The 10 Most Common Phobias

The 10 Most Common Phobias, Symptoms and Treatment Options

When a fear is irrational and interferes with daily life, they are called phobias. All of us have an irrational fear or two. Some get nervous around needles; others get light-headed when looking down from a great height, and my mom shrieks at the sight of a rodent.

However, when this irrational fear provokes an excessive anxiety reaction, it can be become debilitating and impact on your daily functioning.

There are many types of phobias. Some of the 10 most common phobias that people develop an irrational fear towards include animals (e.g. spiders), certain environmental situations (e.g. heights, water) or situation type (e.g. elevators, flying) to name a few. The right treatment can help you to overcome your phobia.

What is a phobia

A person with a phobia experiences an excessive or persistent fear when in the presence, or anticipating the presence, with the object or situation.

This fear could result from anticipated harm from the object/situation, for example, an individual may fear snakes because they are concerned about being bitten, or be scared of flying because they fear crashing.

However, there may also be fear of losing control or panicking. For example an individual who is afraid of heights may also be worried about their dizziness, or the person afraid of an elevator (or enclosed spaces) may also worry about losing control.

The 10 most common phobias

The 10 most common phobias that affect millions of lives included:

1. Arachnophobia which is a fear of spiders.
2. Ophidiophobia which is a fear of snakes.
3. Acrophobia which is a fear of heights.
4. Agoraphobia which is a fear of crowded or open places in which escape may be difficult.
5. Cynophobia which is a fear of dogs.
6. Astraphobia which is a fear of thunder and lightening.
7. Trypanophobia which is a fear of injections.
8. Social phobia which is a fear of social situations and evaluation by others.
9. Pteromerhanophobia which is a fear of flying.
10. Mysophobia which is a fear of germs or dirt.

The 10 most common phobias can be classed into different types of phobia

The 10 most common phobias and all other phobias can be classed into one of five types of phobias

Animal type. Animal phobias are fears that are caused by animals or insects. Examples include a fear of dogs, a fear of snakes, fear of rodents, or a fear of spiders to name a few. Animal phobias generally have a childhood onset.

Natural Environment Type. These are phobias of the natural environment. Examples include fear of heights, a fear of storms, or a fear of the dark among others.

Situational Type. Situational type phobias are fears of specific situations. Examples include fear of tunnels, a fear of bridges, a fear of elevators, a fear of flying, fear of driving or a fear of enclosed spaces among others.

Blood-Injection-Injury Type. These phobias are fears of seeing blood, an injury or receiving an injection.

Other type. If you have an irrational fear that is overwhelming and it is a fear of an other stimuli not included above. Such phobias may be a fear of choking, a fear of illness, or in some children it may be a fear of certain characters e.g. a fear of clowns.

Agoraphobia

If you have a fear of being alone in any place/situation in which it may be difficult to escape - you may have agoraphobia. Agoraphobia is one of the 10 most common phobias.

Women make up about two thirds of people who develop agoraphobia. Most people develop agoraphobia after suffering a spontaneous panic attack.

Since these attacks occur with little warning and appear random, it makes it difficult for the person to predict the next panic attack. As such, the individual may anticipate future panic attacks and fear any situation which may trigger a panic attack.

Typically people with agoraphobia have a fear of busy or crowded places, such as movie theaters, shopping malls or busy streets, where it may be difficult to escape from the situation.

This can result in a person with agoraphobia staying at home. This can be very disabling for the person and their family.

Social Phobia

Social phobia is also one of the 10 most common phobias.

A person with social phobia (or social anxiety disorder) has a fear of being watched or humiliated (or showing symptoms of anxiety) in front of others. For example, a person who has a fear of eating in public places, because they fear the negative evaluation of others, may have social phobia.

A fear of public speaking is a common generalized form of social phobia. Other examples may include a fear of eating in public places, fear of talking to strangers. People with social phobia fear the negative evaluation of others and if this fear, avoidance or anxious anticipation interferes with their daily living.

Symptoms of Phobia

People who experience phobias have a strong physical and emotional reaction to the object/situation of fear. Some of the symptoms of phobias include:

Treatment of Phobias

A phobia that interferes with a person's daily life, their functioning at work or their social life and creates extreme anxiety should be treated.

Proper treatment generally results in a majority of patients overcoming their fears and being symptom free. Effective treatment can be a result of CBT, medication or both.

Cognitive behavioral therapy. In CBT a trained therapist will generally confront the feared situation or object through a process of graded exposure - a process whereby the person with phobia confronts the feared situation/object in a planned, careful, and gradual manner and learns to control both their mental and physical reactions.

With graded exposure the person learns to confront their fear rather than avoiding/fleeing from the situation/object of their fear. In other words the person loses their terror and horror that they once felt when exposed to the stimuli.

Self help strategies to combat phobia

In addition to therapy and/or medication , there are a number of strategies that you may be able to use to overcome your fears or phobias.

Educate yourself about phobias. Phobias affect about 19.2 million adult Americans. So they are not quite common. Furthermore the vast majority of people who seek treatment successfully overcome their phobia.

Challenge your negative thinking. It is important if you can identify some of the threatening thoughts that are associated with your phobia.

For example you may have the fear thought “The plane will crash” . This can be replaced by a more rational thought such as “I have flown many times and it is have happened. Statistically this is a very safe form of traveling.

Develop your relaxation techniques. Deep breathing exercises, yoga, meditation and progressive muscle relaxation are ways that you can promote the relaxation response which counters the stress response that can develop into overall increases in anxiety and proneness to anxiety attacks.

Regularly practicing relaxation exercises gives you the skills to quickly relax yourself - and in most cases you can use these techniques when confronted with your phobia.

There are a number of other anxiety disorders in addition to phobias. These include social anxiety disorder (social phobia), post traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and also panic disorder

This discussion on the 10 most common phobias and this site in general is for information purposes only and in no way replaces treatment. Please see a local doctor, psychologist or psychiatrist to seek advice.

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