Understanding and Overcoming Phobias: A Guide

We all have fears—some of us are afraid of spiders, while others are afraid of heights or darkness. But for some people, these fears become so debilitating they can no longer function. In these cases, a specific phobia may be diagnosed.

Specific phobia is a mental health condition that causes people to have a severe and irrational fear of particular objects and situations. Specific phobias can be successfully treated, which means you can overcome these fears. Here’s what you need to know about phobias and how to overcome them.

What is a phobia?

A phobia is a severe fear of a specific object, place, or situation. Phobias are more than just fears – they’re long-lasting, irrational, and uncontrollable. Around 19 million people in the U.S. are affected by phobias.

In mental health, phobias are diagnosed as specific phobias, which is a type of anxiety disorder. According to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM), the symptoms of specific phobia include^[1]:

• Having an excessive fear of a specific object or situation; this fear is often accompanied by physical symptoms like rapid heartbeat, sweating, and trembling.
• Always have an immediate fear reaction every time you encounter the object/situation.
• The fear is disproportionate to the level of danger the object or situation presents.
• You actively avoid the object/situation; if you’re forced to confront it, you endure the experience with intense anxiety.
• The fear causes clinically significant emotional distress and causes substantial problems in different areas of your life.
• You have experienced this fear for at least six months.

These criteria differentiate specific phobias from ordinary fears. Most of us are afraid of some things. But when you live with a particular phobia, these fears cause significant disruption to your life. For example, you might not be able to go to work because of the phobia, or it might damage your relationships.

What causes phobias?

Specific phobia is a mental health condition—and, like other mental health conditions, it has no singular cause. Many factors can contribute to the development of a phobia. Often, phobias start with a scary or traumatic experience with the feared object. For example, if you were attacked by a dog, you might develop a phobia of dogs, but this isn’t necessarily the case.

Other factors that can lead to phobia include^[2]:

• Genetics: Research shows some people are genetically more likely to develop phobias than others.
• Family history and learned behavior: If you have been around other people with a phobia, especially at a young age, you may have picked up the phobia as well. For example, if you grew up with parents who had a phobia of insects, you may have also developed the same phobia.
• Brain structure: People with phobias have different brain responses to feared objects than those without phobias. These brain differences could lead to phobia in some people, although researchers are still learning more.

In addition, most people develop specific phobias before the age of 10, which puts young children at higher risk. People with a naturally more nervous temperament are also at higher risk.

Phobia examples

People can have specific phobias of anything, and there are indeed people in the world with phobias that have never been documented. However, mental health experts have defined broad categories of specific phobias which are listed in the DSM.

Here are the five categories of specific phobias.

Animal type phobias

People with animal-type phobias have a debilitating fear of various animals. Some examples include:

• Phobia of dogs (cynophobia)
• Phobia of spiders (arachnophobia)
• Phobia of insects (entomophobia)
• Phobia of bees (mellisophobia)
• Phobia of birds (ornithophobia)

Natural/environment type phobias

These are phobias that relate to nature, weather, or the environment. Common phobias that fall under this category include:

Phobia of water (aquaphobia)
Phobia of heights (acrophobia)
Phobia of thunder and lightning (astraphobia)
Phobia of darkness (achluophobia)
Phobia of the sea (thalassophobia)

Blood-injection-injury type phobias

Specific phobias that fall under this characterization are fears of physical harm or injury. Examples of injury-type phobias include:

• Phobia of needles and injections (trypanophobia)
• Phobia of blood (hemophobia)
• Phobia of hospitals (nosocomephobia)
• Phobia of dentists (dentophobia)
• Phobia of surgery (tomophobia)

Situational type phobias

Phobias in the situational category are related to fears of specific situations. Some common examples include:

• Phobia of enclosed spaces (claustrophobia)
• Phobia of flying on an airplane (aviophobia)
• Phobia of public speaking (glossophobia)
• Phobia of bridges and tunnels (gephyrophobia)

Other phobias

Specific phobias in the “other” category aren’t in the above four categories. Some examples include:

• Phobia of technology (technophobia)
• Phobia of clowns (caulrophobia)
• Phobia of large objects (megalophobia)
• Phobia of animatronics (automatonophobia)
• Phobia of loud noises (phonophobia)

What about agoraphobia and social phobia?

It’s worth mentioning two other phobias that are listed in the DSM, agoraphobia and social phobia, formally known as social anxiety disorder. Why haven’t we included these on the list of common-specific phobias?

Agoraphobia and social phobia (social anxiety disorder) are distinct from specific phobias; they’re known as phobias, but they’re more complex phobias than specific phobias. They each have their own separate diagnoses and are listed as types of anxiety disorders.

Agoraphobia is a mental health condition that causes people to develop a phobia of being trapped in a situation without a way to escape; in essence, it’s a phobia of losing safety^[3]. It’s the most common anxiety disorder diagnosed in older adults. People with agoraphobia often start to fear leaving their homes due to the debilitating fear of being unsafe or trapped.

Agoraphobia differs from specific phobias because it encompasses a wide range of feared situations and places. If the person was to be fearful of one specific situation or place outside the home, such as driving or being stuck in an elevator, but not of others, then they could be diagnosed with a specific phobia.

Social anxiety disorder is often referred to as social phobia. This condition causes people to worry about humiliating themselves in front of others. They may avoid social situations altogether or endure them with intense anxiety. Some people with social anxiety disorder have fears of specific social situations, while others may experience anxiety across all social situations.

Social anxiety disorder is a separate diagnosis from a specific phobia. However, people can be diagnosed with both – for example, someone could be diagnosed with both social anxiety disorder and a particular phobia of public speaking.

What is the best treatment for phobias?

The best treatment for specific phobias is exposure therapy, a psychotherapeutic method that gradually faces the object or situation you fear to slowly bring down your brain’s fear response. For example, if you have a phobia of hospitals, your therapist may help you first watch television shows based in hospital settings.

Exposure therapy is effective for up to 90% of people who live with a specific phobia^[4].

In some more severe cases, psychiatric medication may be used to treat specific phobias. However, exposure therapy and other holistic methods are typically effective for most people.

How to overcome phobias: self-help strategies

It may seem like the simplest way to deal with a phobia is to avoid the feared objects or situations altogether. For example, if you have a phobia of elevators, you may choose to take the stairs. This may work in the short term, but it actually makes fear and anxiety worse in the long run.

You may be able to live with a less intense fear for the rest of your life, but phobias, by definition, have a significant detrimental impact on your life. These adverse effects could make it difficult for you to function well in social settings or your professional life. And if you want to overcome these phobias, you must stop avoiding the thing you’re afraid of.

The reason exposure therapy is the most effective treatment method for specific phobias is because the only way to truly overcome your fears is by facing them. By avoiding your fears, you reinforce to your brain the object or situation is scary.

By gradually exposing yourself to your fears, you train your brain to understand the feared object or situation won’t hurt you and you can handle the fear.

Here are some self-help tips to expose yourself to fears and overcome specific phobias.

• Start slow. Make a hierarchy of your fears, and start exposing yourself to things that scare you but don’t overwhelm you. A therapist can help you with this.
• Learn how to relax your nervous system. When you feel the symptoms of anxiety and panic rise when confronted with fear, utilize these skills. Teach your body it’s okay to relax.
• Ask for support from loved ones. Request they encourage you to face your fears instead of enabling you to avoid them.
• Lessen overall stress. When you’re under a lot of chronic stress, you’re less likely to be resilient in the face of your fears.
  Keep going. The more you practice exposures, the easier they’ll become.

Holistic mental health treatment at The Center

A life without phobias is possible. The Center • A Place of HOPE offers holistic mental health treatment in the beautiful Puget Sound region of the Pacific Northwest to help people overcome anxiety disorders, including phobias. We’ve been doing this for decades, and our treatment programs have won awards.

Our holistic mental health treatment programs can help you heal on every level – physically, mentally, relationally, and spiritually – so you can not only overcome phobia but start to build the life you’ve always wanted.

Contact us for more information about our programs or to request treatment.

1 – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519704/table/ch3.t11/
2 – https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24757-phobias
3 – https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/agoraphobia
4 – https://obssr.od.nih.gov/sites/obssr/files/2021-11/BSSR%20Fact%20Sheet%20-%20Phobias%20-%20FINAL.pdf