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BAHÇEŞEHİR UNIVERSITY PREP-C 2 R Health 1 6

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Pre-reading exercise:

Pre-reading

As a class, look at the pictures below and identify which phobia they refer to.

In small groups, choose three of them and answer the following;

 How you think such a phobia could develop in a person

 Whether the fear is rational

 What kind of advice you would give someone to get over their fear

Phobias
 IN-CLASS MATERIAL
BAHÇEŞEHİR UNIVERSITY PREP-C 2 R Health 1 6
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TEACHER’S COPY Prepared by Nuran Yaşayan, Liam Murray

(1) Everyone feels anxious or uneasy from time to time. For example, before your first day on a new
job, going to the dentist, or even planning for a long trip, your palms may sweat, you might feel shaky, or
your heart may pound. Some anxiety helps to keep you focused on the job at hand. However, when your
anxiety is so serious that it interferes with your work, leads you to avoid certain situations, or keeps you
from enjoying life, you may be suffering from a form of the most common type of mental disorder; an
anxiety disorder.
(2) Anxiety disorders are not just a case of being "nervous." You can’t overcome an anxiety disorder
just through willpower, nor can the symptoms be ignored or wished away. These disorders cause you to
feel anxious most of the time, making some everyday situations so uncomfortable that you may avoid
them entirely. Or, you may experience occasional instances of anxiety that are so terrifying and intense
that you may be immobilized with fear.
(3) By definition, phobias are irrational, meaning that they are illogical, and they interfere with one's
everyday life or daily routine. For example, your fear of high places may prevent you from crossing
necessary bridges to get to work, and that fear is irrational. If your fears keep you from enjoying life or
even preoccupy your thinking so that you are unable to work, or sleep, or do the things you wish to do,
then it becomes irrational. One key to diagnosing a phobic disorder is that the fear must be excessive and
disproportionate to the situation. Most people who fear heights would not avoid visiting a friend who
lives on the top floor of a tall building; a person with a phobia of heights would, however. Fear alone does
not distinguish a phobia; both fear and avoidance must be evident.
(4) Phobias *afflict as many as 12 percent of all Americans. They are the most common psychiatric
illness in women and the second most common in men over age 25. Although phobias can be very
frightening and disabling, they are also very treatable. It is therefore important to recognize the symptoms
and seek help, if necessary. Phobias are not all the same. There are three main groups which include:
specific (simple) phobias, social phobia, and agoraphobia.
Specific (simple) phobias
(5) Specific, or simple, phobias are the most common type and focus on specific objects. They
produce intense fear of a particular object or situation that is, in fact, relatively safe. People who suffer
from specific phobias are aware that their fear is irrational, but the thought of facing the object or
situation often brings on a panic attack or severe anxiety. Examples of specific phobias include persistent
fear of dogs, insects, or snakes; driving a car; heights; tunnels or bridges; thunderstorms; and/or flying.
Specific phobias strike more than 1 in 10 people. Specific phobias usually begin in adolescence or
adulthood, and are slightly more prevalent in women. They start suddenly and tend to be more persistent
than childhood phobias; only about 20 percent of adult phobias vanish on their own. When children have
specific phobias--for example, a fear of animals--those fears usually disappear over time, though
sometimes they may continue into adulthood. No one knows why they persist in some people and
disappear in others.
(6) The causes of simple phobias are also unknown, but there are two theories related to their origins.
Since they seem to run in families, some scientists are trying to determine whether this tendency is
inherited – passed on genetically – or learned as a child grows and develops. Some of the evidence
suggests that the link is at least partly genetic. For example, identical twins who are separated and brought
up apart from each other sometimes develop the same phobias. Neuroscientists have also found that
biological factors, such as greater blood flow and metabolism in the right side of the brain than in the left
hemisphere, may also be involved in phobias. However, the second theory, the importance of nurture,
cannot be ignored. For example, scientists say that the education we get from our family affects us in both
positive and negative ways. Some psychologists speculate that people with phobias may have experienced
abandonment by a cold or non-nurturing mother as a child, and then, during adulthood, the experience has
been generalized to a fear of abandonment or helplessness. Other psychologists suggest that phobias may
develop because people avoid situations they have found painful or embarrassing. For example, people
who have bad experiences with spiders as children, may develop irrational fears of spiders and other
insects as a result of their childhood experiences.
 IN-CLASS MATERIAL
BAHÇEŞEHİR UNIVERSITY PREP-C 2 R Health 1 6
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TEACHER’S COPY Prepared by Nuran Yaşayan, Liam Murray

Social Phobia
(7) People with social phobias are extremely anxious in social or public situations and afraid of being
humiliated or embarrassed in front of other people. This problem may also be related to feelings of
inferiority and low self-esteem, and can drive a person to drop out of school, avoid making friends, and
remain unemployed. Although this disorder is sometimes thought to be shyness, it is not the same thing.
Shy people do not experience extreme anxiety in social situations, nor do they necessarily avoid them. In
contrast, people suffering from social phobia may fear speaking in public, dating, talking on the phone in
front of others, using public toilets, or eating out. They fear that everybody is watching them critically
and judging them, and they tend to avoid these anxiety-provoking social situations. Social phobia is often
accompanied by depression or using drugs.
Agoraphobia
(8) Agoraphobia causes people to suffer anxiety about being in places or situations from which it
might be difficult or embarrassing to escape. For instance, a room full of people or an elevator may
become a nightmare for some people. In some cases, panic attacks can become so debilitating that the
person may develop agoraphobia because they fear another panic attack. In extreme cases, a person with
agoraphobia may be afraid to leave the house.
Agoraphobia is twice as common in women as it is in men, but the symptoms of the panic attacks that
may go with agoraphobia change from person to person. Trembling, sweating, extreme tiredness, a rapid
pulse or breathing rate may all be signs of agoraphobia.
There Is Hope
(9) Many phobic people think their fears are silly, childish, or **trivial, and so they often try to hide
them. However, no one should have to endure the terror of phobias or the intense anxiety that often
accompanies them. All phobias can be overcome with proper treatment, and people who suffer from panic
attacks should discuss the problem with a doctor. After a complete medical check-up, the doctor can give
an accurate diagnosis and ensure that the symptoms are not being caused by another condition.
Treatments for phobias can be very effective, and much of the pain and disruption can be resolved.
*afflict: distress
**trivial: meaningless
PART A: Answer the following questions about the passage.
1) Which of the following can NOT be inferred from paragraph 1?
a) Feeling anxious from time to time is not a mental disorder.
b) Feeling lots of anxiety helps some people survive in business world.
c) Anxiety disorder is not a rare mental condition.
d) Feeling over anxious all the time can make your life miserable

2) According to paragraph 2, __________.

a) anxiety disorder is a common situation of feeling worried
b) anxiety disorder can easily be handled by ordinary people
c) being extremely nervous can disable people completely
d) feeling terrified and extremely nervous is a situation everyone often experiences

3) Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 4?

a) In most cases, men suffer from phobias more severely than women do.
b) The treatment process can make patients very afraid and uncomfortable.
c) One should know the signs of an anxiety disorder and consult with a specialist.
d) Although phobias are divided into groups, they are more or less the same.

4) According to paragraph 5, which of the following statements is NOT true about specific phobias?
a) People with specific phobias are afraid of the objects that they have no knowledge of.
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BAHÇEŞEHİR UNIVERSITY PREP-C 2 R Health 1 6
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TEACHER’S COPY Prepared by Nuran Yaşayan, Liam Murray

b) Some people overcome their fears in time on their own.

c) Children don’t always overcome their phobias and they may still have them when they are
grown-ups.
d) It is not known why some fears vanish in time and some others don’t.

5) In paragraph 6, which of the following is NOT mentioned as a possible cause of having phobias?
a) Genetic background
b) The way a person is raised and educated
c) Biological characteristics of the person
d) Physical training

6) Which of the following is NOT TRUE according to paragraph 7?

a) People with social phobias are always ashamed of what others do.
b) People sometimes fail to differentiate between shyness and a social phobia.
c) Being too scared of humiliation, people with social phobias prefer isolation.
d) People who suffer from a social phobia are often moody and they tend to do drugs.

7. According to paragraph 9, _________________.

a) anxiety disorders can be treated unless they are too silly
b) the smallest fears cause the greatest pain for people
c) people can resolve most of their fear issues by talking to other people
d) many people want to keep their phobias secret and endure the discomfort

8. The word “interfere” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to _______.

a) get in the way b) deal c) provide d) substitute

9. The word “overcome” in paragraph 2 can be replaced by ______

a) win b) defeat c) succeed d) accomplish

10. The word “evident” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to _____.

a) proved b) anticipated c) apparent d) documented

11. The word “debilitating” in paragraph 8 is closest in meaning to _______.

a) moving b) exciting c) exhausting d) unbearable

12. The word “They” in par. 5 refers to _________.

a) women b) people
c) women with specific phobias d) specific phobias

PART B: Writing
Do you have a phobia? Write about how old you were when your phobia started, what caused it and what
you did to overcome or lessen the effects of it. (If you don’t have any phobias, you can write about
someone you know who has a phobia)
 IN-CLASS MATERIAL
BAHÇEŞEHİR UNIVERSITY PREP-C 2 R Health 1 6
School of Foreign Languages LEVEL CODE
MODULE
SKILL
CODE
UNIT / THEME WEEK

SOURCE (s)

TEACHER’S COPY Prepared by Nuran Yaşayan, Liam Murray

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