Certo. Ecco la traduzione in inglese, mantenendo il contenuto e il registro clinico-divulgativo dell’originale.
Scrittura
The term “phobia” refers to a mode of reacting to an object, whether one comes into actual contact with it or merely thinks about or imagines it. It is a form of fear, a feeling that is in itself common and functional, helping us avoid harm and danger.
Phobia has two characteristics that make it a source of distress. First of all, it does not allow for any gradual adjustment: it is an explosive reaction that leaves no room for turning back. Fear can be overcome, managed, and gradually reduced as one becomes familiar with the stimulus. Phobia, on the contrary, prevents this normal process of adapting to and working through fear from developing.
The other aspect is that it creates a situation of limitation for the person. The person would like to expose themselves to the stimulus, or would like to be free to do so, but realizes that they are instead compelled to avoid it.
Obviously, a fear can also develop and become reinforced. We instinctively fear fire and intense heat; if we try to touch a fire, the burn reinforces this fear. At the same time, the fear becomes more “reasoned”: we understand that fire should be avoided beyond certain limits, rather than avoided absolutely.
With a phobia, on the other hand, encountering an object that is already feared—or even one that was not previously feared—produces a reaction of terror and escape that leaves no room for rational processing and keeps the person blocked in their behavior. Someone who, for example, has a fear of flying may reason about it in a thousand different ways, but this will not necessarily help their instinctive reaction to avoid flying in real life.
Clearly, some phobias may actually be insignificant, meaning that they have no impact whatsoever on the person’s life if they concern situations or objects that the person will never, or almost never, encounter again. Nevertheless, awareness of having a rigid limitation, of having a terror lying in wait—even if nobody knows about it and even if it is unlikely ever to become a practical problem—can itself cause distress. A person with a phobia may experience this as a kind of handicap.
Some people feel limited in their choices. Others become convinced that they are incapable of doing something when, in reality, the obstacle is not fear itself, which could be mastered, but the phobia. Still others become convinced that they are fearful, cowardly, or incapable of confronting their fears, and secretly carry this regret even though in everyday life they may successfully overcome situations that are far more important.
There are disorders that are based on a phobia, such as social anxiety disorder, otherwise known as social phobia. This involves a range of objects and situations that trigger disproportionate reactions, embarrassment, or an urge to escape; they may cause the person to “go blank” or become overwhelmed, or may provoke terror that other people will notice the fear they are experiencing, even when it is not outwardly visible.
Other disorders are often complicated by fears of particular places and situations, as occurs with panic disorder. In this case, the fears may concern the body itself—dying, fainting, having a heart attack—or losing control in general as a result of the state of panic that has been experienced: being unable to control one’s bowels, wetting oneself, vomiting, and so forth. There may also be fears that particular places or events could trigger panic attacks. All of this is often summarized by the expression “fear of fear,” because ultimately the object being avoided is essentially panic itself.
There are also certain phobias that develop because a person thinks obsessively about particular fears or objects that produce repulsion, doubt, or a sense of threat or lack of control. As a result, fear, instead of remaining flexible, becomes rigid and imposes avoidance of those objects or situations. An ambivalent relationship develops in which the person must think about them internally or examine them in depth, only to become terrified by them and then avoid them or seek reassurance.
These conditions fall within obsessive-compulsive disorder and are known as “obsessional phobias.” In this case, especially when the phobias concern abstract or conceptual objects, or thoughts themselves, there may be no actual flight or avoidance response. Instead, the person experiences an anxious reaction, sometimes accompanied by physical symptoms such as sweating or nausea, when focusing on the concepts or mental images that disturb them.
In manuals, one often finds the term “simple phobias,” used when the phobic mechanism is limited to a particular object and does not represent a general way of thinking about or reacting to environmental stimuli. It is not uncommon, however, for a simple phobia to be part of a history in which an obsessive disorder, social anxiety, panic disorder, or generalized anxiety disorder subsequently appears.
Over the years, numerous descriptions of phobias have accumulated, ultimately becoming repetitive and usually being given names derived from Greek or Latin. Individual phobias are not each separate diseases in their own right, and they are often variants of the same underlying phobic process.
Below is a list of phobia names and themes, grouped according to the type or category of the feared object.
LIST OF PHOBIAS
Here is a list of phobias, with an attempt to group them according to the theme or category of the feared object.
Related to panic
High places
Enclosed places or being trapped
Vertigo
Open spaces
Falling
Travel and movement
Being alone
Suffocation or choking on food
Vomiting
Interpersonal and social phobias
(Social phobias, anthropophobia)
Relatives or family members
Performance
Activities that must be carried out in public
Intimate relationships
Sexuality
School
Neighbors
Being punished or failing
Groups or the public in general
People of different ages
Diseases and bodily functions
(Hypochondriacal fears)
Illnesses in general
Mental illness
Doctors and medical treatments
Gaining weight
Specific diseases
Fever
Pain
Defecation
Blood
Intellectual and abstract phobias
Right
Left
Numbers
Symbols
Time
Thoughts
Words
Decisions
Death
Novelty
Imperfection
Infinity
Ruins
Symmetry
Asymmetry
Disorder
Technology and progress
Materialism
Poetry
Music
Monotony
Oblivion
Freedom
Jealousy
Pleasure
Happiness
Dimensions
Animals
(Zoophobias)
Animals
Foreigners or foreign nationalities (xenophobia)
Demons and ghosts
Cemeteries and superstitions
Churches and prayers
Sacraments
Sins
Occupations
Deviant behavior
Clowns
Natural elements, catastrophes and disasters
Earthquakes
Light
Clouds
Fog
Humidity
Darkness
The sea
Lakes
Rivers
Rain
Storms
Thunder
Cold
Ice
Snow
Heat
Fire
Loud noises
Explosions
Wind
Celestial bodies
And so forth.