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Thursday, February 24, 2005
Fear factor
By Henrylito D. Tacio
Health 101
JOANNE is a thin, anxious, good-looking woman who moves her hands nervously as she speaks. She rarely goes out of the house and then only as far as the garden gate. When she does so, she finds that it helps to wear dark glasses and, if possible, she takes the dog along with her.
But Joanne isn't sick, at least not physically. No, she suffers from agoraphobia--a dread of public places--and for almost 10 years now, it has kept her indoors as surely as if she had been an invalid throughout these years.
It all started, she recalled, when she first went out to work, and quickly came to dread walking down certain streets, with their high factory walls that somehow seemed to trap her.
Sometimes, her terror became so overwhelming that she would find herself stranded in the middle of the town, paralyzed with panic and unable to move. It didn't do much for her work and it wasn't long before she got the sack.
It was the same story with the other jobs she took. Now, she works at home and although she males a lot less money than she would in an office or factory, she is grateful that she is not dependent on social security.
She acknowledges that agoraphobia has completely changed her life. No holidays, she remarked, no outings, no evenings at friends' home, no going to church.
But that's life for Joanne and many others who are suffering from "aggie." And if one thing is sure, it's that it isn't a lot of fun. Nor is it much fun from the other phobias to which the human race is prey. Between the lot of us, we seem capable of fearing practically anything: animals, blood, water, bridges, spiders, airplanes, heights, the dark, public speaking--you name it, someone will have it as a phobia.
Yes, almost all of us are afflicted with an unholy fear or one or two or more things in life.
Phobias (derived from the Greek word phobos, which means "fear"), according to Jean Carper, an expert on the subject matter, are a hidden epidemic but, despite the fact that successful treatment has become available in recent years, only a tiny percent of all victims receive it.
Psychiatrists claim that phobias often stem from a single incident of an intensely fearful or painful nature--a traumatic experience, as they usually call it--which leaves a scar in the unconscious mind.
Take the case of the late Rita Hayworth. This Hollywood actress was once trapped in a lift in a tall building in Madrid when it suddenly plummeted 20 floors before the emergency brakes caught. She said later on, "After that event, I ride escalators or walk, even if that means six or seven flights to a hotel room or a friend's apartment. The door of an elevator will never close on me again. The very thought produces a cold sweat."
Experts call Hayworth's fear as claustrophobia. But oftentimes, a phobia may result from a series of less disturbing situations. The cause of the fear would not have produced the phobia if the individual had an unpleasant experience with only once. But when the unsavory experience is repeated often, the aversion for--or the fear of--it becomes deeply ingrained in the person's subconscious mind.
A very interesting theory about the cause of phobias is that one propounded by Austrian physician Sigmund Freud, founder and author of all the basic concepts of psychoanalysis. According to the Freudian theory, "a phobia may represent a displacement of anxiety from the stress situation which elicited it some other object or situation." More specifically, Dr. Freud believed that phobias represent displaced anxiety associated with the Oedipus complex. He illustrated this with the case of a five-year-old Hans who had a fear of horses. Dr. Freud opined that the child desired to possess his mother sexually (at five years?), and was therefore jealous of and hostile to his father.
But he dreaded his father; in particular, he feared that his father would castrate him. This fear of being bitten by horses is replaced by fear of being castrated by the father. If we rescind from the sexual base of this theory, the displacement view becomes tenable, for it has been verified actually in many clinical cases.
Another example is the case of a husband who develops a fear of swimming pools or other bodies of water because in the past he had persistent ideas of drowning his wife; or a wife who develops a phobia for knives and other sharp instruments because she had frequently entertained the idea of slitting her husband's throat.
What happens to our body when we are frightened? According to Dr. Daniel A. Sugarman, who wrote "What Are You Afraid Of?", many physical changes occur within the human body: "Your heartbeat and responses quicken, your pupils dilate and admit more light. Large quantities of energy-producing adrenalin are poured into your bloodstream; confronted with a fire or an impending accident, fear can fuel life-saving flight."
For feedback, write me at tasyo2002@yahoo.com
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (February 24, 2005 issue)
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