Symptoms and Complications
Anxiety suffered by a person with a phobia can be experienced as both mental
and physical symptoms.
Mentally, a person can become so worried about encountering or avoiding a particular
situation that it can disrupt sleep, cause fatigue or irritability, or even
make it difficult to concentrate on other matters.
Physically, anxiety in the face of fear can make a person sweat, breathe heavily,
or experience irregular heartbeats (palpitations), dizziness, or faintness.
Anxiety can also cause muscle pain or tension, and may even interfere with digestion,
resulting in diarrhea, for instance.
Particular phobias are identified when the fear of - or exposure to - specific
situations is so extreme that the person loses the ability to cope under those
circumstances. A person's attempts to avoid such situations can become sufficiently
disruptive to his or her life as to be debilitating.
Panic attacks can help lead to the development of certain phobias. Panic
disorder is marked by sudden, extreme feelings of terror and panic. The attack
can cause a person's heart to pound and feel dizzy, faint, weak, or sweaty.
Nausea, chest pains, a sense of unreality, and a loss of control often mark
an episode, which can occur at any time, night or day. Panic disorder is not
a phobia but an anxiety disorder. However, having a panic attack in an elevator
can result in a fear of elevators or of confined spaces; fear of having attacks
in public places may cause a person to avoid those places, leading to agoraphobia.
Similarly, panic attacks can become symptoms of phobias, and may be triggered
by exposure to the things or situations that people fear.
There are two types of social phobia. Generally, the phobia encompasses
all social situations outside of family contact, and may be associated with
low self-esteem and fear of criticism. Avoidance of social situations often
leads to social isolation. Another type of social phobia may occur in people
who are normally comfortable with informal social contact, but become excessively
nervous, anxious, and flustered when they're the center of attention. This is
likely to affect individuals who must perform or speak in public, even those
who have considerable experience being in the spotlight (Sir Laurence Olivier
developed "stage fright" at one period in his acting career).
Agoraphobia is typically associated with the lack of an easily available
exit or escape route to a safe place (usually a person's home). People become
frightened of being in public places, stores, or crowds, or of traveling alone,
and are prone to panic attacks when they go out alone. The phobia may consist
of a cluster of different fears that overlap, often resulting in people who
are too frightened to leave the safety of their own homes. For this reason,
agoraphobia is considered the most incapacitating of anxiety disorders.
Specific phobias generally develop in young adults and, if left untreated,
persist for decades. When individuals are easily able to avoid the phobic
situation, the impact of the phobia will not be as great. However, when a person
has to go to great lengths to avoid fears, the phobia becomes disruptive to
normal functioning. It's most important to get help. Treatment or therapy will
enable a person to work and have an active social life.