How do Phobias Develop?
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How Did I Get These Phobias?
In my private practice, Traveler’s Psychological Services I specialize in the treatment of Fear of Flying (aviophobia) and other related phobias. Many clients ask how they developed their phobias. The word “phobia,” from the Greek work “phobos” meaning “flight, terror, or panic.” When you have a phobia, you experience an intense, excessive fear of an object or action, that is out of proportion to reality. Anxiety increases, and sometimes mimics medical conditions such as nausea, rapid pulse, a pounding sensation in the chest, or fainting. When you are confronted with your feared object or situation, you will feel an intense desire to escape that object or situation.
Generally, there are three avenues by which people develop phobias:
- Direct learning experiences: Specific phobias can sometimes begin following a traumatic experience in the feared situation. For example, a child who is bitten by a dog might develop a fear of dogs, or someone who has a car accident might develop a fear of driving. When it comes to flying, if you experience severe turbulence, during which you experience the thought that you will die from the plane shaking apart and/or crashing, it is very possible that you will experience a feeling of impending doom if you experience turbulence on your next flight. This fear may be so pronounced that you will avoid flying, or anything having to do with flying. This fear of death while flying would likely be classic Aviophobia, or Fear of Flying.
- Observational learning experiences: Some people may learn to fear certain situations by watching others show signs of fear in the same situation. For example, a child growing up with a father who is afraid of heights may learn to fear heights himself. I have a friend who is terrified of spiders. His daughter grew up watching him develop panic if there is a spider in their house, or he encounters one in the yard. Although she has never herself had a negative experience with a spider, she “inherited” his arachnophobia. Phobias can also develop, for example, if you were to directly witness a plane crash, a fatal car accident, or a fire in which life and property are lost.
- Informational learning: Sometimes, people develop specific phobias after hearing about or reading about a situation that may be dangerous. For example, a person learns to fear flying after watching news footage of 9/11. Constantly watching footage of plane crashes, or obsessively searching videos on YouTube of crashes, can cause one to develop fears of the observed situation.
There are other means by which phobias can develop; let’s look at some alternate means:
Genetics:
Individuals may be genetically predisposed to having an anxious personality, making them more prone to phobias. People who are generally anxious in their daily life are “hardwired” to view new experiences through the lens of anxiety. They can be more prone to overreact to fairly benign anxiety provoking situations, such as experiencing turbulence during a flight. If you have this anxious predisposition, you are constantly on the lookout for things to be anxious about. Panic attacks can sometimes appear when you don’t expect them.
Fear Response:
Having a panic attack or other pronounced response to fear or panic in a certain situation can lead to feelings of embarrassment or fear of a repeat episode, that over time may develop into a phobia. Brain wiring can “misfire” for no particular reason; should this happen in the brain’s “panic center” and you happened to be in an enclosed space, like a small, hot, stuffy, room, you will likely feel an urgent need to leave that space. Since panic attacks generally subside within 15 minutes or so, you would be likely to associate your panic attack with the enclosed space, even though they may be coincidental.
Ongoing Stress:
Over the long term, stress can result in feelings of anxiety, depression and inability to cope in certain situations, that may make you more susceptible to developing a phobia related to the otherwise manageable stressful situation. Even if you never had a fear of flying before, being on a very rough flight when you are, and have been, “stressed out” for a while can magnify the unpleasantness you encounter, even to the point of developing a phobia.
My First Panic Attack
I suffer with asthma; when I was younger there were periods when my asthma was out of control. While working as an apprentice in a photo lab, in my 20’s, I was alone in the lab, in an isolated part of the studio. I developed a severe asthma attack due to what is called a “paradoxical reaction”; the asthma medication I was using actually caused a severe asthma attack. I was not able to find my way out of the darkroom, and, unable to draw in a breath at all, could not call for help. This was my first panic attack. For what seemed like a very long time, I was sure I was going to die. In reality, within probably 30 seconds, I began to breathe normally, and was able to find my way out. Out of a fear of this recurring, I was reluctant to go back in the darkroom .
Why I didn’t Develop a Phobia
Fortunately, my Pulmonologist saw me the next day, changed my medication, and did an excellent job of talking me through the experience and assuring me the new medication would not have the same negative side effect. I was quickly able to resume working in the darkroom, although for the first few days, I was reluctant to enter unless there was someone else there .
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