What are Phobias?

A phobia is when something causes you to feel fear or anxiety that’s so severe it consistently and overwhelmingly disrupts your life. Phobias are a type of anxiety disorder, and there’s one diagnosis for almost all of them: specific phobia. Only one phobia, agoraphobia, is a specific diagnosis.

When you aren’t in a situation that directly involves your phobia, you can recognize that the fear is much more severe than it should be. But knowing that doesn’t change how you feel. If you encounter something that triggers your phobia, you’ll feel overwhelming fear or anxiety. You might be able to keep functioning, but doing so will be extremely difficult.

Specific phobias

Specific, or “simple,” phobias are those that relate to a particular object or situation.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) classifies specific phobias according to the following categories:

• Animal type: Examples include dogs, snakes, and spiders.
• Natural environment type: Examples include storms, water, and heights.
• Blood, injection, and injury (BII) type: Examples include needles, invasive medical procedures, and blood.
• Situational type: Examples include a fear of flying and a fear of enclosed spaces.
• Other type: This type is characterized by any phobia that does not fit into the above categories.

People often develop specific phobias when they are younger. They may find that the phobia becomes less severe with age, but this is not always the case.

Social phobias

A social phobia is an extreme fear of being in social situations that may cause embarrassment or humiliation. One example of a social phobia is a fear of public speaking.

Agoraphobia

Agoraphobia is a fear of being in public spaces or crowded areas without an easy means of escape. In severe cases, people with agoraphobia become housebound because they are afraid to leave their safe space. Social phobias and agoraphobia are more likely to cause life impairment because the situation or thing that causes the phobia is a lot more difficult to avoid. Specific phobia and agoraphobia have the same possible symptoms but can happen in different ways or settings. Phobias can cause you to experience physical, mental and behavioral symptoms when you’re exposed to the feared object or situation and/or when thinking about it.

Causes

• Traumatic experiences. These can be experiences that happen to you or that you see happen to someone else.
• Genetics. Certain types of phobias are more likely to happen in people who have a relative with that type of phobia. The types with higher rates in family members are animal, blood/medical procedure/injury and situational phobias.
• Informational transmission. Some phobias may happen because of things you learn about or things you see or hear repeatedly.
• Learned fears. People can learn about the phobias or fears of others and may develop a phobia as a result. This may be a factor in why people with overprotective parents may be more likely to have specific phobia.

Tips

• Understanding your specific fear can reduce its power and help you approach it more rationally.
• Gradually expose yourself to your fear in small, manageable steps.
• As you become more comfortable, increase the intensity or duration of exposure.
• Practice deep breathing exercises to calm your nervous system.
• Tense and then relax each muscle group to help reduce overall anxiety.