{"id":1136,"date":"2023-03-10T20:48:06","date_gmt":"2023-03-10T19:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therapyforanxiety.org\/?p=1136"},"modified":"2023-03-10T20:48:07","modified_gmt":"2023-03-10T19:48:07","slug":"what-are-phobias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therapyforanxiety.org\/?p=1136","title":{"rendered":"What are phobias?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What are phobias?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n


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:
\u2022 Marked and persistent fear that is excessive or unreasonable, cued by the presence or anticipation of a specific object or situation.
\u2022 Exposure to the phobic stimulus almost invariably provokes an immediate anxiety response.
\u2022 The person recognizes that the fear is excessive or unreasonable.
\u2022 The avoidance, anxious anticipation, or distress in the feared situation interferes significantly with the person\u2019s normal routine, occupational (or academic) functioning, or social activities or relationships, or there is marked distress about having the phobia.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are literally hundreds of different phobias. But experts have identified five broad categories:<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u2022 Animal phobias. Among the most common animal phobias are fears of insects, snakes, rats, and dogs.
\u2022 Natural environment phobias. These include fears of heights, storms, and water.
\u2022 Situational phobias. For example, fears of flying, enclosed spaces, public transport, tunnels, bridges, elevators, and driving.
\u2022 Blood-injection-injury phobias. These phobias include the fear of seeing blood or an injury, or of having an injection or similar medical procedure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/therapyforanxiety.org\/psychoanalytic-theories-of-anxiety\/\n<\/div>
Psychoanalytic theories of anxiety<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


\u2022 Other types. Everything else! Common \u2018other\u2019 phobias are the fear of choking or of catching an illness (as opposed to hypochondriasis, the fear of actually being ill).<\/a>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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?). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A very limited number of situations or objects account for the vast majority of phobias. These are, in descending order:
\u2022 Animals
\u2022 Heights
\u2022 Blood
\u2022 Enclosed spaces
\u2022 Water
\u2022 Flying
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone with a phobia encounters (or even anticipates encountering) the situation they fear, they usually experience a feeling of panic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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:\u2022 Marked and persistent fear that is excessive or unreasonable, cued by the presence or anticipation of a specific object or situation.\u2022 Exposure to the phobic stimulus almost …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[44],"class_list":["post-1136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-anxiety","tag-anxiety"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat are phobias? - Therapy for anxiety<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/therapyforanxiety.org\/?p=1136\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What are phobias?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"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:\u2022 Marked and persistent fear that is excessive or unreasonable, cued by the presence or anticipation of a specific object or situation.\u2022 Exposure to the phobic stimulus almost …\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/therapyforanxiety.org\/?p=1136\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Therapy for anxiety\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-03-10T19:48:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-10T19:48:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/therapyforanxiety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/333373185_759451372280125_4133874349214507971_n.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/therapyforanxiety.org\/?p=1136#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/therapyforanxiety.org\/?p=1136\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/therapyforanxiety.org\/#\/schema\/person\/ae5d4dc096f21f5613cf2118961bdf88\"},\"headline\":\"What are phobias?\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-10T19:48:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-10T19:48:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/therapyforanxiety.org\/?p=1136\"},\"wordCount\":328,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/therapyforanxiety.org\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"anxiety\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Anxiety\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/therapyforanxiety.org\/?p=1136#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/therapyforanxiety.org\/?p=1136\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/therapyforanxiety.org\/?p=1136\",\"name\":\"What are phobias? 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