Learning Experience Paper - the Development and Self Awareness of Ochlophobia

The Development and Self Awareness of Ochlophobia

Albert Christman

PSY 103

University of Phoenix

The Development and Self Awareness of Ochlophobia

Many individuals of this world have developed phobias or anxieties that affect their daily life in many different ways. Among these phobias is one in particular, the fear of crowds or fear of mobs. This phobia can have a very negative and positive effect on a person’s life through his or her youth and early years of adulthood. I will in this paper illustrate how the phobia developed, the subject became self-aware of the disorder, and how he or she can seek help from professional therapists overcome and control his or her physical and mental reaction to this phobia.

To understand a phobia and what makes it a phobia, one needs to understand the person who is suffering from the phobia. What that person’s upbringing like? What event in that person’s life was the stimulus that created the phobia? How has that individual been able to deal with the phobia till the time of treatment?

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, (Gregory AM, Caspi A, Moffitt, TE, Koenen K, Eley TC, Poulton R. Juvenile Mental Health Histories of Adults With Anxiety Disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 164:1-8. February 2007.), “Anxiety disorders are among the most common psychiatric illnesses, with 28.81 percent of American adults diagnosed with one or more at some point in life. They include social and other phobias, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.” Among the research done by NIMH and their associates, it was that adults who suffer from PTSD, obsessive–compulsive disorder, and phobias tend to be linked to a childhood illness or event. So it is important, as the article states, that considering the psychiatric history of the patient will benefit in the diagnosis of the disorder, prevention, and treatment. Today’s treatment of...