A phobia is a disorder in which, irrationally, appears anxious when exposed to living things, objects or different situations. You may receive a phobia against people, animals or objects, such as doctors or nurses, dogs, spiders, snakes, blood, injections, etc..
You may also receive a phobia varied situations, such as flying, being in enclosed spaces (claustrophobia), in open spaces (agoraphobia) or in certain social situations (social phobia), such as public speaking, to take an examination, etc.
The underlying problem in the case of phobias is anxiety. The anxiety, which can be generated by an internal conflict, rather than linked to the conflict, is shifted to a particular object or situation, which is invested with the anxiety and gives rise to so irrational anxiety or fear appears in connection with the object or situation causing the phobia.
Therefore, the object or situation causing the phobia (spider, snake, fly, lift, height …) is only apparent cause, being the real cause, conflict, often unconscious, which causes anxiety.
The usual attitude is to prevent the agent or situation that triggers the phobia. Sometimes you can not avoid it, and in this case, it requires a psychotherapist to resolve the situation.
One of the most common techniques to solve the problem is the “exposure therapy” in which the subject suffering from the phobia is exposed in a progressive and gradual agent or situation that causes it.
Gradual and controlled exposure often results in the gradual reduction of anxiety levels experienced by the subject, making it, gradually, to overcome the disorder.
Frequently they investigate also in the framework of psychotherapy the psychological conflicts that can suffer the patient and who are in the background of the anxiety associated with phobia.
In urgent situations and specific, for example, air travel, it may be necessary to resort to medication to reduce the level of anxiety that the situation causes.