Phobias and Horror Essay

What is a phobia?

A phobia is a term used to show a person certain fear or a disorder in something which can be spilt into two types of phobias, the first one being rational fears like death or high places which are things that can always kill you where as the opposite are irrational fears like the fear of clowns or certain numbers which can’t really hurt you in anyway.  People who have phobias will go to great lengths to try to avoid confronting or running into these phobias. Most phobias have causes that trigger the phobias to develop within a person as well as symptoms, which will become act active once a person comes face to face with there phobia.  

Types of Phobias, their causes and symptoms.

Trypophobia – fear of holes

This phobia can be linked with holes in people such as cuts or holes left by impalement which produce holes in people, which can scare people due to it being gross, because or the flesh or bone will hang through them. Also holes can be scary to people because people are scared they may fall into holes and that they disturb or make their skin crawl.  The causes of this phobia are not known but can cause people to become of:
Honeycomb, sponges, Swiss cheese, spots, warts, bubbles, seed pods, boils, larvae holes, skin infection, tooth fallen out and cracks on walls as well as other things. There are many symptoms of which you can tell if a person has this phobia which are: Disgust, break into hives, manic reactions, and shortness of breath, vomiting and itching. This phobia can affect a person’s everyday life because holes are quite common in the things that present in life like sponges that are used often in life in kitchens, which can cause people with this phobia to struggle in life more than others.

Ornithophobia – fear of birds, feathers, birds stealing food.

This phobia scares people because it can link to the fear of catching disease as birds like pigeons and seagulls carry around diseases which potentially harm them or kill them, as well as those birds can contaminate food which can cause illness and death. This can be caused similar to other phobias of animals which is bad contact with the animal, this phobia is not uncommon as one of the causes of the phobia is the birds of prey like eagles or falcons which can be dangerous, as well other causes of the phobia include: the flutter of birds wings, the feather texture, birds stealing food, loud sounds birds make and fear of disease. The symptoms of the phobia include: difficult breathing, dizziness, excessive sweating, nausea, dry mouth, shaking and inability to speak are the most common as well as many more symptoms. This phobia has a great effect on everyday life because birds are a very widespread animal, such as pigeons are one of the most common birds known, which can cause problems for people with this phobia because they extremely wide spread across the world.

Myrmecophobia – fear of ants, home invasion of ants and ants contaminating food.

This phobia is similar to other animal phobias as ants can carry diseases and contaminate food, but can also invade the home getting into peoples clothes and food that disturbs some people. As well linking into the fear insects which is known as Entomophobia to which people won’t like the way they move or certain body parts. The causes of the phobia are very similar to that of other animal related phobias such as ants crawling on your food or over your body, which can lead to the development of the phobia. The symptoms of this phobia include constant avoidance of ants, anxiety when seeing ants and the inability to function normally, which can have an impact on a person everyday life especially if the person has to work with nature and plants.

Pedophobia – Fear of children

This phobia can be scary for people as it can linked to the fear of loud noises as children tend to scream or cry when they don’t get their own way or hurt themselves/ in pain which can cause people to be disturbed by the sound they make. As well as how people would feel to see a mutilated child or dead child who people can find disturbing as well as the sounds children make like laughing or singing. The causes of the phobia are that people who it are can also see that younger people like children and teenagers are the source of a lot of crime such as being mugged which can cause older people to develop a phobia towards them. One of the symptoms related to this phobia are that older of people of the same age as youths will attempt to avoid contact or being around children at most times, which can have an impact on their lives as children are very widespread and can be a part of a relatives or friends daily life which will cause problems for people with this phobia.

Achluophobia – fear of the dark, imaged or concealed things within the darkness.

This phobia normally happens to children who can see the outline of objects in the dark, to which they would imagine something else in place of the actual thing it may be such as some clothes on the floor way be translated to the brain as being a monster ready to pounce on the child or it can be caused by the fear of not being able to see things within the dark. The symptoms of this phobia are that a person can get very little, shaking and in some cases it can cause insomnia for adults which can have a affect on that persons everyday life as the darkness is a part of nature so it can do most damage to adults who have to work a night shift or work in dark places where as with children the lack of sleep can cause illness and poor education due to the lack of sleep.

Arachnophobia – fear of spiders, there legs, hairy texture, scuttle of movement.

The phobia can be caused by bad experiences in life such as a spider dropping onto a child or someone in their family and that person becomes scared it can be passed over to the child. There are some things that are quite noticeable that causes people to develop this phobia, one of which is the legs which are thin and move very fast which can be described as scuttle like movement which disturbs some people also there is the fact that spiders can crawl up most surfaces which tends to give people with this phobia high paranoia as well as the hairy look that they have which tends to freak people out.  One of the causes for this phobia was that in the past spiders were blamed for food contamination as well as it can be a transmitted phobia from parent to child or it can be caused by incidents involving spiders such as falling onto the child or bites the child which can cause them to develop a phobia. This can have an effect on everyday life as spiders are extremely widespread across the world and tend to end up living in people gardens or even there house which cause some people to not tend to there garden or enter certain rooms.

Autophobia – fear of being isolated or alone.

This fear can begin to develop when abandoned by a close person in that one’s life such as losing a spouse or loved one, which can develop a person to have dread when left alone somewhere as well as losing one’s own mind and themselves due to not being able to do anything while they are alone.  The symptoms of this phobia are that a person with the phobia will do anything to avoid being isolated, inability to function normally, unreasonable and exaggerated, and the feeling of under controllable anxiety which can have a impact of a persons everyday life as people may hide them annoying or irritating as they would never want to be alone which cause lose of friends or even relatives such as spouses or someone that person is close too.

Thanatophobia/death anxiety – fear of dying or seeing someone else die.

This type of phobia can be a complicated thing as it can be caused when one tries to think about how long they have left to live as well as the amount of time remaining, or when people find no purpose in life they will become afraid of dying or death anxiety. The symptoms of this phobia are that it will cause a person to have: a dry mouth, shortness of breath, trembling, muscle tension, rapid heartbeat, feeling out of control, feels trapped and feeling of a impediment disaster. This phobia can have a nasty affect on someone’s daily life due to the effect that death is part of the natural cycle in life which can have an impact on there life’s as they will lose family and friends or see something or someone die which will causes symptoms to show in most of there life.

  

Scopophobia – fear of being looked or stared at.

This phobia can be caused by an event in a person’s life such as being a child and having people laugh and stare at you can cause trauma to that child’s mind causing them to develop symptoms like social anxiety like meeting new people or answering a phone in public as they would believe they are being stared at. It can also be caused by people be stared due to a deformity or disability which can lead to social awkwardness as well as isolation from other people, this phobia can also be linked with social anxiety which in turn can cause symptoms such as: avoiding attention, afraid of taking to people, blushing, sweat, shake, heart problems, shallow breathing and the inability to control their thoughts. This can have a bad affect on a person’s life because they will not be able to do much work as most work involves interaction between people as well as becoming isolated and socially awkward which can decrease there social behaviour by quite a lot.

Phonophobia – fear of hearing loud noises.

This phobia can be caused during something or something a person would interact, which would cause that person to develop a fear based on a loud noise that has startled that person, but another way for people to develop this phobia is when a child or even an adult will believe that loud noises will pop there ear drums causing them to go deaf. The symptoms of this phobia are that if the person hears a loud noise they will: get tremors, palpitations, find quiet places to sit alone in, and will avoid crowded places whether it is work or a classroom as well as when a child hears this they will avoid parties because of balloons popping. This can have an effect on child’s life more than an adults as they will start skipping classes causing there education to decrease as well as skipping going out with friends or participating in events like parties ruining there childhoods.

Haphephobia – fear of being touched by a person or something.

This phobia can be caused when a person is touched inappropriately which usually links it to manifest due to sexual assault in which it can manifest in anyone no matter the age or gender, as well as that it can also begin to develop the phobia if they have a fear of contamination or germs which can be spread through touch.  The symptoms of this can vary between people depending on how it manifested but some of symptoms include: Discomfort, nausea, heart problems, dry mouth, dizziness, panic, numbness, heightened senses, breathlessness, feeling trapped, muscle tension, trembling, hyperventilating, feeling out of control and feeling as a disaster is about to occur. This can affect that person’s everyday life because of the fact that being touched or touching someone else can happen all the time whether it be walking through a crowded place or at work or class as someone could pass you something and you may accidentally touch there hand.

   

Claustrophobia – fear of tight spaces or having no escape.

This phobia can be caused by being locked in a pitch black room or area as a child as punishment by parents which has no windows or light as well as a child getting shut in other tight places like in a box or a child falling into a swimming pool and not being able to swim up. These symptoms of this phobia include: fear of restriction, fear of suffocation and panic attacks among other smaller symptoms. This can have a bad effect on person’s live as if an adult owned a house they would have to a window in each room and may even have to have them consistently open all the time which could lead to there house being broken into, as well as having an affect if a person was shopping as the shelves being close together which could cause a panic attack.

Horror

Horror is a genre used in many different Media which are games, films, television, music videos and books. The purpose of the horror genre is to try to cast negative emotions upon the viewer like fear which is done by playing the viewer’s primal fears in which horror tends to overlap with other genres like fantasy (Arkham Horror), supernatural (Dawn of the Dead) and science fiction (Event Horizon). The Horror genre can use a wide variety of fears and phobias to get a negative reaction out of, in which one of the most known used fears is of monsters like vampires or zombies which have been in use throughout history of Medias and are simulated by a child’s fear of a monster under the bed as well as using viewers hidden fears, nightmares and the terror of the unknown against them. But the use of other people as horror has also been widely covered such as the use of home invasion, torture, cannibals and murders.

Horror in games

Horror is used in games to get a negative reaction both emotionally and physically such as the player turning of their platform due to being frightened so much. In which it can be used to produce a wide variety of games which can range in locations, assets and atmosphere as well as sounds and music.

The music used in horror games can have a different effect on the game depending on its theme and what music is used such as that to create suspense for an event with a game engine, there will be some music which plays after the player reaches a certain point and will gradually louder as the player progresses until reaching a point where it cuts of then will use an asset to strike a negative feeling upon the player like a jump scare or a scene which creeps out the player or music can be used to scare the player by playing soft music intended for children and other people to creep out the player such as in Dead Space Extraction (2009) the song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star will be begin to play in the background as the player moves through the vents causing them to feel as if something is behind them.

Sounds in horror games are used often to create an atmosphere and make game seem more realistic so the fear can get the player more easily and cause a better reaction such as the use of floor boarding creaking when the player isn't moving to get the feeling their being followed or the sound of door creaking as there being opened which is most used in games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent in which when the player opens a door it will make a creaking sound.

In horror games the developers can chose from a wide variety of assets and ideas as the antagonists in the game which are generally used as the main source of fear used on the player which can range from supernatural things like ghost and monsters (Evil Within), deformed creatures/people (Dead Space), murderous or insane people (Condemned: Criminal Origins) as well as other things. These assets can be based of different phobias and terrors which can affect the player in different ways such as a game about the fear of the darkness can have a different effect to one about deformation.

Horror in Movies/Television

Horror in films is used similar to other Media which is to get a negative emotional reaction from the viewer like fear, in directors will use a wide variety of ideals to try and achieve this goal by using music/ sound effects, antagonists, atmosphere as well as using the actors in films to help create a deeper and better atmosphere.

Music in horror films can have a big effect on how the film will turn out as music can be used to create suspension within a scene such as when the killer is approaching the victim some sinister or dramatic music will begin to play and will increase in volume as he draws closer an example of this is in the film Psycho (1960) when the killer is approaching the showering woman music begins playing which builds up the suspense until the part he begins the murder to which the music plays even more dramatically but then slowly goes quieter. Whereas sound in movies is used to create and suspense such as the floor boards creaking, dripping sounds and wind sounds which are used to build up the atmosphere within the film.