Fears and phobias

Agoraphobia
Closely related to specific phobia, agoraphobia is the sometimes overwhelming fear of situations and places that may be difficult to escape.

If you have agoraphobia, you’re likely to avoid any settings that bring on these feelings of panic, such as being outside of the house alone or being in a crowd.

In some cases, this condition can make it harder to leave home, which could impact day-to-day life for some people.

Social anxiety disorder can impact functioning in your workplace, school, or social events. Concern over breaking social norms, offending others, or coming across in a negative light can cause many people with social anxiety disorder to avoid these situations altogether.

Even doing everyday activities, like eating or drinking in front of people, talking to a cashier, or using a public restroom can cause intense anxiety if you have social anxiety.

Social anxiety disorder
If you have social anxiety disorder, social situations can cause intense anxiety. You may fear being judged negatively by the people around you, or worry about blushing, sweating, or stumbling over words.

Some common — and less common — phobias include:

achluophobia: fear of darkness
acrophobia: fear of heights
aerophobia: fear of flying
aquaphobia: fear of water
belonephobia: fear of needles
claustrophobia: fear of enclosed spaces
coulrophobia: fear of clowns
cynophobia: fear of dogs
dentophobia: fear of dentists

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), specific phobias are typically broken down into five subcategories:

Blood, injection, and injury. Includes fear of needles, blood, or wounds.
Natural environment. Includes fear of heights, natural disasters, the dark, or water.
Animals. Includes fear of dogs, cats, snakes, spiders, birds, sharks, and other animals.
Situational. Includes fear of being in an enclosed space, flying, or using public transportation.
Other. Includes fear of objects or situations that don’t fit in any of the other categories.

Specific phobia
About 19 million adults in the United States live with a specific phobia, making it the most common phobia diagnosis.

If you have a specific phobia, you may have strong feelings of anxiety or panic to a specific stimulus. These feelings can make it difficult (and sometimes impossible) to function as usual.

Women tend to show more intense signs of phobia and are more likely to have multiple types of anxiety disorders. But men with phobias are more likely to experience problems with substance use than women.

Curiously, rates of phobias are consistently highestTrusted Source in the United States than in other countries. This could be explained by cultural differences or diagnostic testing catered to Americans. More research into the differing rates of phobias by country is needed.

Phobias typically develop during childhoodTrusted Source or the teen years, though this isn’t always the case. Older adults could develop phobias as a result of specific experiences or medical conditions.

Women are more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with a specific phobia. Though the data is less consistent, ratesTrusted Source of social anxiety disorder also appear to be higher in women, while prevalenceTrusted Source of agoraphobia is similar across the sexes.

Are phobias common?
Phobias are the most common types of anxiety disorders in the United States.

The estimated prevalence of specific phobia in the United States varies by study. But generally, between 7–12.5%Trusted Source of adults may live with a specific phobia.

About 6.8% of adults live with social anxiety disorder, though new studiesTrusted Source suggest the actual number could be much higher.

About 1.3%Trusted Source of U.S. adults experience agoraphobia.

Though plenty of people would be startled or even shriek at the sight of a snake slithering across their foot, not everyone would feel this fear holds them back or impairs them.

Someone with a true phobia of snakes would feel intense anxiety when snakes might be present or avoid the situation altogether.

If you have a phobia, you could experience physical symptoms like:

rapid heartbeat
shortness of breath
panic
tremors
sweating
nausea

Phobia, unlike fear, is defined by:

intense and excessive anxiety about a feared object or situation
feeling as if fear of the object or situation is holding you back
avoiding the feared object or situation

FearsTrusted Source are:

an emotional response to a real or perceived threat
experienced by everyone at some point
part of how we protect ourselves
both emotional and physical