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What are phobias?
Here are the key symptoms a mental health professional will look for to decide whether a fear is severe enough to be termed a phobia:
• Marked and persistent fear that is excessive or unreasonable, cued by the presence or anticipation of a specific object or situation.
• Exposure to the phobic stimulus almost invariably provokes an immediate anxiety response.
• The person recognizes that the fear is excessive or unreasonable.
• The avoidance, anxious anticipation, or distress in the feared situation interferes significantly with the person’s normal routine, occupational (or academic) functioning, or social activities or relationships, or there is marked distress about having the phobia.
There are literally hundreds of different phobias. But experts have identified five broad categories:
• Animal phobias. Among the most common animal phobias are fears of insects, snakes, rats, and dogs.
• Natural environment phobias. These include fears of heights, storms, and water.
• Situational phobias. For example, fears of flying, enclosed spaces, public transport, tunnels, bridges, elevators, and driving.
• Blood-injection-injury phobias. These phobias include the fear of seeing blood or an injury, or of having an injection or similar medical procedure.
• Other types. Everything else! Common ‘other’ phobias are the fear of choking or of catching an illness (as opposed to hypochondriasis, the fear of actually being ill).
Most of the several hundred phobias recorded by doctors affect a tiny number of people. (How often have you met someone who is afraid of teeth or sitting down?).
A very limited number of situations or objects account for the vast majority of phobias. These are, in descending order:
• Animals
• Heights
• Blood
• Enclosed spaces
• Water
• Flying
When someone with a phobia encounters (or even anticipates encountering) the situation they fear, they usually experience a feeling of panic.
This can involve some very unpleasant sensations: for example, shortness of breath, sweating, chest pains, trembling, a choking feeling, dizziness, numbness, tingling in the limbs, and nausea.
