Phobias -- we know them as a fear of something times ten. They can range from anything: from the justified arachnophobia (fear of spiders) to the paradoxical phobophobia (fear of phobias) to the odd arachibutyrophobia (the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth). It doesn't matter what you're afraid of -- phobias are debilitating to one's life. So, how do phobias start?
Well, most psychologists believe that phobias are caused due to an intense amount of stress, coupled with a genetic vulnerability. So if you have cyberphobia and can't read this blog post, blame your genes. But the amount of stress you have in your life is very important too. The trigger is usually a major kind of traumatic event, or a humiliating social experience. The trauma that you experience will determine what phobia you could get. Obviously, if you're trapped in an elevator for a long time, you're likely going to develop claustrophobia (fear of enclosed space), and if you're scared out of your mind by a clown at your 9th birthday party, you'll probably develop caulrophobia.
Luckily, there are plenty of ways to cure a phobia. Some techniques involve hypnosis and drug therapy, specifically with anti-anxiety drugs. One of the main ways is through exposure therapy, which basically means exposing the patient to what scares them until they aren't scared anymore. This process is called desensitization. The patient usually starts by making a list of potential fears, starting with things that aren't that bad, to things that frighten them by just thinking about it. Together, the patient and therapist will start at the bottom of the hierarchy and tackle the smaller fears until the patient isn't bothered by them anymore. Then, they will move up the ladder of their fears, until, hopefully, their phobia is gone for good.
An accurate (and hilarious) example of the entire phobia cycle, from conception to desensitization, can be found from this clip from the hit show "The Big Bang Theory". In it, Sheldon describes his ornithophobia (fear of birds) to have begun when a hummingbird attacked him as a child, and intensifying throughout his life as more and more fowl-related incidents occur. Eventually, his fear is dissipated when he first pets the bird, leading up to him allowing the bird to perch on his arm. While much more rapid than it would be in real life, this is more or less how the process of curing a phobia works: you basically face your fear.
So how do we prevent phobias? There isn't really much we can do, since it's partly genetics. The only things we have control over is trying to keep as much stress out of our lives. If you are trying to prevent a phobia from being passed on to your kids, don't let them know what scares you, because they will just believe they have to be scared by it too.
Here are my sources!
http://allpsych.com/journal/phobias.html
http://blog.oregonlive.com/themombeat/2009/04/how_to_prevent_your_child_from.html
