A phobia is a symptom characterized by the occurrence of uncontrollable fear under certain circumstances. In psychiatry, phobic disorders are those that are associated with fear about any objects, movements, actions, acts, situations, or even people. A phobia can be anything from ordinary life.
Mild phobias are quite common, however, the “phobic disorder” diagnosis is only made if the fear negatively affects various areas of life: personal relationships, social engagement, and professional performance.
The symptoms of phobic disorder are intense overwhelming fear when confronted with the object of phobia, avoidance, expectation anxiety, and realization of one’s own irrationality. Fear in contact with the object of phobia provokes a narrowing of consciousness and usually is accompanied by rapid vegetative reactions. The patient entirely focuses on the object of fear, stops tracking the environment to some degree, and usually loses control over their own attitude. There is a possibility of rapid breathing, increased sweating, dizziness, weakness in legs, heartbeat, and other vegetative symptoms.
There are three categories:
Agoraphobia
Fear of places like streets, squares, markets, theaters, cinemas, tunnels, etc. If it is necessary, they go to these places with family and friends.
Particular phobia
Fear of animals (not only carnivores but also domestic animals), heights, closed and open places, also flying on the plane, and riding the elevator.
Social phobia
Fear of eating, talking, or writing in public places, as well as using public transport, hosting guests, and meeting in person.
Specific phobia
Specific phobia is characterized by pronounced and excessive fear and anxiety that occur every time the person is exposed to certain situations and objects or just represents them (some types of animals, height, enclosed spaces, blood, or injuries), but is incommensurable with the actual threat. These phobia objects or situations are actively avoided, and when experienced they are accompanied by intense fear and anxiety.
Symptoms remain for at least a few months and are strong enough to cause distress or a significant disruption in personal, family, social, educational, professional, and other important areas of functioning.
Specific phobias are the most common anxiety disorder. The most popular phobias are fear of animals (zoophobia), height (acrophobia), and thunderstorms (astraphobia or brontophobia). About 13% of women and 4% of men suffer from specific phobias.
Patients have these patterns:
- Noticeable continuous (more than six months) intense fear or anxiety about a particular situation or object.
- The situation or object almost always causes instant fear or anxiety.
- Patients actively avoid these situations or objects.
- Fear or anxiety is not proportional to the actual threat (considering the sociocultural norms).
- Fear, anxiety, and/or avoidance cause major discomfort or significantly hinder social or professional activities.
A list of the most common phobias:
Agoraphobia — fear of open spaces. People with this fear prefer to always be indoors.
Aquaphobia — fear of water. In excessive form can develop into a fear of drinking even a sip of
water.
Acrophobia — fear of heights. Fear is caused by climbing on any height, a stool, or a mountain.
Arachnophobia — fear of spiders. It is a characteristic of most people in the world.
Astraphobia — fear of thunderstorms. A very common fear that makes people hide during the storm.
Aerophobia — fear of flights and aircraft. It is a great obstacle for people who want to travel.
Hemophobia — fear of the sight of blood. Seeing blood even on a TV can make a person with this phobia pass out.
Gerontophobia — fear of aging. Usually, this fear is observed in middle-aged people.
Dentophobia — fear of dentists. People with this phobia would rather live with the acutest pain than sit in a dentist's chair.
Kakorrhaphiophobia — fear of failure. It is characteristic to people that are focused exclusively on success.
Cynophobia — fear of dogs. Another extremely common phobia.
Claustrophobia — fear of confined spaces. People with an acute form of this phobia can start panicking in an ordinary elevator.
Xenophobia — fear of strangers. Can be developed based on gender, race or religion.
Mysophobia — fear of germs and dirt. People with this phobia do not like touching things outside of their perfectly clean homes.
Monophobia — fear of loneliness. It can occur as the fear of abandonment by a loved one, being left alone in the world, or being alone in a room.
Necrophobia — fear of corpses. This a prime example of fear of the unknown.
Nyctophobia — fear of darkness. Despite the fact that it mostly affects children, it also occurs in a great number of adults.
Ophidiophobia — fear of snakes. Another one of the most common fears. It is a subcategory of herpetophobia - fear of reptiles.
Sociophobia — fear of public attention. Fear to go in public spaces is also considered to be sociophobia.
Thanatophobia — fear of death. This fear paralyzes a person’s willpower and does not let them live a normal life.
Trypanophobia — fear of needles and injections. Even an ordinary vaccination can become a test of strength.
Trypophobia —fear or open wounds and any holes on the skin - both one’s own skin or the skin of any living being in general.
Autophobia
Many people are scared to be left alone. But when it has a pathological nature the person can feel its impact of it. The fear looms over them completely just because of one single thought about loneliness.
It is fully manifested when vegetative and somatic symptoms occur. The most common manifestations — are suffocation, tic, tremor, and nervous trembling.
A person often enters a new relationship immediately after ending the previous relationship, changes their look, or starts buying everything to calm themselves. Later I will write about causes and symptoms, but now I would like to briefly introduce you to this very popular phobia. And people don't understand that this fear currently co-exists with them, they are looking for other causes of their condition.
Autophobia — a pathological fear of loneliness. A big number of people have this disorder, both emotionally and physically.
As the condition worsens, clinical symptoms occur:
- constant distress, nervousness, irritability
- desire to be always surrounded by people
- fear to be left alone even for a few hours;
- feeling obsessive attention
- disinterest in surrounding occurring events
- trembling in the body
- cold sweat
- increased blood pressure and rapid heartbeat
- shallow breathing and the feeling of suffocation.
In addition:
- Low self-esteem. The person thinks they are worse than others.
- Obsession with one specific person. Even if the person acts like everything is terrible with no moral restrictions, without them the person with autophobia starts to panic, and then tries to keep them by their side at any cost.
- Feel that they are undesirable, have suspicion towards relatives, loved ones, and friends, the need continuous reminders that they are loved and desired.
- Anxiety bordering on panic. Occurs when the person with autophobia is left alone even for a short period of time.
- Tendency to addictions that help to calm anxiety. Bad habits, food overconsumption, addiction to computer games, and unhealthy relationships that are quickly replacing each other after a breakup.
The most common causes of autophobia are:
- Lack of attention in early childhood.
- Leaving a person alone as a punishment.
- Socializing with dysfunctional groups in adolescence.
- Lack of support during puberty.
- Fear of not managing to create a family and have children.
- Too much trust in unfamiliar people.
- Fear of losing a spouse, or sudden loss of the loved one.
- Low self-esteem, trouble connecting with other people.
- Failures in love.
- Busy and lacking free time.
Claustrophobia
Claustrophobia is one of the most common mental disorders. According to statistics, about 10-15% of the world's population suffers from it.
Claustrophobia is an extremely illogical fear of an enclosed space. The fear can greatly intensify in rooms without windows, with low ceilings, in elevators, and even in toilet cubicles.
People with this disorder feel uncomfortable in crowds. This is the reason why they are avoiding situations that might induce fear. This leads to a total refusal to leave home.
Claustrophobia is characterized by:
- the feeling of pulsation of blood in the vessels
- intensified heartbeat
- dyspnea
- cough and soreness in the throat
- vomit and nausea
- fever
- the feeling of numbness in the limbs
- passing out
All these symptoms occur only in stressful situation that appears only when a person enters a confined space. The rest of the time the patient feels well and has a normal lifestyle.
Once they enter a small and cramped place, they immediately feel fear of:
a new stroke
suffocation
inevitable danger and even death.
It is important to consider that a stroke can evolve into a panic attack.
In the vast majority, it develops in childhood. Usually, it occurs in a child that has experienced:
- being in a dark room they can not escape or turn on the lights
- accidentally got locked up in a closet or a drawer
- falling into a deep pool if they can not swim
- parents losing their child in a large crowd
- the child is left alone in a car.
Social phobia (sociophobia)
Social phobia, which is also called social anxiety disorder, is a fear of social situations in which a person is embarrassed or afraid to be judged.
If a person has a social phobia, they can be very shy and be scared of humiliation in front of others. This is a worry about how they look to others and what others may think of them. It leads to avoidance of certain situations that they could enjoy otherwise.
Fear of public performances is an extraordinarily popular phobia, and also a type of social phobia.
Other fears associated with social phobia are: fear to eat or to drink in public, fear of talking to strangers, fear of exams, fear to go on a visit, and fear to answer on the blackboard.
Nosophobia
Nosophobia is a haunting fear of a disease with severe consequences.
A long-lasting, exhausting, unexplainable fear of getting sick with a certain disease (sometimes several diseases) is called nosophobia. With nosophobia, fear occupies a person’s thoughts and deprives them of the pleasures of life.
Sometimes nosophobia is confused with hypochondria. These are very much similar.
Hypochondria means an anxiety disorder based on suspicion of various diseases. Also, it is quite common to suspect all diseases at once, the patient may start to look for a disease they saw on the internet or overheard in a clinic.
Nosophobia has a strongly pronounced phobic component — panic attacks make the course of nosophobia much more difficult. Usually, patients have one (or several) reasons for their fear, and other diseases don’t worry them.
The most common in clinical practice are:
Ńardiophobia — fear of a heart disease
Ńarcinophobia — fear of getting a malignant tumor
lyssophobia — fear of going insane
mysophobia — fear of contamination and infection
syphilophobia — fear of getting a sexually transmitted disease
phthisiophobia — fear of getting tuberculosis
hematophobia — fear of bleeding
vertigophobia — fear of fainting
acarophobia — fear of contracting scabies
anginophobia — fear of stenocardia
helminthophobia — fear of getting parasitic worms
Neophobia
Neophobia is a fear of everything new, an irrational fear of changes, new situations, people, ideas, or places.
A person frequently goes to great lengths to avoid a phobia-inducing situation, because they experience terrible sickly symptoms. It leads to the loss of great opportunities and impairs the quality of life and mental wellness.
It is also an observable fear in relationships. One of the factors is exactly the fear of new relationships, fear that the person won’t be there anymore, fear of new things in relationships, good treatment for example. Obviously, there are more factors, but one of them is the fear of new things. Fear of new feelings, and sensations in a new relationship.
List of physical and/ or psychological symptoms:
- sweating
- trembling
- the rush of heat or fever
- dyspnea, the feeling of suffocation, shortness of breath
- rapid heartbeat
- ear ache
- "butterflies" in stomach
- nausea, mouth dryness
- headache, dizziness, ringing in the ears, disorientation
- weakness
- numbness or tingling in the body
- fear of losing control
- fear of fainting
- guilt, shame, dissociation
- sadness, hopelessness
- struggling with the attention span
- anger, irritability, mood swings
Neophobia has a negative impact on a person when they:
- Endure an unhappy marriage/relationship.
- Stay at work that doesn’t bring any emotional and/or financial satisfaction.
- Has a clearly limited list of interests and rejects others.
- Is only friends with particular people and doesn’t want any new encounters.
- Has a very limited list of places they like to be at and don’t diverge from it.
- Rejects beneficial opportunities.
- Easily irritated and become defensive when someone suggests they revalue or change their life.
Giving into fear, a person misses many chances that can vastly improve the quality of their life.
Neophobia in mild or severe forms:
Ideophobia — fear of new ideas.
Technophobia — fear or hostility towards new technology, and advanced devices.
Epistemophobia — an irrational fear of new knowledge or unknown information.
Food neophobia — refusal of unfamiliar dishes.
Futurephobia — fear of the future that causes anxiety and nervousness.
Ergasiophobia — intense fear of work or search of it, avoidance of new actions.
Anthrophobia — fear of people, that occurs as fear of new acquaintances and social interactions.
Various factors that aggravate neophobia:
heredity
cultural influence,
past traumatic events.
In addition, these also are causes of neophobia:
- anxiety about the unknown
- fear of defeat
- fear of success
- fear of death
- self-condemnation
- fear of being graded
Lyssophobia
Fear of “going insane” is one of the most common fears (phobia) among modern city dwellers.
Lyssophobia (from Greek lyssa — madness, insanity; Phobos — fear) — is a fear of getting sick with a mental illness, rabies, stopping controlling oneself, “going mad”.
This phobia is induced by an increased level of anxiety, it is an explanation of one’s strange and obscure state: a distorted perception of reality (derealization) or oneself (depersonalization). Sometimes the fear occurs because of panic attacks that are always sudden and frightening phenomena.
Lyssophobia or fear of insanity takes second place in the frequency of detection after the fear of death. This phobia deprives people of a normal lifestyle. A person is afraid of split personality, hallucinations, loss of memory, control over oneself, etc.
Causes of occurrence:
- Vivid imagination.
- High anxiety levels (fear of the future, feeling of uselessness and helplessness).
- Demand to "keep everything under control".
- The presence of something dangerous or lack of something that provides safety. A person doesn't feel mental stability, they don't have any purpose or meaning in their life.
- Mental and behavioral disorders (frequent conflicts, struggling with solving everyday problems, overly critical of oneself).
- Heredity.
- Socio-economic instability of society.
Cherophobia
Cherophobia is often manifested in people as:
- Attempts to avoid participating in entertaining events.
- Avoid watching comedy movies and funny plays, justifying their actions by the fact it is an unnecessary waste of time.
- Never talk about something good that has happened in their life or absolutely devalue it when mentioned.
- Try to not think about happiness, forbid yourself to even think of happy moments, so something bad doesn't happen.
- Feel bad or guilty when experiencing happiness.
- Feel fear when realize they are happy.
- Unconsciously turn down everything that could possibly improve their life.
The word cherophobia comes from the Greek word "chairo" ("i rejoice") and means fear of happiness, and fun.
People with cherophobia don't always feel sad or anxious, states that are associated with depression and anxiety disorder, they are simply afraid of events that could bring them the feeling of happiness. These people think if they let themselves be happy and careless even for a short period of time, some sorrowful and tragic events will definitely occur after that.
Causes of cherophobia:
- an unsuccessful prank in childhood (violence, impressionability of the person)
- an accident, another tragedy that occurred during a celebration or a party
- parent's example of anxiety and rejection of celebrations, instilling fear in the child
- passion for horror movies (often in horror movies a fun carefree pastime turns into something awful)
Psychiatrist Carrie Barron notes that fear of conflict hides in cherophobia. Fear of anger, humiliation, and punishment.
One of the reasons for cherophobia is mindset peculiarities, and traits, it's about the victim's mindset. A person has a strong belief that one can not simply be happy, one has to achieve everything with hard work, has to suffer, and is tormented. An individual like this is not used to feeling happy, not used to receiving praise, attention, or love.
Phagophobia
One of the most destructive and dangerous phobias is phagophobia — a baseless, uncontrollable, panic fear of choking. Phagophobia — fear of swallowing, choking.
In mild cases, a person just restricts themselves in taking certain foods.
In severe cases, a person refuses to eat anything at all.
Most common phagophobia symptoms that occur when a person is swallowing food:
- heavy breathing
- dizziness
- increased sweating
- nausea
- dry mouth
- tremor
- rapid heartbeat
- inability to think straight
- the feeling of remoteness from reality
fear of death by suffocation
In some cases, people also experience severe panic attacks.
A common symptom of phagophobia is thoroughly chewing food.
The patient chews food for a long period of time, but still can't swallow it.
Sometimes signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder add up to phobic fear. A person builds up a defensive ritual.
A typical sign of phagophobia is a special preparation of food. The patient pays excessive attention to the quality of the products. Often, they only buy products from certain companies. The patient only eats liquid and porridge-like food, avoiding solid foods. They exclude fish from their diet because they are afraid of swallowing small bones. A person may refuse to take vitally important medication because they believe the pill might stick in their throat.
Fear of swallowing in severe cases is the reason for refusing to eat, which leads to extreme emaciation of the body and very serious health problems.
Phagophobia forces one to change eating behavior, as well as leads to social isolation. The patient stops visiting their friends' meetings where they have to eat. One of the reasons is that it is absolutely unimaginable for them to eat food that is cooked by someone else.
Phagophobia changes a person's lifestyle because all their actions are based on one goal: thoroughly and carefully think about their diet, purchase only certain products, to eat food only according to certain recipes. These events take a lot of time, need an enormous amount of energy, and lead to a narrowed range of interests.
Agoraphobia
Agoraphobia is a disorder characterized by fear and avoidance of places and situations that can trigger panic and make a person feel trapped, helpless, or confused.
You are scared of a real or expected situation, for example: using public transport, being in an open or enclosed space, staying in line or in a crowd.
Classic agoraphobia symptoms include a fear of:
- leave the house alone
- crowds or waiting in line
- enclosed spaces like cinemas, elevators, or small shops
- open spaces like parking lots, bridges, or shopping malls
- using public transport like bus, plane, or train
These situations cause anxiety because a person is scared that they can not escape or seek help if they start panicking or other symptoms may occur and make them lose control.
Fear or anxiety occurs almost every time as a result of the effect of the situation. A person's fears or anxiety is disproportionate to the actual threat of the situation. They avoid situations, you need a person to go with them or they tolerate a situation but they are extremely upset about it. A person experiences significant stress or struggles with social situations, work, or other areas of their life because of fear, anxiety, or avoidance.
This phobia and avoidance last six months or more.
A common reason why people worry about having to escape or ask for help in these situations is a panic attack, However, people can experience discomfort for other reasons as well.
Some people with panic disorder can also experience agoraphobia, but it is not the same. People with panic disorder avoid actions or situations that can cause panic. This avoidance can turn situations into triggers of fear and anxiety which leads to agoraphobia.
On the other hand, people with panic disorder do not experience agoraphobia. For example someone can avoid a certain activity (like watching a horror movie) that could trigger a panic attack, but is not scared of cinemas. Panic disorder and agoraphobia are two separate conditions that can be similar sometimes.
Some people have panic disorder in addition to agoraphobia. Panic disorder is a disorder characterized by sudden panic attacks that peak in a few minutes and cause severe physical symptoms. A person experiencing a panic attack can feel like they are losing control, having a heart attack or even dying.
The fear of the occurrence of a new panic attack can lead to avoidance of certain circumstances or places where panic attacks occurred in order to prevent panic attacks in the future.
Signs and symptoms of a panic attack:
- frequent heartbeat
- breathing problems or feelings of suffocation
- chest pain or pressure
- dizziness
- trembling, numbness, or tickling
- excessive sweating
- abrupt flush or fever
- indigestion or diarrhea
- the feeling of loss of control
- fear of death
Anxiety is caused by fear because, in one’s perception, there is no easy way to escape the problem or seek help if the anxiety intensifies. Most people with agoraphobia develop it after one or several panic attacks which makes them worry about the occurrence of a new panic attack and avoid places where the previous panic attacks have occurred.
Thanatophobia
A fear of death (Latin thanatophobia) is an intrusive fear of death. One of the most common phobias. Thanatophobia — a fear of death that is based on obscurity about what will happen after death.
The irrationality is what distinguishes the phobia from the casual fear of death — the fear isn’t supported by a real basis, it is also accompanied by unpleasant sensations and interferes with daily normal life. People are scared to die in general or in different situations (from an accident, a heart attack, or a criminal) and therefore they protect themselves from possible contact so they can isolate themselves from society, work, and communication.
Thanatophobia is characterized by uncomfortable intrusive thoughts about one’s own death. At the same time, there is an understanding that there is no basis for death like diseases or real life-threatening circumstances.
Obsessed with these thoughts, a person is tormented by them, tries to fight them, and avoids them.
Thanatophobia may occur in the form of:
Seizures, between which a person feels good.
Constant anxiety with continuous intrusive fear of the onset of death.
Don’t confuse thanatophobia (obsessive fear of death) and casual fear of death of any healthy person.
The fear of death can be aggravated or initiated in the following situations:
- Technological disaster
- Serious accidents
- Terrorist attacks
- Tragic events that occurred in close proximity (the plane the person was late to crashed)
Also, thanatophobia can be caused by other fears and great shock:
- fear of the unknown, what is in the afterlife
- fear of losing loved ones, especially — timeless
- low self-esteem and loneliness
- fear of not having enough time to complete everything planned
- strong suggestibility
- fear of torment and pain
- the feeling of the frailty of life, one’s own uselessness in life
- fear of losing control in certain situations