• The Dark Side 💕 Welcome Guest 💕
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    Notable Threads Urgent Hotlines
    Bereavement Mindfulness
    Suicide Support Anger Management
  • TDS Moderators: AlphaMethylPhenyl | paranoid android

Mental Health Phobia MEGA Thread

ad lib

ad lib

Ex-Bluelighter
Joined
Feb 9, 2013
Messages
4,317
The purpose of this thread is to provide information about phobias, discuss our phobias, provide help to one another, and vent about it if necessary. There are resources in this thread to provide help and support to everyone suffering. You are not alone in dealing with your phobia, no matter what it is. Do not be afraid to post about your phobia for fear of others judging it (easier said than done if that is what your phobia is). But we are here to offer advice and support in a non-judgmental manner.

Please adhere to the Mental Health forum guidelines and the Bluelight User Agreement. Thank you.


What is a phobia?


A phobia is defined as "an irrational, intense fear of an object or situation that poses little or no actual danger"*. A phobia may seem similar to just experiencing fear, but it is the degree to which a person is affected in their daily life that determines whether that fear has become a phobia.



What are some common symptoms of having a phobia?


Symptoms of experiencing a phobia can include, but are not limited to the following:

  • A feeling of uncontrolled anxiety when exposed to the source of your phobia.
  • Feeling that you must do everything and anything possible to avoid the phobia.
  • Anxiety from the phobia impacting your daily life.
  • Knowing that your phobias may be unreasonable, yet you are still not able to control them.
  • Physical and/or psychological signs and symptoms generally associated with anxiety attacks: sweating, rapid heartbeat, difficulty breathing, etc.
  • Experiencing anxiety just by thinking about your fear.


Some common phobias:


Fear of....

  • aging (gerontophobia)
  • being alone (isolophobia)
  • dark (nyctophobia)
  • dogs (cynophobia)
  • driving (hodophobia)
  • elevators (may be a combination of acrophobia and/or claustrophobia)
  • everything (pantophobia)
  • failure (atychiphobia)
  • flying in an airplane (aerophobia)
  • anxiety in situations where the sufferer perceives certain environments as dangerous or uncomfortable, often due the environment's vast openness or crowdedness (agoraphobia)
  • heights (acrophobia)
  • hospitals (nosocomephobia)
  • intimacy (a type of social phobia, no specific "name")
  • needles (trypanophobia)
  • public speaking (glossophobia)
  • rejection (kakorrhaphiophobia)
  • small enclosed spaces (claustrophobia)
  • snakes (ophiophobia)
  • spiders (arachnophobia)
  • success (hedonophobia is the fear of happiness and plutophobia is the fear of wealth, so it may be a combination of the two)

For a more extensive list of phobias, click here.


Common Treatment Methods


~Desensitization therapy
~Medication Therapy
~Relaxation Techniques
~Cognitive Behavioral Therapy




*If anyone would like me to add anything to this list, please PM me!

 
Last edited:
I have agoraphobia and fear of intimacy with humans. I'm working on it. I'm on two medications which both help with it. Any suggestions are much appreciated. Self-cognitive-behavioral therapy has helped a bit for me.

I mean, I'm on the way to recovery but I still need help. I'm reading a book about how humans are the most sexual creatures out there. Then why do we hide it with clothes and restrictions? Why do we play these games. I freeze at the appropriate moment because I'm phobic about rejection too, so I never try.
 
Ho-Chi-Minh said:
I have agoraphobia and fear of intimacy with humans. I'm working on it. I'm on two medications which both help with it. Any suggestions are much appreciated. Self-cognitive-behavioral therapy has helped a bit for me.

I mean, I'm on the way to recovery but I still need help. I'm reading a book about how humans are the most sexual creatures out there. Then why do we hide it with clothes and restrictions? Why do we play these games. I freeze at the appropriate moment because I'm phobic about rejection too, so I never try.
Click to expand...

How successful do you find the medications to be? Do you mind sharing what you are taking?
 
Clomazepam .5mg twice per day and 50mg lisdexamphetamine.

The latter I've been taking four months and it does worlds for my focus/mood/sociability/stress/energy. I mean it continues to and I never raised the dose, though it doesn't get me high like it used to, which is good. It does add a certain quality of stress to life, can make one arrogant, and when it wears off I get somewhat depressed, but for me its worth the six or so hours of happiness followed by three of general well-being.

Been on clon for two weeks. It's like an anti-psychotic which allows you to be you, is slightly pleasurable, and has almost no side effects. To be fair, it makes me a bit depressed and tired and slow when the amp wears off.

Both work for my phobias, though they do not cure them.

I'd be happy to share more.
 
Last edited:
rx_prn said:
How successful do you find the medications to be? Do you mind sharing what you are taking?
Click to expand...

For me the darn agoraphobia was brought on by benzo detox. Never suffered from this before now. Loved everything about being outside now just get me home, ugh! Just want it to go away but have to work at it, without the aid of a pill try to get back to "normal" when or if possible will see.
 
I'll share a bit about my phobias-

dementophobia, agoraphobia, and claustrophobia.

The latter being something I've had since I was about 5 years old after being locked in a car trunk, and the first two being recent ~6 months, after a negative psychedelic experience.

I'm prescribed Xanax to take as needed, and have been prescribed Venlafaxine to take daily. I'm afraid of taking the Venlafaxine and i believe it will make me go crazy, thus heightening my dementophobia. I've been working the courage up to get into therapy. The Xanax helps- for the short term. It's only prescribed by my pcp so I don't know if I should see a psychiatrist about my phobias or try therapy first.

It's like I'm living in a constant fucking hell because I'm trapped inside my own mind.
 
I am sorry for your negative experiences.

Maybe talk to the doctor about getting on an anti-psychotic (abilify works really well and helps depression and anxiety, I can explain it neuropharmacologically if you want) or a long-acting benzodiazepine. That last statement you made is nearly a textbook indication for a medication of one of those two classes.

You will never go crazy :). There. I said it. Believe me?
 
Ho-Chi-Minh said:
I am sorry for your negative experiences.

Maybe talk to the doctor about getting on an anti-psychotic (abilify works really well and helps depression and anxiety, I can explain it neuropharmacologically if you want) or a long-acting benzodiazepine. That last statement you made is nearly a textbook indication for a medication of one of those two classes.

You will never go crazy :). There. I said it. Believe me?
Click to expand...

If you could explain the neuropharmacology that'd be great :). I feel like if I know how a medication works scientifically, I am more likely to try it.

I know clonazepam is a longer acting benzodiazepine than Xanax (it's not Xanax XR), do you know any others that may work?

I feel almost stupid for asking questions about medication given that I'm getting a degree in chemistry and in nursing. It seems like I can explain everything fine to professors, students, etc, but when it comes to myself, it's like I almost don't trust medicine.

Thanks for the reassurance :)
 
Ok so abilify acts as a partial agonist instead of an antagonist at several dopamine receptor subtypes, principly d2, which is the main target for all antipsychotics. This means dopaminergic transmission never goes below a certain point, while it also never goes above a certain point, in contrast to all other antipsychotics, which simply cause dopaminergic transmission to never go above a certain point. The net effect is more energy and an antidepressant feel relative to the other antipsychotics.

It also acts as a partial agonist at 5ht1a, the same as buspar, which results in a lot 'less anxiety and an increase in neuron health.

As atypical antipsychotics, it antagonizes 5ht2a, which is an important mechanism.

Those are the main actions. One of its metabolites has a profile similar to trazodones main metabolite, but this is speculative. People get all kinds of responses from abilify, but when it comes to a combination of depression and psychotic symptoms, its probably the best widespread medication out there right now, in my non-medical opinion.

Here it is comprehensively http://www.biomedsearch.com/nih/Aripiprazole-novel-atypical-antipsychotic-drug/12784105.html

I've been told by my doctor that clonazepam is the most effective long-acting benzodiazepine. Indeed, it also has antidepressant qualities, whichn i can source if need be, and almost no negative side effects if you're careful. Unlike abilify, it won't cost an arm and a leg without stellar insurance. I think benzos work best for my psychotic symptoms too, but I can't adequately determine for yours.

Alprazolam was shown to be equivalent to imimpramine in terms of its antidepressant effect. I would stay away from it personally though as I've heard it can actually cause panic attacks, it doesn't last long, and it basically just works well for episodic anxiety in the moment.

No problems. Ask away!

Venlafaxine is a very powerful ad, an snri; it has some downstream opioid activity too.

Are you planning to stay in medication for the long-term?

I have other suggestions. Please don't hesitate to tell me.

Cheers!
 
Thanks SO much for all that information. After reading about abilify I think I may work up the courage and ask for it.

I've taken clonazepam before, but it was a few years ago so I'm not really remembering how well it worked. All I remember was it didn't nip my panic attacks in the bud right away which is why my doctor switched me to Xanax. I may ask her if we can switch from alprazolam to clonazepam due to the longer lasting effects it's said to have. I find myself taking sometimes up to 4mg alprazolam per day because the effects keep wearing off. Then I get low on my prescription and freak out even more... But anyway...

I took 1 37.5mg Venlafaxine and I got a panic attack from it about 20mins later. I think it's more psychological than anything though because Venlafaxine shouldn't work that fast I don't think... So after that I stopped taking it. My doctor things I'm taking it- and I know I shouldn't lie to her- but I just tell her my anxiety symptoms are the same which is true.

I don't really have a time frame for how long I plan to be on medication- my basic philosophy is if it works, why get off of it? If I have to be on it til I'm an old lady so be it. I just want to feel normal and not wake up in fear and anxiety every day.
 
^ If you are taking that much Xanax a day, I would definitely switch. I've been prescribed just about every mainstream benzo and Klonopin seems to work the best without causing a desire to redose more than necessary. I've taken 1mg 3x a day for 7 years and I've never needed a higher dose since tolerance does not develop to the anxiolytic effect of benzos contrary to popular opinion.

I've taken Effexor for several months and it just turned me into a zombie where I did care about anything, including studying. To be honest, I don't believe you are missing anything by saying that the Effexor didn't work for you.

If you are planning on staying on benzos then I suggest going to a psychiatrist if your GP feels uncomfortable about you taking it. I suggest talking to your doctor and telling her how well it works and ask her how she feels about prescribing it long term. I have a friend who just got his last script of benzos from his GP because she felt that he had been on them long enough, roughly six months, so she cut him off completely.

I'm fortunate enough that I do not have any phobias other then the fact that I am horrified of mice, but that fear isn't quite a phobia.
 
*bump*

Anyone else want to share their phobias? Don't be afraid! (Bad play on words, I know)
 
Intimacy; I wish there were a name for it, would be good to research and understand.
 
pk. said:
Intimacy; I wish there were a name for it, would be good to research and understand.
Click to expand...

Emotional or physical/sexual intimacy? I did read through the entire list of phobias yesterday and do remember seeing one or two for intimacy

There's:
Haphephobia, Chiraptophobia (Physical intimacy)
Erotophobia (Sexual intimacy)

I can't find the one for emotional intimacy, but if I do I'll let you know.

Here's a little reading on the fear of intimacy scale.
 
Last edited:
I have severe social anxiety, mainly stemming from kakorrhaphiophobia. I also fear intimacy on a certain level due to the risk of rejection (not just romantically, with pretty much everyone.) My severe social anxiety has led to atychiphobia because I'm too afraid of people to hold down a job anymore. Social anxiety sucks ass! I read the wiki on fear of intimacy and think I vacillate between the fearful and dismissive type. I have a really, really hard time trusting people. I sincerely hope I don't develop agoraphobia as well! I want to move sooo bad, partially because I have a fear of people recognizing me unless I'm already really close to them. I absolutely HATE it, anonymity is my friend!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top