Phobic Disorders and Social Phobia
Phobic Disorder is a disorder marked by a persistent, overwhelming and irrational fear of a specific situation or object. The specific object or situation becomes so feared, that the individual will do almost anything to avoid it. Unlike Generalized Anxiety Disorder, where an individual finds it difficult to locate a particular source for their anxiety, people with specific phobias can. There are different types of specific phobias including natural environment phobias (fear of things like water, heights, etc), animal phobias (fear of rats, dogs, snakes, etc), situational phobias (fear of flying, being in cramped spaces, driving, etc), other (fear of vomiting, bodily fluids, certain characters, etc) and blood/injection/injury phobia (fear of seeing blood, injections, certain medical procedures, etc).
Social Phobia (Social Anxiety Disorder)
Social Phobia is a disorder marked by an irrational, persistent and overwhelming fear of being in social situations. Individuals with this phobia are afraid that they will do or say something wrong and will be embarrassed as a result. This can lead to an increase in anti-social behaviour which results in less exposure to social settings, which in turn reinforces the fear of them. Much like other Anxiety Disorders, individuals with Social Phobia are often aware that their fears are not reasonable, yet, they have great difficulty overcoming them. Specific activities that may be feared include, eating or speaking in front of others, being the centre of attention, performing any sort of activity in front of someone, etc.