Phobias

Through conditioning by association, a person learns to feel fear because he associates, or relates, it with a specific event. Usually, the process begins with one particularly stressful event. For example, imagine that you are swimming at a nearby lake one day, and a strong current begins to swirl around you. Suddenly you feel it begin to pull you under the water. Your heart races, you gasp for air, and terror and panic flood through you. You manage to swim away from the current and reach the shore, but your whole body is trembling, and you feel sick to your stomach.

Because of this experience, your mind makes a powerful association between swimming and anxiety. It “learns” that swimming can create anxiety. In the future, swimming in the lake, or even just the suggestion of doing so, makes you feel tense and afraid.