, but has chosen a profession with the absence of this kind of activity, may never know about your illness.

Predisposed to the manifestation of such a disease, according to research, most often women. The beautiful half of humanity suffers from various fears three times more often than men. A more frequent manifestation of mental disorder is agoraphobia, which is characterized by the manifestations of a weak woman, a typical housewife.

Theory of origin

According to various experts, these symptoms can occur for a number of reasons. Similar symptoms can occur in the human body due to deeply hidden internal conflicts. The reason may be negative childhood experiences who find a way out at a more mature age.

According to another version, such manifestations of the organism can occur as a result of a reaction mistakenly accepted and assimilated by the body to a certain type of stimulus. The patient can cope with the situation on his own if he learns to relax when fear arises. You can also gradually stay alone for a short time with the object that provokes the appearance of fear.

Can this condition be inherited?

An adult can lay in a child from childhood panic fear in front of certain objects or objects. If the mother is afraid of snakes, then the child will also become wary of their appearance in the process of growing up. Raise fear of animals from childhood can be wrong arguments, for example, praise for the distance from being close to cats and reproaches from an adult if the baby stroked the animal.

Therefore, incorrect public opinion with early years, can lead to the formation of an incorrect reaction to what is happening. Such behavior of adults can lead to the emergence and development of fears in a growing body.

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Each of us, no doubt, has ever experienced fear. Most often this is a completely natural feeling, because this is how the desire of a living organism to self-preservation is manifested. However, often people are not afraid of some specific things that they observe or at least can imagine. There is a fear of what the person experiencing it does not have a clear idea of, especially since he has not seen it personally; or it is a fear of ordinary objects and phenomena, but the fearful person cannot explain the reason for it.

Irrational fear is defined in different ways:

firstly, this is what they call - mental disorders, characterized by an inadequate response to the perception of simple objects;
secondly, this is the name given to the fear of the unknown, the unknown, the "supernatural" inherent in seemingly mentally healthy people.

In fact, however, high religiosity, superstition, confidence in the existence of "higher powers", fate and fate are inherent only to those who have any mental or psychological disorders:

schizophrenia.

These disorders are not as noticeable or expressive as "standard" mental or mental illnesses, and this is partly dictated by political factors: it is beneficial for those in power when the people in their mass consist of uninitiated, incapable and intimidated individuals, moderately educated and afraid of everything that they unable to understand. Therefore, those who often suffer from serious mental disorders people are declared "normal", religion and superstition are considered "the basis of national culture," and the inadequate fears associated with them are considered the standard of behavior.

So from this point of view, the fear of spiders and the "fear of God" professed by believers are different manifestations of the same disease.

Cruel experiment

How do irrational fears arise? An experiment is known in which a nine-month-old baby took part. The experiment was later dubbed cruel and inhuman, but it clearly demonstrated the reason for the inappropriate behavior of adults.

The child was shown various objects similar to each other in appearance and pleasant to the sight and touch:

beard of Santa Claus,
a piece of cotton wool
white tame rat.

He was even allowed to play with the rat. The kid liked her very much, he became attached to her. After that, a metal object was loudly hit behind the child's back as soon as he touched the rat. He was frightened by the sharp sound and began to cry. In the end, he became afraid of the rat - the mere sight of it made him associate with an unpleasant sound; but he had the same associations when he saw any white and fluffy object - in particular, the same pieces of cotton wool and Santa Claus's beard, which he had liked before.

It is known that the developed phobia remained with him later, when he became an adult. Outside observers cannot understand why a piece of ordinary cotton wool or a white beard causes such an inadequate reaction in this person; and the subject himself may not be aware of this - fear has become entrenched at the subconscious level.

A similar scene is described in Aldous Huxley's famous dystopia "Oh new world! ". From the very beginning, children artificially removed from test tubes are divided by scientists into several castes, differing in mental indicators, and are intended for a certain type of work. And half-year-old children who are destined to become "cretins" and do the dirtiest work, with the help of such a technique weaned themselves from books. In the future, the "cretins" developed a persistent aversion to books, reading and learning in general.

Huxley, as you know, was the grandson of an outstanding scientist-biologist, who was engaged, in particular, in the study of conditioned reflexes in animals; and the brother of two other biologists. So the writer, apparently, personally observed such experiments (but not on people).

What is the Child Experiment and Roman Huxley evidence of?

The described experiment showed that irrational fears are based on life experience experienced by the patient a very long time ago, most often in early childhood. It is at this age that a child first tries to learn the world and identify patterns in it; and very often his brain makes mistakes - he perceives a random combination of circumstances, which are in no way connected with each other, as a stable pattern.

The first impressions of childhood form a person's psyche for the rest of his life, laying certain "programs" in the subconscious. Human behavior becomes automatic, while specific images are erased from memory. That is why a claustrophobic individual often cannot explain why he is afraid of confined spaces - only the subconscious mind “remembers” how his parents or older brothers locked him in a dark room in early childhood.

Of course, there are people whose "early childhood" lasts much longer, so they can have irrational fears at any time. In extreme situations (for example, in an accident), they can occur in almost any of us.

The formation of first impressions, including negative ones, in our time is facilitated by means mass media especially television. With their help, the mass "programming" of the population is carried out. To the brain small child(and sometimes an adult) can deliberately "lay" any phobia and thus program his behavior in the future.

How to get rid of irrational fears?

It can be done in different ways. The most common method is systematic desensitization. It consists in the fact that the patient is gradually "brought closer" to the object of his fear, using the techniques and. For example, if a person is afraid of cats, then he is gradually brought closer to them:

first show pictures of cats,
then a video,
then they offer to watch them from the window,
bring the cat directly to him,
give to touch her.

According to this approach, the conditioned reflex, which is a phobia, gradually fades away. A faster and more radical method is implosive therapy, but this technique cannot always be used. According to her, a person who is afraid of cats is immediately brought an animal and left alone with him, despite protests and cries.

A patient experiencing irrational fears is able to heal himself if he tries a situation: do his emotions have anything to do with reality? Does he not live in his own inner world, cut off from what is really happening around? Stormy fantasy, withdrawal into an imaginary world is one of the reasons for the development of irrational fears, therefore, in a good way healing is "falling from heaven to earth."

Parents should watch out for mental development their children. Irritable stimuli should be minimized, any hint of a phobia should be immediately eliminated: the child should be convinced that he has nothing to fear. You also need to keep track of what films and cartoons he watches, what books he reads, what games he plays. But something should not be forbidden to him, the principle is the same: it is necessary to explain to the child that the film is just a picture, there are no monsters and ghosts, and so on.