A phobia is an anxiety disorder involving excessive and persistent fear of a situation or object. Exposure to the source of the fear triggers an immediate anxiety response.
Phobias are one of the most common
mental illnesses in the United States. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH), approximately 12.5% of adults in the United States will deal with a specific phobia in their lifetime.
Women are more likely to experience phobias than men. Why? It could be because of differences in
brain chemistry and hormone fluctuations. Reproductive events across a woman’s life are associated with hormonal changes, which have been
linked to anxiety. Here’s a
link that explains more about this.
Typical symptoms of phobias can include nausea, trembling, rapid heartbeat, feelings of unreality, and being preoccupied with the fear object.
Here are 27 of some common phobias:
- Aphenphosmphobia - fear of being touched
- Arithmophobia - fear of numbers (bad idea to become a math teacher)
- Bibliophobia - fear of books
- Cacophobia - fear of ugliness (a phobia that’s only skin deep!)
- Coulrophobia - fear of clowns (can you say Poltergeist?)
- Daemonophobia - fear of demons
- Dentophobia - fear of dentists (some people may call them demons too)
- Emetophobia - fear of vomiting
- Erotophobia - fear of sex
- Gamophobia - fear of marriage
- Gephyrophobia - fear of driving over a bridge
- Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia - fear of long words; here’s how to pronounce it
- Koumpounophobia - fear of buttons (Steve Jobs apparently had it)
- Mageirocophobia - fear of cooking
- Necrophobia - fear of death or dead things
- Nomophobia - fear of being without your mobile phone
- Octophobia - fear of the figure 8 (don't look at our infinity sign on the home page)
- Ophidiophobia - fear of snakes
- Philophobia - fear of love
- Podophobia - fear of feet (our web designer's dad ditched a girlfriend over her feet)
- Samhainophobia - fear of Halloween (that's just scary in itself)
- Somniphobia - fear of sleep (author George R.R. Martin calls it a "little death")
- Thalassophobia - fear of the ocean
- Triskaidekaphobia - fear of the number 13
- Wiccaphobia - fear of witches and witchcraft
- Xenophobia - fear of strangers or foreigners
- Zuigerphobia - fear of vacuum cleaners
Can one overcome their phobia? There are many suggestions in the links, above, and just like anything phobias can be conquered. Here’s one more
link that gives some directives.
