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:

1. Aphenphosmphobia - fear of being touched
2. Arithmophobia - fear of numbers (bad idea to become a math teacher)
3. Bibliophobia - fear of books
4. Cacophobia - fear of ugliness (a phobia that’s only skin deep!)
5. Coulrophobia - fear of clowns (can you say Poltergeist?)
6. Daemonophobia - fear of demons
7. Dentophobia - fear of dentists (some people may call them demons too)
8. Emetophobia - fear of vomiting 
9. Erotophobia - fear of sex
10. Gamophobia - fear of marriage
11. Gephyrophobia - fear of driving over a bridge
12. Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia - fear of long words; here’s how to pronounce it
13. Koumpounophobia - fear of buttons (Steve Jobs apparently had it)
14. Mageirocophobia - fear of cooking
15. Necrophobia - fear of death or dead things
16. Nomophobia - fear of being without your mobile phone
17. Octophobia - fear of the figure 8 (don't look at our infinity sign on the home page)
18. Ophidiophobia - fear of snakes
19. Philophobia - fear of love
20. Podophobia - fear of feet (our web designer's dad ditched a girlfriend over her feet)
21. Samhainophobia - fear of Halloween (that's just scary in itself)
22. Somniphobia - fear of sleep (author George R.R. Martin calls it a "little death")
23. Thalassophobia - fear of the ocean
24. Triskaidekaphobia - fear of the number 13
25. Wiccaphobia - fear of witches and witchcraft
26. Xenophobia - fear of strangers or foreigners
27. 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.