The behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of phobias, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) - Psychopathology
Phobias: Phobias are anxiety disorders that are characterised by uncontrollable, extreme, irrational and enduring fears that involve anxiety levels that are out of proportion to any actual risk. It is estimated that about 10% of people will suffer from phobias at one point in their life. The DSM-5 recognises the following categories of phobias: 1. Specific phobias (phobias of an object (eg. an animal) or a situation (eg. flying)) 2. Social phobias (phobias of social situations, eg. public speaking) 3. Agoraphobia (phobia of being outside or in a public space) Behavioural Characteristics of Phobias (how you act): Avoidance : When presented with an object/situation we fear, we will go out of our way to make sure we avoid coming into contact with it. For example, someone with arachnophobia will avoid being near spiders, and people with a social phobia will avoid being in large crowds. Panic : However, we are not always able to completely avoid our phobi