A phobia (from the Greek φόβος "fear"), is an irrational, persistent fear of certain situations, objects, activities, or persons. The main symptom of this disorder is the excessive, unreasonable desire to avoid the feared subject. When the fear is beyond one's control, or if the fear is interfering with daily life, then a diagnosis under one of the anxiety disorders can be made.
Phobia comes from the greek word phobos that stands for fear.

A Phobia is an extreme fear, a disrupting, fear-mediated avoidance that is disproportionate to the danger of the feared object or situation. The person who suffers from a phobia recognizes his/her fear as groundless.

As (according to the behavioral theories, see below) fear can be caused by every object and situation, you can find innumerable Phobias. Here you can see a small selection of Phobias:

Agoraphobia (Fear of open spaces or of being in crowded, public places like markets. Fear of leaving a safe place)
Acarophobia (Fear of insects)
Aerophobia (Fear of drafts, air swallowing, or airborne noxious substances)
Acrophobia (Fear of heights)
Claustrophobia (Fear of confined spaces, such as lifts)
Anglophobia (Fear of pain)
Aichmophobia (Fear of needles or pointed objects)
Autophobia (Fear of being alone or of oneself)
Brontophobia (Fear of thunder and lightning)
Ergasiophobia (1. Fear of work or functioning 2. Surgeon's fear of operating)
Gephyrophobia (Fear of crossing bridges)
Ochlophobia (Fear of crowds or mobs)
Paralipophobia (Fear of neglecting duty or responsibility)
Scop(t)ophobia (Fear of being seen or stared at.)
Thalassophobia (Fear of the sea)
A lot of specific fears do not make the person suffer from it so that he/she would seek treatment. For example if a person with an extreme fear of snakes lives in an urban area, he/she would have little or no contact with the feared object. And therefore he/she would not think that there is something wrong. The term phobia assumes an intensive suffering and harm for the person.

3. Specific phobias
Specific Phobias are unjustified fears caused by the presence of specific object or situation.

Subgroups of Specific phobias:

Animals (dogs, snakes, spiders,..)
Natural environment (heights, water, storm)
blood, injuries, injections
special situations (tunnel, flying, elevator, enclosed spaces,...)
Others (suffocation, vomiting, to choke on something, cramps, ...)
The most common forms of specific phobias are Zoophobia (Fear of Animals), Acrophobia (Fear of heights) and Hemophobia (Fear of blood).

Lifetime prevalence is between 5% and 16%. In western countries more women are affected (between two and four times more than men). Most of the phobias start in childhood or early adolescence.

Specific phobias vary cross-culturally. In China for example there is a fear of loss of body heat, which is related to the Chinese Philosophy.

4. Social Phobia
A social phobia is a persistent fear of social or performance situations, generally linked to the presence of other people. The person with a social phobia usually tries to avoid a particular situation that might be humiliating or embarrassing. These situations can be performing in public, eating in public, using public lavatories (more info), etc.

Depending on the margin of situations that are feared or avoided, a phobia can be generalized or specific.
Lifetime prevalence is between 6% and 15%.

Social phobias can be different in different cultures as well. As for example in Japan the fear of giving offense is important, in the US fear of being evaluated by others occurs more often.

More about social phobias:
Diagnosis of social phobia.
Do you feel afraid and uncomfortable when you are around other people? Is it hard for you to be at work or school? Please check whether any of the following statements apply for you.

I have an intense fear that I will do or say something and embarrass myself in front of other people.
I am always very afraid of making a mistake and being watched and judged by other people.
My fear of embarrassment makes me avoid doing things I want to do or speaking to people.
I worry for days or weeks before I have to meet new people.
I blush, sweat a lot, tremble, or feel like I have to throw up before and during an event where I am with new people.
I usually stay away from social situations such as school events and making speeches.
I often drink to try to make these fears go away.
If any of the above statements is true for you then you may have Social Phobia.

Depression and social phobia.
Question:
I am very depressed, nothing in my life seems to go right, just when things seem like they are getting better, they turn out two times as worse....I have trouble speaking with people, I just don't know what to say, nothing ever comes to my mind, it's like there's something blocking me to become social, which I would love to be. Because of this I have no self esteem. How do I help these 2 problems, please, please, please, help me.
Answer:
Your depression can probably be treated with anti-depressive medication. Talk to a doctor you trust.

In the case of your social problems, this is something you can treat by exercise. Start with talking to people you are not afraid of and where you do not feel like an underdog. Old ladies might be a good choice. Begin showing interest for them and give them nice and interestshowing questions. You do not have to be very spiritual. People love talking about themselves.

The reason you cannot find something to say is that you are afraid. Tell them how afraid you are. You will hear many histories about other people who have also been afraid of talking in different circumstances.

5. Etiology and Therapy of Phobias
The psychotherapeutic approach depends strongly on the etiological ideas of the respective paradigms.

Psychoanalytic Theories
According to Psychoanalyst Freud, phobias are a defense against anxiety produced by repressed impulses. Anxiety is moved to an object or situation and then becomes the phobic stimulus. In order to not deal with the repressed conflict, the person tries to avoid the object or situation.

Psychoanalytic treatments tend to uncover the repressed conflicts. As the phobia is seen as the result of an underlying conflicts, the patient and therapist usually don't deal with it directly. The techniques that a psychoanalyst uses are for example free association and analysis of the dreams.

Behavioural Theories
The main idea of behavioral theories is that the phobic reactions are learned. But which exact learning mechanism is activated and what is actually learned in the development of a phobia are seen differently in different behavioural theories.

As psychological treatment for phobias mainly systematic desensitization is used. The phobic person has to relax and then imagines a series of increasingly frightening situations. Many therapist then expose their patients to real-life phobic situations. The patient has to learn to control his fear and eventually very much reduce it. This technique is proven to be the most effective one.

For blood and injection phobias it is a little different. As a patient with this kind of phobia often faints because of the sudden drop of blood pressure and heart rate, it is more advisable not to relax in this situation but to tense the muscles when confronted by the scaring situation.

Learning social skills can help a socially phobic person. Role plays and rehearsal of interpersonal meetings are very effective for the case of a social phobia.

In addition to that and depending on the underlying theory, there are other techniques such as modeling (exposure to filmed or live demonstration of other people acting with phobic object without showing any fear), flooding (client is exposed to phobic object/situation at full intensity), etc.

Cognitive theories
Cognitive theories assume that anxiety is linked to being more likely to notice negative stimuli and to believe that negative events are more likely to occur in the future. For example some people who have had a traumatic experience with a dog, did not develop a dog phobia, whereas others did develop a phobia. This is because people that developed a phobia focus more on the possible appearance of the fearful situation and become scared.

A cognitive therapy for phobias may seem not so effectual, as the phobic person recognizes the fear as unrealistic and unreasonable. Therefore it is probably not appropriate to eliminate the phobia without any exposure to the fearful object or situation.

Others
There are more theories concerning phobias, such as Biological approaches, which cannot all be named here.

6. How to cope with your phobia (following cognitive-behavioural approaches)
Only when your phobia is interfering with your life and the characteristics or symptoms produce personal harm and suffering you should do something about it.

Often it is much easier to overcome a phobia with the help of a psychotherapist.
Especially if
the phobia is extremely interfering with you living a normal life
you do not manage to cope with the phobia yourself
you are avoiding situations/objects that are of importance in your life
you are suffering from sweating, trembling or other extreme physical symptoms when being in the fearful situation
In order to treat a phobia effectively, there are two elements:
exposure to the feared situation/object
dealing with the frightening thoughts that are associated with the anxiety
1. Confrontation with the feared situation/object
It is very important not to avoid the feared situation/object anymore. As confronting can be a very hard task, the usual approach is by a graded exposure. Therefore you should write up a hierarchy of your feared situation/object.

Example: The hierarchy for a person with a snake phobia could be the following:

Reading about snakes
Looking at snakes in a book
Touching a picture of a snake
Looking at/touching a model of a snake
looking at a real living snake
Touching a terrarium with a real snake in it
Touching a snake
Picking up a snake and holding it in your hands
...
More about the hierarchy for snake phobia treatment.

After creating your personal hierarchy you should start confronting the least frightening item and try to regulate your anxiety. It is very important to remain in the situation until the anxiety decreases. Even though this could take a long time (up to 40 minutes, always depending on the person and the confronted item) you have to wait until the anxiety will eventually disappear. Then you can move on to the next item. (Some therapist start to confront the patient with the most feared object right away. This can help as well.)
During the confrontation relaxation and/or breathing exercises can be used.

2. Dealing with frightening thoughts
If you can find any thoughts that are related to your phobia, you should write them down and find some good arguments against them.

Examples:
I cannot fly because the plane will crash.
=> I have flown many times before and nothing happened. Statistically, flying is the safest way to travel.
Remember all the time, that nothing can happen to you except that your fear is unpleasant. When you managed to get over your anxiety in a certain situation, remind yourself that you did it, you didn't die, you did not lose control etc.!

However, if you can not manage to deal with your phobia, you should seek professional help. Ask your medical doctor to support you in finding a therapist.


Phobias are the most common mental disorder in the U.S. While not comprehensive, this phobia list offers a glimpse of the many phobias that can have a serious impact on an individual's life.

A
Achluophobia - Fear of darkness.
Acrophobia - Fear of heights.
Agliophobia - Fear of pain.
Agoraphobia - Fear of open spaces or crowds.
Aichmophobia - Fear of needles or pointed objects.
Amaxophobia - Fear of riding in a car.
Androphobia - Fear of men.
Anginophobia - Fear of angina or choking.
Anthrophobia - Fear of flowers.
Anthropophobia - Fear of people or society.
Aphenphosmphobia - Fear of being touched.
Arachnophobia - Fear of spiders.
Arithmophobia - Fear of numbers.
Astraphobia - Fear of thunder and lightening.
Ataxophobia - Fear of disorder or untidiness.
Atelophobia - Fear of imperfection.
Atychiphobia - Fear of failure.
Autophobia - Fear of being alone.

B
Bacteriophobia - Fear of bacteria.
Barophobia - Fear of gravity.
Bathmophobia - Fear of stairs or steep slopes.
Batrachophobia - Fear of amphibians.
Belonephobia - Fear of pins and needles.
Bibliophobia - Fear of books.
Botanophobia - Fear of plants.

C
Cacophobia - Fear of ugliness.
Catagelophobia - Fear of being ridiculed.
Catoptrophobia - Fear of mirrors.
Chionophobia - Fear of snow.
Chromophobia - Fear of colors.
Chronomentrophobia - Fear of clocks.
Claustrophobia - Fear of confined spaces.
Coulrophobia - Fear of clowns.
Cyberphobia - Fear of computers.
Cynophobia - Fear of dogs.

D
Dendrophobia - Fear of trees.
Dentophobia - Fear of dentists.
Domatophobia - Fear of houses.
Dystychiphobia - Fear of accidents.

E
Ecophobia - Fear of the home.
Elurophobia - Fear of cats.
Entomophobia - Fear of insects.
Ephebiphobia - Fear of teenagers.
Equinophobia - Fear of horses.

G
Gamophobia - Fear of marriage.
Genuphobia - Fear of knees.
Glossophobia - Fear of speaking in public.
Gynophobia - Fear of women.

H
Heliophobia - Fear of the sun.
Hemophobia - Fear of blood.
Herpetophobia - Fear of reptiles.
Hydrophobia - Fear of water.

I
Iatrophobia - Fear of doctors.
Insectophobia - Fear of insects.

K
Koinoniphobia - Fear of rooms.

L
Leukophobia - Fear of the color white.
Lilapsophobia - Fear of tornadoes and hurricanes.
Lockiophobia - Fear of childbirth.

M
Mageirocophobia - Fear of cooking.
Melanophobia - Fear of the color black.
Microphobia - Fear of small things.
Mysophobia - Fear of dirt and germs.

N
Necrophobia - Fear of death or dead things.
Noctiphobia - Fear of the night.
Nosocomephobia - Fear of hospitals.

O
Obesophobia - Fear of gaining weight.
Octophobia - Fear of the figure 8.
Ombrophobia - Fear of rain.
Ophidiophobia - Fear of snakes.
Ornithophobia - Fear of birds.

P
Papyrophobia - Fear of paper.
Pathophobia - Fear of disease.
Pedophobia - Fear of children.
Philophobia - Fear of love.
Phobophobia - Fear of phobias.
Podophobia - Fear of feet.
Porphyrophobia - Fear of the color purple.
Pteridophobia - Fear of ferns.
Pteromerhanophobia - Fear of flying.
Pyrophobia - Fear of fire.

S
Scolionophobia - Fear of school.
Selenophobia - Fear of the moon.
Sociophobia - Fear of social evaluation.
Somniphobia - Fear of sleep.

T
Tachophobia - Fear of speed.
Technophobia - Fear of technology.
Tonitrophobia - Fear of thunder.
Trypanophobia - Fear of injections.

V-Z
Venustraphobia - Fear of beautiful women.
Verminophobia - Fear of germs.
Wiccaphobia - Fear of witches and witchcraft.
Xenophobia - Fear of strangers or foreigners.
Zoophobia - Fear of animals.