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A specific phobia is an intense fear of something that is generally considered harmless. If you are exposed to the thing you’re afraid of, you become overwhelmed with extreme feelings of anxiety, fear, and even panic. This experience is so unpleasant that you will go to great lengths to avoid the object or situation you fear. The American Psychiatric Association reports that each year, 7.8% of American adults suffer from a phobia.

Signs and symptoms of phobia

• Shortness of breath or smothering sensation

• Palpitations, pounding heart, or accelerated heart rate

• Chest pain or discomfort

• Trembling or shaking

• Feeling of choking

• Sweating

• Nausea or stomach distress

• Feeling unsteady, dizzy, lightheaded, or faint

• Feelings of unreality or of being detached from yourself

• Fear of losing control or going crazy

• Fear of dying

• Numbness or tingling sensations

• Hot or cold flashes

• Fear of fainting

Types of phobias

• Specific phobias (common in childhood or adolescence an go away on their own)

  • Animal phobia= Fear caused by an animal or insect.

    Examples include fear of snakes (ophidophobia), of spiders (arachnophobia), of rodents (musophobia), of dogs (cynophobia)

  • Natural environment phobias=Fears cued by objects found in nature.

    Examples including fear of heights (acrophobia), of storms (brontophobia), of water (hydrophobia), and of darkness (myctophobia).

  • Situational phobia=fears triggered by a specific situation.

    Examples include fear of enclosed space (claustrophobia), of elevators (clautophobia), of flying (Pteromerhanophobia), of dentists, of driving, of tunnels, of bridges.

  • Blood-injection-injury phobia= involves fear of blood (hemophobia), or shots or another medical procedure.

  • Other phobias= Fear of choking (pnigophobia), of illness (hypochondria), of death, of clowns (coulrophobia).

• Social phobia

  Overwhelming and disabling fear of social situations where you would be evaluated negatively.

• Agoraphobia

  This is the fear of having panicky feelings in open places. A person with agoraphobia avoids places that can be associated with anxiety.