EpidemiologyResources
A specific anxiety (specific phobia) occurs most frequently in the population compared to the other anxiety disorders (social phobia, agoraphobia, etc.). Within the specific phobia, the following types occur more frequently: Studies have shown that 5-20% of German citizens fall ill each year. Gender-specific differences are also evident here, as women are much more likely to develop a specific phobia than men.
- Animal phobias (especially arachnophobia)
- Thunderstorm phobias (fear of thunderstorms)
- Altitude phobias (fear of high altitude)
- Blood phobias (fear of blood and injections)
- Injury phobias.
With specific phobias, in contrast to social phobia (fear of getting in contact with people), it is still possible to avoid the fear-induced stimuli (e.g. elevators). Depending on the type of phobia, the onset of the disease varies. For example, an animal phobia can begin at the age of seven. With situation-specific phobias, the onset is usually seen in adulthood.
Causes
Specific phobias usually develop only in the course of life and can be explained by many factors: The different factors can be summarized in three groups:
- Learning theory factors
- Neurobiological factors
- Individual differences
1. classical conditioning The affected person experiences a traumatic event in a certain person. From this point on the originally neutral situation is filled with fear. The situation will therefore always be associated with feelings of fear in the future.2.
learning on the model Often the fears and anxieties are taken over by parents, relatives and friends. The affected persons observe, for example, that the mother avoids narrow rooms (elevators) and shows strong anxiety reactions at a young age. Over the years, the person adapts the mother’s behavior and often suffers from the same fears later on.
But even in adulthood, fears can be automatically taken over by other close persons. In addition to what has been learned, there is also an explanatory approach that sees the causes for the development of such a phobia within the person. Since the autonomic nervous system is responsible for the heart and respiration, among other things (here the fear reactions are very clear), it is assumed that persons suffering from a phobia have a very unstable autonomic nervous system, which is hardly resilient.
Thus, anxiety symptoms are much more likely to appear. The heritability of such an unstable nervous system has also been discussed, but so far there is no real evidence for this. In the last century it was still believed for a very long time that the existence of mental illness could be explained by a very strong expression of personality traits.
This idea leads to the idea that there could be a connection between the existence of certain personality traits and the development of a mental illness. In the case of specific anxiety (specific phobia) one should therefore assume that people who are generally anxious could also be more likely to develop an anxiety disorder. This has also been confirmed in animal experiments with rats. Overall, it is assumed that individual differences in the personality of the persons as well as previous experience contribute significantly to the development of a mental illness (here: an anxiety disorder). If one considers all three areas (learning experiences, neurobiological reactions, individual differences), it can be assumed that a combination of factors can be used to explain the development of an anxiety disorder (phobia).
