Anxiety-phobic neurosis is a condition characterized by the appearance of obsessive thoughts, fears and memories. These phenomena, which are called obsessions, bring discomfort and discomfort to patients, but they are not able to get rid of them on their own.
It is worth noting that anxiety-phobic, obsessive-phobic, obsessive neurosis are all different names for the same pathology. Why does it appear and how to recognize it? You will find answers to these questions below.
Who gets upset?
The predisposition to the emergence of such a mental disorder is transmitted at the genetic level.
Some character traits may favor the development of a phobic neurosis. These include: excessive suspiciousness, responsibility, anxiety, pedantry, excessive caution. People with such personal qualities prefer to live by reason, and not by simple emotions, they are accustomed to weigh every step well and think through all actions in detail. They tend to be overly demanding of themselves and tend to introspect on a regular basis.
Almost never a neurosis occurs in people whowho can easily transfer responsibility for any actions to other persons, are prone to aggression, achieve their goals at any cost.
At a certain age, the risk of developing a phobic neurosis increases significantly. This is predominantly adolescence, early adulthood (25-35 years) and pre-menopausal.
As for gender, it is worth noting that such a neurosis is diagnosed with the same frequency in both women and men.
Reasons for appearance
Phobic disorder, like any other neurosis, most often occurs against the background of mental trauma, combined with too intense activity and a strong lack of rest, constant lack of sleep. In addition, various infections, endocrine pathologies, unhe althy diet, addictions and alcohol abuse act as factors contributing to this phenomenon. All these conditions entail a significant weakening of the whole organism, and this, in turn, can lead to the development of neurosis.
Often, such a disorder appears against the background of another illness: psychasthenia, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder.
How is it developing?
Neurosis can appear in a person in two cases.
- If he had a bad experience in the past with regard to a certain object, place, action or other persons. For example, after sudden contact with a hot iron, an obsessive fear of hot things may appear in the future.
- If the item is associatedin a person with some negative memories or thoughts. For example, once during a telephone conversation there was a fire or someone close was injured.
Common signs
The main symptoms of anxiety-phobic neurosis are:
- agoraphobia;
- hypochondriac phobias;
- panic attacks;
- social phobias.
General signs of illness include:
- migraines;
- depressed;
- insomnia;
- excessive emotional tension;
- panic attacks;
- general malaise, weakness;
- shortness of breath and other abnormalities in the respiratory system;
- problems in the work of the heart.
All these symptoms can be easily identified when the patient comes into contact with the object of the phobia.
Panic attacks
This is one of the main symptoms of phobic neurosis. It manifests itself in the form of extremely strong fear and a sense of impending death. At the same time, vegetative signs can also be observed, for example, dizziness, tachycardia, sweating, shortness of breath, nausea, a feeling of lack of air. Such an attack can last from a couple of minutes to an hour. In a panic attack, there is often a fear of losing your mind or losing control of your actions.
The attacks usually appear suddenly, but sometimes their development can be caused by sudden changes in the weather, lack of sleep, excessive sexual activity, stress, alcohol or physical abusevoltage.
The cause of the first panic attacks can be certain pathologies of internal organs, for example, heart defects, malfunctions of the thyroid gland, pancreatitis, gastritis, osteochondrosis.
Agoraphobia
What is this? Agoraphobia is a pronounced fear of open space, as well as a fear of crowded places, crowds. Individuals affected by this condition are wary of going out.
Usually the first symptoms of phobic neurosis are panic attacks, and after them comes agoraphobia. In this state, the patient's fear appears not only in specific cases, but even when he simply remembers any events associated with his anxiety, or imagines them.
Characteristic for the occurrence of neurosis is the expansion of situations that provoke fear. So, with a transport phobia, a slight fear of being in the subway first develops. Then the fear of any public transport joins. People who suffer from phobic neurosis are not afraid of the subway itself or, for example, a bus, but of situations that can happen in these places. For example, the fear that on the train, due to the large distance between stations, a person will not receive the necessary assistance at the time of a panic attack.
Hypochondriacal phobias
It's about the fear of some serious illness. In another way, this phenomenon is often called nosophobia.
The most common are speedophobia, cardiophobia, cancerophobia(fear of cancer), strokeophobia, syphilophobia. Such conditions may also be the result of hypochondriacal depression.
People with these phobias do everything possible to avoid situations that provoke fear. So, when they are afraid of transport, they do not use the elevator and move only on their own. Those who are afraid of oncological defects systematically undergo appropriate examinations. But even after receiving good test results, such people cannot calm down for a long time.
Social phobias
Phobic neurosis can be accompanied by a huge number of such fears.
Social phobia refers to the fear of being the center of attention and criticism. People who feel this fear try to avoid public places.
The first symptoms of social phobias usually appear in adolescence or early adulthood. Often, these fears are caused by negative psychological or social factors. At first, the fear of being in the center of everyone's attention concerns only certain situations or communication with specific people. But contact with relatives and family members does not cause discomfort.
Gradually, social phobia begins to manifest itself in the form of some restrictions regarding social activities. At the same time, a person, getting into undesirable situations, suffers from internal stiffness, shyness, sweating and trembling.
Usome people social phobia progresses to a generalized form. Such faces avoid public places altogether, thinking that they seem ridiculous and ridiculous.
Phobic neurosis can also manifest itself in the form of specific phobias - obsessive fears that concern only certain situations. These include fear of heights, animals, dentists and other doctors.
Treatment of phobic neurosis
The symptoms and causes of panic fear of a particular object are a key point in prescribing the appropriate therapy. But be that as it may, the treatment of such a condition should be comprehensive, including not only psychotherapy, but also the use of certain medications.
The antidepressant "Anafranil" is most often used to stop panic attacks. In addition, other drugs with a similar effect help with this symptom of a phobic disorder:
- "Sertraline";
- "Fluvoxamine";
- "Fluoxetine".
Moclobemide is commonly used to treat social phobias.
In addition to antidepressants, tranquilizers - "Hydroxyzine" and "Meprobamate" help to fight the manifestations of a phobic disorder. These medications have few side effects and long-term use does not lead to drug addiction.
In acute forms of phobic neurosis, the most effective arebenzodiazepine tranquilizers - "Clonazepam" and "Alprazolam". In addition, Elenium and Diazepam can be administered in the form of droppers or intramuscularly. But these medications can only be used for a short time to prevent addiction.
With phobias, which are accompanied by complex systems of protective reactions (for example, obsessive counting or word decomposition) and delusional states, neuroleptics - "Haloperidol" or "Triftazin" can be prescribed.
Psychotherapy for the treatment of phobic neurosis
This stage of treatment is necessary to eliminate excessive anxiety and correct inappropriate behavior. In addition, during the sessions, doctors teach patients the culture of relaxation, which is very important for any form of neurosis. Phobic disorder can be treated in both group and individual sessions.
If it is phobias that play a more significant role in the course of the disease, the patient needs psycho-emotional supportive therapy, which will help improve overall well-being. Hypnosis and behavioral techniques allow you to get rid of obsessive fears. During the sessions, patients are taught how to properly confront an object that provokes fear, as well as resort to a variety of relaxation methods.
Among other things, rational methods of psychotherapy can be used in the treatment of phobic neurosis. At the same time, the patient is described and explained in detail the essence of the pathology,due to which an adequate understanding of the symptoms of the disease is created by the person. Due to such work, people, for example, begin to realize that the slightest deviations in the functioning of internal organs are not dangerous and do not at all indicate the presence of a serious illness.
