What is Phobia?

A phobia is an overwhelming and unreasonable fear of an object or situation that poses little real danger but provokes anxiety and avoidance. Unlike the brief anxiety most people feel when they give a speech or take a test, a phobia is long lasting, causes intense physical and psychological reactions, and can affect your ability to function normally at work or in social settings. Several types of phobias exist. Some people fear large, open spaces. Others are unable to tolerate certain social situations. And still others have a specific phobia, such as a fear of snakes, elevators or flying. Not all phobias need treatment. But if a phobia affects your daily life, several therapies are available that can help you overcome your fears often permanently.

Most phobias are classified into three categories and according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, such phobias are considered to be sub-types of anxiety disorder. The three categories are:

1. Agoraphobia:

Agoraphobia is a generalized fear of leaving home or a small familiar 'safe' area, and of possible panic attacks that might follow. It may also be caused by various specific phobias such as fear of open spaces, social embarrassment (social agoraphobia), fear of contamination (fear of germs, possibly complicated by obsessive-compulsive disorder ) or PTSD ( post traumatic stress disorder ) related to a trauma that occurred out of doors.

2. Social Phobia :

Social Phobia is a fear of other people or social situations such as performance anxiety or fears of embarrassment by scrutiny of others. Overcoming social phobia is often very difficult without the help of therapy or support groups. Social phobia may be further subdivided into generalized social phobia (also known as social anxiety disorder or simply social anxiety ). specific social phobia , in which anxiety is triggered only in specific situations. The symptoms may extend to psychosomatic manifestation of physical problems. For example, sufferers of paruresis find it difficult or impossible to urinate in reduced levels of privacy. This goes far beyond mere preference: when the condition triggers, the person physically cannot empty their bladder.

3. Specific phobias:

Fear of a single specific panic trigger such as spiders , snakes, dogs , wind , water, heights , flying, catching a specific illness, etc. Many people have these fears but to a lesser degree than those who suffer from specific phobias. People with the phobias specifically avoid the entity they fear.

- Claustrophobia - fear of having no escape and being closed in a room such as in elevator, toilet etc.

- Zoophobia - fear of specify animals :

• arachnophobia - fear of spiders
• ophidiophobia -  fear of snake
• ornithophobia -  fear of birds
• apiphobia -  fear of bee
• felinophobia -  fear of cat
• cynophobia -  fear of dog
• alektorophobia -  fear of chicken
• entomophobia -  fear of insect or bug
• bufonophobia -  fear of frog

- Brontophobia -  fear of thunder and lightning

- Acrophobia -  fear of heights

- Phobia to feel painfull, such as :

• hemophobia - fear of blood
• trypanophobia - fear of needles or injection

- Phobia to paranormal, such as :

• triskaidekaphobia - terdekaphobia – fear of the number 13
• chiroptophobia - fear of bats or vampire
• phasmophobia - fear of ghost

- Emetophobia - fear of vomiting

- Carcinophobia - fear of cancer

- Neophobia - fear of newness. Neophobia caused because they love their old stuff.

- Gerontophobia - fear of growing old, or a hatred or fear of the elderly

- Gerascophobia – fear of growing old or aging

- Odontiatophobia - fear of going to dentist

- Achluophobia - fear of dark

- Mysophobia – fear of germs, contamination or dirt

There are many other kind of phobia that can not be mention one by one in this article. Phobia is not a disease that can not be cured. A phobia is a fear, it can be gently removed with a specific therapy.

I myself, I don'r have any phobia. But for sure I'm a little bit phobia with word "Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia" or fear of long words. It's not easy to memorize and spell this Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. Well, thanks for reading.