Mental Conditions Forum - Questions About Phobias (including My Own)

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Q: Questions About Phobias (including My Own)

asked by: ScaredBaka on August 23rd, 2004

Experienced User

I have a few questions pertaining to phobias and their development.

1. Are phobias hereditary, or can a person's genetic make-up contribute to a phobia?

2. Can insufficient thyroid function be linked to particular phobias?

3. Can someone develop a phobia after having a nightmare about something (spiders, rain, cats, knives, etc.)?

4. Are certain people more prone to developing phobias?

5. Is it normal for a person to "lose" their common sense when in a situation involving an apparition of their phobia? (i.E., arachnophobia: someone thinking they will die a miserable death if touched by a harmless spider)

6. For those who believe in reincarnation, can a person's phobia be linked to an experience had in a past life?

7. Is it possible to overcome intense phobias through counseling, therapy, and/or hypnosis?

.................

You may laugh at this guys (trust me you wouldn't be the first), but I have a phobia of pregnancy, mainly getting pregnant. I'm 17, and I know most girls my age will get scared if they think they are pregnant, but is it to the point where they make themselves sick with stress to the point of nausea? Or crying for hours on end? Or staying stressed even though everyone and their mother can tell them they shouldn't be concerned?

(if you're wondering what I mean, see my posts in the "getting pregnant" forum).

The main reason why I fear sexual intercourse is a fear of becoming pregnant. Just knowing that there is always a chance of pregnancy each time a girl has intercourse is enough to scare me, even with all the contraceptive methods we have today.

....................

I want to overcome this fear...I want to marry my amazing boyfriend and be able to please him (after marriage mind you!), but I won't be able to if i'm too scared to have sex.

And also if you are at all curious, I asked about thyroid function being related to phobia development, because I believe I do have a thyroid problem, but I don't know if it can cause any sort of mental issues.

Any help on this would be sincerely and greatly appreciated.

.........

Scaredbaka - feels silly having such a phobia

Replies(3)

bd1012

replied on August 23rd, 2004

Extremely eHealthy

I know someone who has insufficient thyroid and right now she is frozen out of fear everynight and sleeps on the couch after feeling a strange thump on her bed one night while she was awake. She says she see's air flowing sometimes but doesn't think it's a ghost but it still scares her. This is just recently after she made the stupid mistake of watching a segment on ghosts right before bed. Strangly she has never had the problem before and never has been afraid of the dark until now. I don't know if it's the thyriod causing this.

Haley

replied on August 27th, 2004

Experienced User

I'd say probably to the first five, I have no clue to 6 and definitely to number 7. Phobia's tend to turn into panic disorder and you don't want that trust me! Try reading some books on cbt and start using the tools they teach you and I think this will help you a lot! I suffered panic disorder as well as depression but through the tools taught in cbt I have been feeling better than ever and I am panic and depression free now Smile

the two books we used in my group are really good and I would recommend them both highly: been there, done that? Do this! By sam obitz Tao3.Com for anxiety and depression and mastery of your anxiety and panic-third edition by michelle craske and david barlow Amazon.Com for panic disorder. I hope this is useful to you.

jurplesman

replied on January 19th, 2005

Experienced User

Hello scaredbaka,

you are really asking how phobias are created.

Yes it can be inherited in the sense that there are some faulty genes we can inherit form parents that are inclined to have anxiety attacks. The diabetic gene is one.

Phobias are really a subcategory of anxiety attacks, in that the fear reaction has been linked to a mental or physical stimulus at the time when the anxiety attacks occurred.

There is a simple biological explanation for anxiety attacks, that can develop into a phobia. Both are experienced as �irrational� fears.

Anxiety attack are caused by overproduction of adrenaline - a fear hormone - generated from within due to a metabolic disorder. Hence we have no control over the prevention or the generation of a fear response without an external object.

We tend to �rationalize� our irrational fear by making up a story to justify why we feel frightened or disturbed. This is called �reverse conditioning� in psychology.

Excess adrenaline is a response to when the brain senses a sudden starvation of biological energy in the form of a low blood sugar level on which it depends for normal operations. Adrenaline is a hormone that converts glycogen (stored sugar stores) into glucose the feed the brain again.

Abnormal fluctuations of blood sugar levels to the brain is due to insulin resistance (hypoglycemia), that blocks the proper metabolism of glucose into biological energy called atp.

When the brain senses a starvation of energy, it will send stress hormones to the adrenal glands to pour adrenaline into the system. This causes unexplainable anxiety attacks and it is also responsible for a host of other �mental� disorders, such as insomnia, depression, mood swings, anger outbursts, alcoholism and drug addiction, personality disorders of all kinds.

Please read:

�beating anxiety� at our web site.

Jurriaan plesman

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