The Most Common Phobias
Heights, snakes and public speaking top the list of things of which people are most afraid.
That is according to a survey of 2,088 British people who were given a list of 13 phobias and asked how fear-inducing each one is .
It was women who were more afraid of each item on the list than men or perhaps men just wont admit to their fears.
The widest gender gap was seen for spiders, which scared 52 percent of women but only 33 percent of men .
Here is the full list of phobias and the percentage of people that said they were very or a little afraid of them:
Age also played a role in what people were afraid of.
Younger people were more petrified of public speaking than older people:
- 59% of those between 18-24 said they were afraid of public speaking.
- 32% of people over 60 said they were afraid of public speaking.
Older people meanwhile, were more afraid of heights and snakes.
Unsurprisingly theres no place on the list for one of the most common fears which most people have never heard of: the fear of holes.
Technically its called trypophobia and, according to a recent study, it may result from the visual features of certain poisonous creatures .
The study found that around 1 in 7 had some trypophobic reactions.
Like all the fears on the list, arachnophobia, the fear of spiders, varies a lot between people, with some just being scared of spiders to others being so terrified they cant even look at a picture of one.
Here are a few personal favourites:
Carcinophobia: Fear Of Cancer
People with carcinophobia or cancerophobia live with an irrational dread of developing cancer. Every bodily discomfort becomes a sign for them that they have a malignant growth somewhere inside. A headache, for instance, is a sign for them that they have a brain tumor. Cognitive therapy can help someone with carcinophobia regain control of their life.
Talk Straightforwardly With Your Pcp
Openness is vital in case you are looking for a drug for your acrophobia. Depicting your manifestations as obviously and altogether as conceivable will help your primary care physician decide on credible treatment alternatives. Offer your indications straightforwardly with your PCP and let your PCP help you.
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Face The Fear Step By Step
You can get help in your endeavour. There are special therapies for this kind of phobia.The best known are cognitive-behavioural therapies . The principle is simple: to gradually confront the fear to regain control and subdue your thoughts.~This does not mean that you have to make the big jump immediately. Take your time. The first steps for the more phobic ones will be to think about the heights while remaining calm.
How Is It Diagnosed
![Is being afraid of heights a phobia inti Is being afraid of heights a phobia inti](https://www.clubmentalhealthtalk.com/wp-content/uploads/is-being-afraid-of-heights-a-phobia-inti-revista-org-scaled.jpeg)
Phobias, including acrophobia, can only be diagnosed by a mental health professional. You can ask your healthcare provider for a referral to a psychiatrist. They can help with the diagnosis.
Theyll likely start by asking you to describe what happens when you find yourself faced with heights. Be sure to mention any other mental health symptoms youve experienced as well as how long youve had this fear.
Generally, acrophobia is diagnosed if you:
- actively avoid heights
- spend a lot of time worrying about encountering heights
- find that this time spent worrying starts to affect your daily life
- react with immediate fear and anxiety when encountering heights
- have these symptoms for more than six months
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Aerophobia: Afraid To Fly
Someone who has aerophobia is afraid of flying. The phobia generally develops after a person has a traumatic experience involving an airplane, such as going through extreme turbulence or witnessing another passenger have a panic attack. Even after the incident is forgotten, the fear stays and can even be triggered by watching film of a plane crash on TV. Hypnotherapy is commonly used to identify the initial trauma and to treat this phobia.
Try Not To Hop In To The Profound End
People are regularly advised to confront their apprehensions by accomplishing something that would ordinarily unnerve them. For somebody experiencing a fear of statures, this could mean something like riding a thrill ride, going skydiving, or investigating the edge of a precipice.
The ongoing examination has shown that acrophobia is an inborn, as opposed to a learned condition, which implies that pushing acrophobic in to the profound end may have no impact by any means. It might even exasperate the fear.
Further examination is expected to track down a conclusive reason for acrophobia. Until the fear is ultimately perceived, its anything but a smart thought to open acrophobic to outrageous statures without first treating the anxiety with treatment, drugs, and so on.
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Know Your Cutoff Points
On the off chance that you wind up reliably passing up favorable circumstances as a result of your fear of statures and have effectively taken a stab at confronting your fear, you should think about more long-haul choices.
Investigate these choices inside and out, acknowledging they might assist you with taking advantage of lucky breaks.
Studies have shown that different types of treatment you may experience in medicine, like Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy , help oversee explicit fears like acrophobia.
Az List Of Some Of The More Common Phobias
While not comprehensive, this phobia list offers a glimpse of the many phobias that can have a serious impact on a person’s life. As you may notice while you browse through this list, most specific phobias fall into one of four major categories:
- Fears of the natural environment
- Fears related to animals
- Fear related to medical treatments or issues
- Fears related to specific situations
One important thing to remember is that virtually any object can become a fear object. The names of specific phobias are often formed as nonce words, or words coined for a single occasion only.
These names themselves are often formed by taking a Greek prefix that represents the fear object and adding the -phobia suffix. Because of this, any attempt at a completely exhaustive list of phobias would simply be an exercise in futility. Any list of phobias could grow with the addition of newly coined terms for previously unnamed specific phobias.
While listing all of the phobias that may exist is not possible, it can be helpful to look through a list of some of the more commonly described phobias. As you can see by looking at this list, almost any object or situation can become the source of fear.
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What Is Social Phobia
If you have social phobia, you will feel a sense of intense fear in social situations. You will often try to avoid them. You might worry about a social event before, during and after it has happened. It is also known as social anxiety or social anxiety disorder.
A lot of people find social situations difficult, or feel shy or awkward at certain times this is completely normal.
Social phobia however can completely overwhelm you. You might find it very difficult to engage in everyday activities such as:
- talking in groups
- speaking to authority figures, such as talking to doctors
- eating and drinking in front of others
- regular trips out, to the shops for example
- going to work.
“I have suffered from phobias since I was three years old and couldn’t cope with the social demands of a playgroup. I then went on to suffer from School Phobia right through to my teens, then various phobias surrounding college and work, which led to me becoming unemployed, isolated, agoraphobic and severely depressed.”
You might worry about these social situations because you fear that others will judge you negatively. Or maybe you fear that you’ll offend others by something you say or do. You may also worry about others noticing that you are anxious.
Social phobia can hugely affect your everyday life. It might:
Lots of social phobia, but no friends
“When I walked through the door and was amongst other people, I couldn’t even open my eyes.”
What Are The Top 10 Phobias
People may develop a phobia of almost anything. Additionally, as society changes, the list of potential phobias may change. For instance, nomophobia is the fear of being without a cell phone, computer, or technology. The top ten phobias are as follows
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Normal Fears Vs Phobias Or Irrational Fears
It is normal and even helpful to experience fear in dangerous situations. Fear serves a protective purpose, activating the automatic fight-or-flight response. With our bodies and minds alert and ready for action, we are able to respond quickly and protect ourselves. But with phobias the threat is nonexistent or greatly exaggerated. For example, it is only natural to be afraid of a snarling Doberman, but it is irrational to be terrified of a friendly poodle on a leash, as you might be if you have a dog phobia.
The difference between normal fear and a phobia | |
Normal fear | Phobia |
Feeling anxious when flying through turbulence or taking off during a storm | Not going to your best friends island wedding because youd have to fly there |
Experiencing butterflies when peering down from the top of a skyscraper or climbing a tall ladder | Turning down a great job because its on the 10th floor of the office building |
Getting nervous when you see a pit bull or a Rottweiler | Steering clear of the park because you might see a dog |
Feeling a little queasy when getting a shot or when your blood is being drawn | Avoiding necessary medical treatments or doctors checkups because youre terrified of needles |
Virtual Reality Helping To Treat Fear Of Heights
![Chuck Chuck](https://www.clubmentalhealthtalk.com/wp-content/uploads/chucks-fun-page-2-fear-of-heights-acrophobia-18-photos.jpeg)
- Date:
- University of Basel
- Summary:
- Researchers have developed a virtual reality app for smartphones to reduce fear of heights. Now, they have conducted a clinical trial to study its efficacy. Trial participants who spent a total of four hours training with the app at home showed an improvement in their ability to handle real height situations.
Researchers from the University of Basel have developed a virtual reality app for smartphones to reduce fear of heights. Now, they have conducted a clinical trial to study its efficacy. Trial participants who spent a total of four hours training with the app at home showed an improvement in their ability to handle real height situations.
Fear of heights is a widespread phenomenon. Approximately 5% of the general population experiences a debilitating level of discomfort in height situations. However, the people affected rarely take advantage of the available treatment options, such as exposure therapy, which involves putting the person in the anxiety-causing situation under the guidance of a professional. On the one hand, people are reluctant to confront their fear of heights. On the other hand, it can be difficult to reproduce the right kinds of height situations in a therapy setting.
Gradually increasing the height
Therapy in your own living room
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What Is The Way Outof This Fear Of Heights
Often, it is found that acrophobia patients share common symptoms with vertigo and other kinds of phobias like Bathomophobia . Although a person suffering from Bathomophobia can also be a host for phobia of heights, the vice-versa is not always true.
Responding intelligently to this phobia or any other condition is one way to deal with it. When talking about the phobia of heights we know that It isnt the fear of heights that keeps a person from trying his wings, its the fear of hitting the ground. As such, both empathetic and medical approach can construct a better storyline for the sufferers.
How Safety Behaviour And Objects May Reduce Phobia Symptoms
Safety behaviour or safety objects may reduce certain specific phobia symptoms and, therefore, negatively influence the test results. Safety behaviours are coping behaviours that help you to reduce anxiety and fear when facing the feared object, animal or situation. An example of safety behaviour is: leaving the situation early, not approaching the feared animal, but also certain rituals or compulsions, such as checking if the cage is locked several times. A safety object is any object or human being that calms someone down or reduces their anxiety levels when facing the feared animal, situation or object. An example of a safety object or person: taking a friend to the store in case the person has Agoraphobia , using soap to wash hands excessively in case of Mysophobia , and a safety blanket for children to protect them against ghosts.However, apart from the possible negative influence on the phobia test, safety behaviour also has a negative effect on treatment and enhances the experienced anxiety. Safety behaviour basically teaches someone with a phobia that their fear can only reduce because of the safety behaviour or object .
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General Vs Specific Fear Of Heights
Acrophobia is the general fear of heights.
There are other specific phobias toward more distinct high places or situations. Among others, these include:
- Aerophobia: Fear of flying
- Cremnophobia: Fear of cliffs and precipices
- Bathmophobia: Fear of slopes
- Gephyrophobia: Fear of crossing a bridge
For example, someone who is afraid of flying, but fine with standing on a skyscraper or cliff, might be diagnosed with aerophobia. Someone who is afraid of flying, and also afraid of cliffs, looking out top story windows, driving over bridges, and other situations, could potentially be diagnosed with acrophobia.
It is important to receive the correct diagnosis so your treatment can be the most effective.
What Are The Treatment Options For Phobias
Phobias are treatable and people who have them are nearly always aware of their disorder. This helps diagnosis a great deal. Phobias are treated with a combination of therapy and medications, which may include the following
- Behavioral therapy: Behavioral therapy is an umbrella term for the types of therapy that are used to treat mental health disorders. This form of therapy seeks to identify and help change potentially self-destructive or unhealthy behaviors. It functions on the idea that all behaviors are learned and that unhealthy behaviors can be changed. The focus of treatment is often on current problems and how to change them.
- Cognitive behavioral therapy : The doctor, therapist or counselor helps the person with a phobia learn different ways of understanding and reacting to the source of their phobia. This can make coping easier. Most importantly, CBT can teach a person experiencing a phobia to control their own feelings and thoughts.
- Medications such as beta blockers, antidepressants and tranquilizers may help treat a phobia
- Beta blockers: These can help reduce the physical signs of anxiety that can accompany a phobia.
- Antidepressants: Serotonin reuptake inhibitors are commonly prescribed for people with phobias. They affect serotonin levels in the brain and this can result in better moods.
- Tranquilizers: Benzodiazepines are an example of a tranquilizer that might be prescribed for a phobia. These may help reduce anxiety symptoms.
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Phobic Anxiety Disorders F40
- A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder. It is a strong, irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger. There are many specific phobias. Acrophobia is a fear of heights. You may be able to ski the world’s tallest mountains but be unable to go above the 5th floor of an office building. Agoraphobia is a fear of public places, and claustrophobia is a fear of closed-in places. If you become anxious and extremely self-conscious in everyday social situations, you could have a social phobia. Other common phobias involve tunnels, highway driving, water, flying, animals and blood. People with phobias try to avoid what they are afraid of. If they cannot, they may experience
- panic and fear
- a strong desire to get away