Symptoms of a phobia. Symptoms of phobias include dizziness, nausea, shortness of breath, shaking, sweat or cold, rapid breathing, and rapid heart beat. Often times people mistake a panic attack for a heart attack.
Phobias are automatic reactions. Common symptoms include dizziness, nausea, shortness of breath, shaking, sweat or cold, rapid breathing, and rapid heart beat. Often times people mistake a panic attack for a heart attack. I just call this the strong fear response or phobic reaction. There is always a trigger for panic attacks, but people don't usually know what it is.
Phobias are very common. We are supposed to learn to be afraid of scary things. If we weren't, we'd walk out in front of cars without any question at all, because there were no cars around 10,000 years ago. The brain has a way of making us avoid dangerous things. If the process goes a little bit wrong, we develop a fear of something that's not really dangerous. That's what a phobia is. We've all heard the phrase "fight or flight," but there is another leg to that triangle, "freeze." With certain animals, it's better to freeze than it is to either flee or fight, because predators can't see them unless they move.
