Fear is the instinctive reaction that we feel before an object or a situation that is a threat to our integrity. Therefore, fear is necessary. The problem is when this becomes irrational and illogical. At that time, it is considered to have become a phobia.
But how many and what are the most common fears and phobias? What fears are the ones that have the most people in suspense? We delve into the different phobias to let you know all their details.
How many phobias are there?
It is very difficult, or almost impossible, to determine how any object or situation can cause a person in the world to develop fear for it. For example, there are those for whom cats are the most adorable creatures on the planet, but for those who suffer from ailurophobe (phobia of kittens) they cause a lot of anxiety.
As there are phobias of any kind (to loneliness, happiness, animals, insects, air, and lack of air…) they cannot be counted.
The most common phobias
A large percentage of the population suffers from some in greater or lesser intensity. These are some of the most common.
1 Arachnophobia is a very common fear.
Many people are afraid, but some take this fear to an extreme and are unable to stay in a place where a spider has been or could be. At the mere imagination of an arachnid or a spider web, he begins to feel great anxiety. Therefore, it is a specific phobia that occurs when exposed, both physically or mentally, to the element that causes panic.
Arachnophobia is one of the most widespread phobias and tends to affect women more than men. Normally, the fear of spiders is caused by some type of past traumatic experience. It can cause a phobia, for example, a painful bite of oneself or someone you know, but also a scary movie in which spiders appear.
However, there are experts who also point to genetics as the cause of this phobia. And it is that, throughout history, spiders have always been seen as fearsome and dangerous creatures for the human species due to their poison.
2 What is belonephobia?
Belonephobia is the irrational fear of needles. Although nobody likes to undergo injections, the when the fear becomes uncontrollable and conditions the way you live.
People suffering from belonephobia feel anxiety when they see (or imagine) a needle. But fear also tends to extend to other elements or situations related to injections: hospitals, nurses, dentists, health, surgical interventions, etc. Even, in certain cases, fear also includes other sharp objects such as pins or broken glass.
Among the most common symptoms are anxiety, panic attacks, confusion, lack of concentration, sweating, dizziness, nausea, headache or stomach ache, muscle stiffness, etc. In the case of belonephobia, also fainting, the same as with hematophobia, since they are two phobias that often come hand in hand.
3 Claustrophobia is very common
Those who are Claus trophic feel anxious when they are in closed spaces, especially if they are small and dark. In most cases, you feel terror of what might happen when you are in this place, more than the space itself. In these cases, they cannot avoid letting themselves be carried away by negative thoughts and considering different catastrophic situations that could happen.
This type offer and ends up conditioning and limiting the life of the person who suffers from it. For example, you will stop going to tall buildings because you are afraid of taking an elevator, but you will also avoid all those plans that involve taking the subway.
4 What is acrophobia
Fear of heights helps us to be cautious and activate our alert radar when we are at risk of falling. However, in the case of some people, it can become a phobia known as acrophobia. Those who suffer from it are afraid to climb a ladder, prefer not to go up to a rooftop or are afraid to look out the window of a tall building.
However, acrophobia is not exactly the same as vertigo. The first refers to an irrational panic reaction taking into account the stimulus in front of it. However, vertigo is related to the feeling of dizziness or lack of balance that is perceived when the objects around us seem to move.
5 Nyctophobia and its most common symptoms
Nyctophobia is the fear of the night or the dark. Although it may not seem like it, it is a common phobia beyond children. Those who suffer from it feel a lot of nerves, anxiety and panic when the light goes out. This phobia is also known as scotophobia, chlorophobia or dinophobia.
Those who suffer from it come to alter their daily routines to avoid having to face the dark: they sleep with the lights on, avoid places that could be without light, never leave the house after sunset, etc. In the most serious cases, it can cause social isolation and depression, so it is important to seek treatment early.
6 Brontophobia or the fear of lightning
Photophobia, which is also known as astraphobia, astraphobia, ceraunophobia or tonitrophobia, corresponds to the terror of lightning. In most cases, it is not the electric shock itself that is scary, but the possibility of being hit by it. It is common for anxiety to develop in the face of thunder, lightning, storms, tempests, and even rain due to the possibility that any of these phenomena may be accompanied by lightning.
Like any other type of specific phobia, that is, one that is felt by a specific object or situation, there those related to an anxiety attack: sweating, nausea, nerves, tachycardia, etc. Many of the specialists agree that the best way to overcome this fear of storms is gradually exposing the person who suffers from brontophobia to the feared stimulus.
7 Aerophobia or fear of airplanes
Aerophobia is the irrational fear of flying or airplanes. In this case, it can be a phobia itself or the union of several such as claustrophobia (due to the fear of being in a closed place such as an airplane) or acrophobia (terror of heights).
Many people feel nervous when getting on a plane, since it is an unusual sensation. But it is only considered aerophobia when the symptoms of fear cannot be controlled. As a consequence, life is very limited since, for example, you who live in other countries or you cannot participate in business trips.
8 What is agoraphobia?
When a person feels an irrational fear of situations that they cannot avoid or in which they could not be attended to if they needed help, they may suffer from agoraphobia. Among the most feared circumstances: staying home alone, being in a large crowd, making a fool of you, taking public transport, etc.
It is common for one of the main causes of this disorder to be a bad experience in the past. After suffering an unpleasant episode, a phobia develops that, if left untreated, could increasingly.
9 Find out what gynophobia is like
Not everyone can understand gynophobia, which corresponds to the irrational fear of dogs. In most cases, panic begins to develop in childhood after having a fright with a dog. This could be due to a bite, a too loud bark, a sad memory…
Some people are afraid of all (regardless of their size or breed), while other people only fear pets with certain characteristics. This is because each one associates their phobia with the circumstances of the traumatic event that caused it.
10 Hematophobia and its terrors
Hematophobia, the fear of blood, is also one of the most common phobias worldwide. In this case, the vision or imagination of a single drop of blood causes an anxiety attack and even fainting.
Luckily, like any other type of phobia, hematophobia has a solution, but it is necessary to go to a mental health expert to undergo the appropriate treatment.