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PHOBIA TYPES

Listed below is information that will help you understand phobias better and the specific types of phobias.

WHAT ARE PHOBIAS


A phobia is a strong, persistent fear of situations, objects, activities, or persons. The main symptom of this disorder is the excessive, unreasonable desire to avoid the feared subject. Phobias are believed to be developed by heredity, genetics and brain-chemistry combine with life-experiences.

TYPES OF PHOBIAS


SOCIAL PHOBIAS

Social phobias are now classified as social anxiety disorder and impact approximately 15 million Americans. It is a fear that involves other people or social situations such as performance anxiety, fears of embarrassment or humiliation by scrutiny of others. Examples of these phobias would be eating in public, giving a speech, and even sexual activities. Social phobias usually develop around the age of 13 and affect women more than men. People with these phobias tend to avoid the situations they fear. Roughly 30% of people develop severe symptoms, but only 40% will seek treatment, and about a third will wait ten years or more to seek help.

SPECIFIC PHOBIAS

Specific phobias are typically fears of certain specific things, objects, events or situations. Specific phobias usually contain specific panic triggers. The most common examples of specific phobias are closed-in places, heights, escalators, elevators, tunnels, driving, water, flying, spiders, snakes, dogs, animals, insects, thunder, public transportation, injuries involving blood, and dental and medical procedures. These fears develop during around the age of 7 and impact women twice as much as men. Thankfully, some specific phobias tend to go away, for example, the fear of the dark. If the fear continues through to adulthood, treatment would be the only solution. Approximately 19 million Americans have a specific phobia and some have more than one. These fears can keep people from having a normal life, depending on how often they must encounter/avoid the fear.

AGORAPHOBIA

Agoraphobia is a fear of experiencing a panic in a place or situation from which escape may be difficult or embarrassing or they cannot obtain help. People with this phobia may fear being alone, being in a crowd, traveling in a vehicle or plane. Most people with agoraphobia usually have panic attacks, but it is possible to have agoraphobia without panic attacks, but it is extremely rare. Agoraphobia usually develops around the age of 20 and less than half of suffers will seek treatment. Agoraphobia is the only phobia regularly treated as a medical condition.