Phobia

Specific phobias include fear of certain things, such as spiders. Clinical psychologist Albert Carlin is pioneering cyber-spider therapy for hard-core arachnophobes. Carlin says that to get over a phobia, "you need to be exposed to what you're afraid of in small bites." Those being treated view cyber spiders with the aid of a virtual reality helmet.

According to the FDA Consumer (March 1997), "a person can develop a specific phobia of anything, but in most cases the phobia is shared by many and has a name. Animal phobias --cynophobia (dogs), equinophobia (horses), and zoophobia (all animals) -- are common."

The same article cited agoraphobia as the most disabling of all the phobias since there are so many associated fears, such as the fear of crows, of elevators, or of traffic.

All phobias can be treated with behavioral therapy or a combination of behavioral therapy and medication.

I would like to end this with my favorite phobia term, one that I don't suffer from, but I do try to keep them to a minimum. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedialiophobia - the fear of long words. And I certainly don't suffer from logophobia (the fear of words) or logizomechanophobia (fear of computers).

The Phobia List http://phobialist.com

ARACHNOLOGY - ARACHNOPHOBIA http://www.ufsia.ac.be/Arachnology/Pages...

ASAP Dictionary of Anxiety and Panic Disorders - home http://www.netaxs.com/people/aca3/AD-ENG...

CyberPsych Home Page http://www.cyberpsych.org/index.html

Shyness Research Institute at Indiana University http://www.cs.ius.indiana.edu/AK/BCARDUC...

Shy and Free: A Site that Transforms Shyness http://www.shyandfree.com/index.html

Anxiety Disorders Association of America - Anxiety Disorders Association http://www.adaa.org/

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