In most, everyone has an irrational fear. However, these fears are minor. When fears turn severe that they cause tremendous anxiety and interfere with your normal life, they are known as phobias. According to the American Psychiatric Association,“a phobia is an irrational and excessive fear of an object or situation. In most cases,the phobia involves a sense of endangerment or a fear of harm” (Cherry, 2012).
Common phobias and fears include fear of being trapped in an inescapable place or situation, heights, insects and snakes. Most phobias develop in childhood, but they can also develop in adults. People who suffer phobia, their fear are unreasonable and yet they still unable to control their feelings. They will become anxious just only thinking about the feared situation or object. Their terror is automatic andoverwhelming when actually confronted with the source of the fear. The good news is recover from phobia is possible. You can overcome your anxiety and fear, no matter how out of control it feels.Self-help strategies and therapy can both be effective.We have chosen obesophobia for this article.
Obesophobia (Fear of Gaining Weight)Obesophobia or Pocrescophobia can also be known as weight phobia, a term created by Arthur H. Crisp，defined as a morbid and abnormal fear of gaining weight.“Obesophobia is happens mostly in cultures that emphasizes on being thin means being beautiful.This phobia was listed as a rare disease by the Office of Rare Diseases of the National Institutes of Health as reported in Redorbit (2013).”
A fear of being overweight can affect and threaten normal life if it is not identified and treated. There is no doubt that this phobia often stems from other psychological factors. It is most often people who are pressured to be fit and thin that develop this phobia, such as aesthetic athletes. The survey that was carried out indicates that this phobia usually affects both sexes but is particularly rampant among teenage girl.People who suffer this phobia primarily start with a simple desire to lose weight which turns into a compulsive desire to avoid all things that could increase weight, including self-induced starvation or exercising excessively. They always think they are fat but actually they are extremely thin. When this fear of weight becomes critical and strong, therapists refer it as Obesophobia. The end result of this phobia isoften eating disorders like Anorexia Nervosa. It is a serious mental illness. Patients are not loss of appetite, they purposely restricted their food intake because they very anxious about their weight. This can turn into a life-threatening situation if it is not treated.
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