【本课讲解文本和要点】

Phobia’s Familial Roots

Your relatives might be to blame for some specific fears.

• familial: family

• blame

① Since childhood, I’ve had needle phobia. Even thinking about them sends me spiraling into a private hell inside my mind, while my body gives way to symptoms like heart palpitations and even fainting.

Years of struggling with my extreme reactions had left me wondering: Where did my phobia come from? And could I ever get over it?

• spiraling: out of control

• a private hell inside my mind

• give way to

• get over

THE ROOTS OF FEAR

② Just like me, about 9 percent of adults in the U.S. lived with a specific phobia in the last year. That includes some of my family members: my needle-phobic sister and my mother, who is terrified of doctors, hospitals and medical exams. I have often pondered whether my phobia could actually be genetic.

• phobic

• medical exam

Ø medical school

• ponder

• genetic

③ Cameron Randall, a clinical psychologist at the University of Washington School of Dentistry in Seattle, had similar musings about a phobia’s roots. He’s researched the causes of odontophobia, or fear of the dentist. In 2016, Randall and his team examined over 1,300 people who also had family members participating in the study. They found that genes bore about 30 percent of the responsibility for odontophobia. The other 70 percent was likely linked to participants’ negative experiences, such as particularly painful drills. “It is really a case of both nature and nurture,” says Randall.

• musing

• bear responsibility for

• nature and nurture

Ø born or made

④ But the degree to which phobias can be inherited varies wildly, depending on the fear. In 2013, scientists sought to pin down how much genes can affect phobias. After a review of 10 relevant papers, the authors concluded that the influence of genetics can range between 0 and 71 percent. Fears of certain specific situations, like getting trapped in a stuck elevator, tend to be explained by related past events, not by genetics. Fears of blood, injury and injections, on the other hand, could be up to 71 percent heritable, driven more by genetics and less by experience.

• the degree to: to a certain degree

• vary wildly

• pin down

• review

Ø literature review

• paper

• genetics

• event

Ø  eventful/eventless/uneventful <->incident

• on the other hand: in contrast

• heritable

• driven: drive

⑤ Meanwhile, other research has looked at how nurture may shape certain fears. In a 2016 study in the journal Pain, the authors found that parents’ behavior during their young kids’ vaccinations affected the children’s likelihood of developing prevaccination fright. For instance, repeating, “It’s OK, it’s OK,” appeared to increase the youngsters’ distress. 

• meanwhile

• vaccination: vaccine, vaccinate

• likelihood=possibility, probability

• prevaccination: pre-vaccination

• fright: frighten, frightened

• distress

⑥ Although my early childhood days are a bit fuzzy, I do remember sensing my mom’s own fears whenever we went to get my shots. This memory made me wonder if parental anxieties could ever spark phobias in the children. “Absolutely,” says Pillai Riddell, a clinical psychologist at York University in Ontario, Canada. “So watching a parent is one of the ways phobias are learned.”

• fuzzy

• sense

• shot

Ø flu shot

• spark

FEAR NOT

⑦ While my occasional fainting bouts are ultimately a minor nuisance, other phobias can wreak havoc on health, work and relationships. For example, some people refuse to undergo life-saving treatments because of their fear of needles. Odontophobics who avoid the dentist for years often end up collecting cavities. Those afraid of flying may miss key business meetings and family gatherings in faraway destinations.

• nuisance

• wreak havoc on

• treatment

• end up doing sth

• cavities

• gathering

⑧ That’s why overcoming these fears is so important, and it is possible. Exposure therapy, where patients confront their triggers gradually, tends to yield good results. In fact, Randall says, it’s the most effective type of treatment for many specific phobias, such as a fear of elevators. 

Still, I wondered if there was an easier way for me to cope with my phobia symptoms. Some of the research I came across suggested that simple distractions might do the trick.

• exposure therapy

• confront

• trigger

• yield

• cope with

• come across

• distraction

• do the trick

⑨ So, at a recent blood test, I put this approach into practice. After reluctantly dragging my feet to the doctor’s office, I immediately confessed my phobia to the nurse. We then joined forces to trick the enemy. I swiped through the photos of my beloved cats on my phone while the nurse distracted me with questions about my three feline “daughters.”

I still moaned and groaned, panicking as usual. But this time I didn’t pass out. Keeping my mind off the fear helped my body deal with the situation. While I may not have fully defeated my phobia, at least I’ve tamed it.

• blood test

• put sth. into practice

• drag my feet to

• confess

• joined forces

• feline ßàcanine

• moan and groan

• panicking: panic

• pass out

• keeping my mind off

• defeat

• tame