About phobia
Are you afraid of mice or are you afraid of flying? Almost everyone has a mild fear or phobia. As long as that fear has no negative influence on your daily life, there is no problem. When a fear really starts to influence your life, limits your functioning and affects your pleasure or happiness, and leads to avoidance behavior, there may be a phobia.
With a phobia, you often develop a strong fear of specific things or situations, sometimes for unclear reasons. You can also develop a phobia after a traumatic experience, such as a car accident after which you no longer dare to drive. Usually, you know very well that the fear is not realistic, but the fear is stronger than common sense.
Social phobia
If you are very afraid of the reaction or criticism of others, you may have a social phobia. Examples include fear of a critical or negative judgment, fear of showing noticeable behavior such as blushing, stuttering, shaking or sweating, fear of making mistakes, fear of not being liked or fear of giving a presentation to a group of people. Because of this fear, you will start to avoid or escape these situations.
Fear of failure or extreme embarrassment can often be linked to social phobia.
Social phobia is also known as social anxiety disorder. To learn more about the characteristics, symptoms, causes and consequences, and about how we can help you with social phobia, read our Social anxiety disorder page.
Specific phobias
A specific phobia is a fear of certain things, animals or situations. The anxiety may be accompanied by severe physical symptoms such as palpitations, chills, fainting or hyperventilation, as well as feelings of panic. Common phobias include fear of heights, fear of flying, claustrophobia, fear of the dentist, spiders and mice.
A specific phobia is almost always accompanied by avoidance behavior, or the feared situation is endured with intense fear.
Treatment of phobia
Sometimes a phobia passes spontaneously. More often, however, therapy is needed. Fortunately, there are different forms of therapy that can help resolve fears completely. In therapy, we tackle your fears together. This helps you to look at your fear more closely and understand it better.
From that insight, we work toward resolving your fear and the unpleasant feelings that come with it.
Also read our Phobia treatment page if you want additional information about how we can treat your phobia symptoms.
Contact Psychologen Amsterdam
Do you recognize your symptoms and do you need help or do you just have a question about the treatment of your phobia? Then call for an appointment or send a message to Psychologen Amsterdam.
