Wood (1999) describes a person suffering from a phobia experiences a persistent, irrational fear of some specific object, situation, or activity that poses no real danger (or whose danger is blown all out of Agoraphobia, social phobia, and specific phobia are three classes of phobia. Agoraphobics have an intense fear of being in a situation from which immediate escape is not possible or in which help would not be available If the person should become overwhelmed by anxiety or experience a panic attack or panic-like symptoms. People who suffer from social phobia are intensely afraid of any social or performance situation in which they might embarrass or humiliate themselves in front of otherswhere they might shake, blush, sweat, or in some other way appear clumsy, foolish, or incompetent. Specific phobiaa marked fear of a specific object or situationis a catchall category for any phobias other than agoraphobia and social phobia. Specific phobia can be divided further into four other subcategories. The four categories are situational phobia, fear of natural environments, animal phobias, and blood-injection-injury phobia (p521). By definition, phobias are irrational, meaning that they interfere with ones everyday life or daily routine. For example, if your fear of high Treating Acrophobia 3places prevents you from crossing necessary bridges to get to work, that fear is irrational. If your fears keep you from enjoying life or even preoccupy your thinking so that you are unable to work, or sleep, or to do things you wish to do, then it becomes irrational. Wood (1999) states that phobics will go to great lengths to avoid the feared object or situation. Some people with bloodinjection--injury phobia will not seek medical care even if is a matter of life and death. And those with a severe dental phobia will actually let ...
