A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder. Phobias can be divided into three categories: social phobia, agoraphobia and specific phobia. Social phobia is a fear of being judged in social or performance situations. Agoraphobia is a fear of public places and open spaces. Specific phobia is a fear of a specific object or situation, such as airplanes, spiders or heights. Click here to learn more about phobias and anxiety disorders.

Warning - some people might consider this to be a bit gross. I've attempted to be descriptive, but not too descriptive, so you can understand where I'm coming from. If you're squeemish about body functions, skip the next paragraph. When I was in the first grade, I had a pretty bad case of diarrhea come on while I was at school. I tried to hold it, but by the time I asked to go to the bathroom, there was already a mess. The teacher sent me to the bathroom, which was directly off the classroom.

A phobia is a strong, persistent fear of certain situations, objects, activities, or persons. The main symptom of this disorder is the excessive, unreasonable desire to avoid the feared subject. When the fear is beyond one's control, or if the fear is interfering with daily life, then a diagnosis of phobia can be made. Approximately 5.3 million American adults ages 18 to 54, or about 3.7 percent of people in this age group in a given year, have social phobia.

Well, it's true that Dylan suffers from all sorts of things: he has a fear of flying, he suffers from vertigo, sometimes he's depressed. I didn't want to make him into an all-victorious hero, a Tex- style superhero. He's one who's sometimes a loser, or alternative, if he's on the winning side, he never wins completely. Basically, he doesn't even seem to be the right type for a comic strip hero. My stories are never comforting because the horror never finishes. It always starts all over again.

First of all, I don't cure the phobia - you do. I teach you methods to overcome the fear. With the most successful cases they never have to worry about their fear again. In other cases people have techniques at their disposal to create a greater level of comfort in their formerly anxiety producing situation. The reason I can say these things with certainty is that I've seen them happen many times. This is why I offer such a strong guarantee.

Theresa's fingers clattered in rapid-fire staccato across the keys. Spontaneous ? impulsive ? her heart pounded in her throat. In the same instant she hit the Send button, she had a wild, panic-tinged urge to recall the message or rip the modem cord from the wall trying. The cheery, damning words appeared on her screen: Message sent! "Shit." She took a sip of coffee, hours old. Martin wouldn't get the message until dawn.

Anxiety or Panic Attacks as well as Phobias are physical not mental problems! They are the body's way of saying that something is seriously imbalancing the nervous system. The list of physical causes are many. It could be due to a food or environmental allergen or toxin.

Reaction to phobias may vary. Tread gently as it is possible to make matters worse. It is important to go only as quickly as your pet will allow as fear may turn to aggression if your pet is pushed into a situation with no avenue for escape. celebrations for bonfire night now seem to go on for longer than a single night, we urge everyone to follow the animal-friendly firework code. Loud firework bangs and dazzling displays of flashes in the sky can be particularly terrifying to animals.

Yet EFT'ers perform these "miracles" daily....as well as hundreds more. The World Center for EFT web site is full of such evidence. Western healing practitioners are hard pressed to explain these results except to use a "placebo" or a "spontaneous remission" or a "mind over matter" explanation. They cannot be explained through the current paradigm. Accordingly, what is needed is another way to look at the human body...another paradigm. The conventional explanations obviously need help.

There is much anecdotal information that EMDR is effective in the treatment of specific phobias. Unfortunately, the research that has investigated EMDR treatment of phobias, panic disorder, and agoraphobia has failed to find strong empirical support for such applications. Although these results are due in part to methodological limitations in the various studies, it is also possible that EMDR may not be consistently effective with these disorders.

NAMI NAMI (The National Alliance on Mental Illness) is the nation's largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to improving the lives of persons living with serious mental illness and their families. This is a searchable index of mental health and medical support groups and organizations throughout the world and in your community.