Phobias

The most common phobia is fear of public speaking, followed closely by fear of flying. A lot of fears and phobias stem from times in our lives when we are naturally very suggestible, such as childhood. Some things can seem more threatening as a child and our subconscious mind deals with this by trying to keep us away from these threats.

One way your subconscious mind does this is by creating a feeling of panic or anxiety such as you may feel when boarding a plane. You are also very suggestible when in a heightened state of emotion such as fear. So if you have an unpleasant experience on an aeroplane, like severe turbulence you can become fearful and thus suggestible. It is estimated that between 10% and 20% of the population have phobias. Statistically, far more women suffer from phobias than men.

Common Phobias

The most common phobias known are:

Other common phobias are fear of:

Phobias at face value seem like fear or even extreme fear; however they can be more accurately described as irrational fears. Most people who are phobic are intellectually aware that the fear they feel does not make any rational sense. The person who is afraid of flying knows that the plane will not crash, or is not likely to crash. Arachnophobia, the fear of spiders, is another phobia that defies logic. It doesn't make sense that a 175-pound human is fearful of a spider weighing less than a gram, but it does not have to make sense, remember—it is irrational.

Specific vs Social Phobias

A "specific phobia" is fear of a particular object or situation. This is different from a "social phobia," which is the fear of being painfully embarrassed in a social setting. An example of this distinction would be the fear of heights (specific) vs. a fear of public speaking (social). Both are irrational fears in reaction to a situation, but as you will learn, they are rather different in origin. A specific phobia is usually event driven. This means that there was a time when the person did not feel afraid, but then suddenly something happened to in-still fear.  A person who is afraid of heights, for example, was more than likely in a place of great relative height and was either hurt (e.g., a baby falling from a high chair) or put in a position of almost being hurt.  Being put in a similar situation recreates the feelings and sense of fear experienced in the original situation. This is generally true of specific phobias.

Social phobias are a bit different. They are usually a conditioned response to social environments, developed over a period of time. For example, we have found that people who are afraid of public speaking were raised in very judgmental environments. Over time, the absence of encouragement and the threat of being embarrassed by someone perceived as powerful—many times a parent or teacher—will produce the fear. Most social phobias have their roots in some esteem related issue. If you suffer from a social phobia you have an intense fear of being humiliated in a social situation, specifically of embarrassing yourself in front of other people. Social phobias often begin around early adolescence or even younger. Social-phobic reactions lead a person to feel uniquely incompetent in social situations, and to believe that other people are very competent in the same settings. Small mistakes are exaggerated to seem more important than they really are. Blushing itself may seem painfully embarrassing, and the person feels that all eyes are upon them. The most common social phobia is fear of public speaking, but social phobias can also involve a general fear of all social situations such as parties and meetings. This condition should not be confused with shyness, as they are not the same thing. You can be shy and uneasy in social environments, but if you lack the extreme anxiety and sense of dread associated with the event, you are not experiencing a social phobia.