Psychology will fix the world

[G1BTW]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8367283.stm

I remember trying to make myself ill aged 11 to avoid going to school, and holding my mum's thermometer in the boiler pilot light to simulate my 'high fever' (broke the thermometer, mum unamused). Maybe this was 'school phobia'. Maybe I had a general fear of places where they forced you to do boring stuff, hit you with little justification, then filled out a little form to tell your parents how crap you were. But it just so happened I was going to a 'school' at the time..

[EvilPie]

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?Man_killed_wife_in_a_bad_dream&in_article_id=771896&in_page_id=34

and this...........discuss

Geo

Murder!!

Shouldn't have stopped taking his tablets.

There is a very recent case in the states where a guy in a dustbin lorry killed a couple because he had a seizure while at the wheel. http://www.thisisthewestcountry.co.uk/news/4747545.New_York_lorry_driver_sent_down_for_20_years_for_Yeovil_couple_s_murder/

He was charged with murder and given 20 years because he had decided not to take his medication and that was why he'd had the seizure.

Got to be the same surely??

[Claw75]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8367283.stm

I remember trying to make myself ill aged 11 to avoid going to school, and holding my mum's thermometer in the boiler pilot light to simulate my 'high fever' (broke the thermometer, mum unamused). Maybe this was 'school phobia'. Maybe I had a general fear of places where they forced you to do boring stuff, hit you with little justification, then filled out a little form to tell your parents how crap you were. But it just so happened I was going to a 'school' at the time..

if you'd had a phobia you wouldn't have needed to make yourself ill - it would have done that all on it's own.

[boldie]

What a load of bollocks.

[pokefast]

What a load of bollocks.

Which bit?

[Jon MW]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8367283.stm

I remember trying to make myself ill aged 11 to avoid going to school, and holding my mum's thermometer in the boiler pilot light to simulate my 'high fever' (broke the thermometer, mum unamused). Maybe this was 'school phobia'. Maybe I had a general fear of places where they forced you to do boring stuff, hit you with little justification, then filled out a little form to tell your parents how crap you were. But it just so happened I was going to a 'school' at the time..

if you'd had a phobia you wouldn't have needed to make yourself ill - it would have done that all on it's own.

I think part of the problem is terminology.

I believe phobia's are pretty mild on the whole scale of anxiety disorders - so saying someone has a phobia of school gets ridiculed because it's really not that big a deal.

A more general, more serious disorder which isn't specifically related to school but only to the factors involved with it is a much more credible reason for the problem in the article.

But that said, it did say they were now in a different school and there's no mention that he's been having any kind of treatment. That could be lazy journalism but equally it could be because they just had good representation where the previous school were concerned.

[boldie]

What a load of bollocks.

Which bit?

Pretty much most of it. A phobia is a persistent and very intense fear of something or situation. This kid was scared to go to school. He's now going to another school..good for him..but generally to call this a phobia will be an exaggeration. As someone else pointed out this is probably just lazy reporting but I'll bet you the world that the kid wasn't actually scared of the school but of certain people in it.

I also remember a time when people would just "snap out of it" and not everything would be a phobia...but just something you were scared off and people could tell you to get over it. It's the same as calling everything a "tragedy" or "disastrous"..it demeans the things that are truly disastrous or tragic. This demeans phobias.

[Claw75]

you're probably right about it starting out as a fear of someone or something at the school rather than the school itself, but it's very easy for those fears to become attached to the environment rather than the actual thing that caused them in the first place.

[G1BTW]

What a load of bollocks.

Which bit?

Pretty much most of it. A phobia is a persistent and very intense fear of something or situation. This kid was scared to go to school. He's now going to another school..good for him..but generally to call this a phobia will be an exaggeration. As someone else pointed out this is probably just lazy reporting but I'll bet you the world that the kid wasn't actually scared of the school but of certain people in it.

I also remember a time when people would just "snap out of it" and not everything would be a phobia...but just something you were scared off and people could tell you to get over it. It's the same as calling everything a "tragedy" or "disastrous"..it demeans the things that are truly disastrous or tragic. This demeans phobias.

I have this. It is incurable. I cannot snap out of it: 

http://tinyurl.com/ygoh3rk

[G1BTW]

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?Man_killed_wife_in_a_bad_dream&in_article_id=771896&in_page_id=34

and this...........discuss

Geo

Murder!!

Shouldn't have stopped taking his tablets.

There is a very recent case in the states where a guy in a dustbin lorry killed a couple because he had a seizure while at the wheel. http://www.thisisthewestcountry.co.uk/news/4747545.New_York_lorry_driver_sent_down_for_20_years_for_Yeovil_couple_s_murder/

He was charged with murder and given 20 years because he had decided not to take his medication and that was why he'd had the seizure.

Got to be the same surely??

I think the lorry driver could have reasonably forseen that not taking his meds would have resulted in him having a fit and at some time having one at the wheel, obviously likely to kill someone. The dreamer could have reasonably forseen that weird behaviour would follow giving up his meds, but not that killing his wife would be one of the probable actions. I think he got cleared of it today.

[boldie]

What a load of bollocks.

Which bit?

Pretty much most of it. A phobia is a persistent and very intense fear of something or situation. This kid was scared to go to school. He's now going to another school..good for him..but generally to call this a phobia will be an exaggeration. As someone else pointed out this is probably just lazy reporting but I'll bet you the world that the kid wasn't actually scared of the school but of certain people in it.

I also remember a time when people would just "snap out of it" and not everything would be a phobia...but just something you were scared off and people could tell you to get over it. It's the same as calling everything a "tragedy" or "disastrous"..it demeans the things that are truly disastrous or tragic. This demeans phobias.

I have this. It is incurable. I cannot snap out of it: 

http://tinyurl.com/ygoh3rk

lol..you and many other people

[boldie]

you're probably right about it starting out as a fear of someone or something at the school rather than the school itself, but it's very easy for those fears to become attached to the environment rather than the actual thing that caused them in the first place.

True but being scared of something doesn't mean you have a phobia. A phobia is an extreme fear, not just "I'm afraid to do this". I don't have a phobia about bungee jumping...but I would be scared of doing it.

[Claw75]

you're probably right about it starting out as a fear of someone or something at the school rather than the school itself, but it's very easy for those fears to become attached to the environment rather than the actual thing that caused them in the first place.

True but being scared of something doesn't mean you have a phobia. A phobia is an extreme fear, not just "I'm afraid to do this". I don't have a phobia about bungee jumping...but I would be scared of doing it.

yes I know. Without going into too much detail coz i'm not comfortable doing it, the very thought of going to the places I had developed a phobia of instigated the usual fear reactions - palpitations, sweating, chest pain, vomiting, hysteria among others. The situation developed following unpleasant experiences that occurred within the environment I grew phobic of.

[G1BTW]

I did extensive research on the subject (ok I read the wiki article) and they seem to identify clinically diagnosable phobias with SAM (Flight or fight response, Amygdala reaction) and irrationality.
Strange when sometimes people talk of e.g. 'fear of heights' like it's some kind of clinical phobia. You are human. Falling from a height will kill you. It is handy to feel averse to it....

[cia260895]

 /thread

as i have Phobophobia and I'm getting quite anxious and might need to seek help at the phobophobic anonymous meeting