In the end, they are all phobias, but this disorder also has its typology. Faced with social phobias and generalized phobias, there are specific phobias, which are the most frequent. Most of the phobias we have heard about and those others that surprise us are actually a specific phobia disorder; do you want to know what it is?
Examples of Specific Phobia
To understand what a specific phobia disorder is, there is nothing better than explaining it with examples. The theory says that it is an anxiety disorder that causes an irrational and excessive fear of certain specific stimuli. Objects, situations, animals, or even abstractions that don’t seem so specific can trigger this type of phobia.
1 Specific phobia of natural phenomena
There are people who feel panic in the face of certain natural manifestations or meteorological phenomena such as brontophobia (fear of the storm), xylophobia (fear of wood) or ombrophobia (fear of rain).
2 Animal phobia
The animal world is also the origin of many specific phobias. Although disorders such as arachnophobia (fear of spiders) or ophidiophobia (fear of snakes) do not surprise us too much, gynophobia (fear of dogs) or ailurophobe (fear of cats) is stranger to us.
3 Phobia of situations
Perhaps the most abundant are the phobias related to certain situations that we can experience more or less habitually. Well-known are aerophobia (fear of flying) or claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces). But ablutophobia (fear of washing), clinophobia (fear of sleeping) or thermo phobia (fear of heat) also fall within this type of specific phobias.
4 Phobias of the human body
Then there is another phobia-generating field that is the human body. We could frame here hematophobia (fear of blood) and also emetophobia (fear of vomiting). Some parts of the body can also cause phobia such as hydrophobia (fear of hands) or phonophobia (fear of feet). And what about dinophobia or the fear of wrinkles?
5 Other specific phobias
Since specific phobia disorder is itself already a classification, there are some phobias that we cannot subfield. We would not know where to place coulrophobia (fear of clowns), musophobia (fear of dirt) or acrophobia (fear of the ugly).
When to treat a specific phobia?
And there are more specific phobias. We could say that the list is infinite, but that can also be a reason for phobia, as is the case with apeirophobia. There is also a phobia of foods such as cheese, which is reported by thurophobia, but in any case, they all belong to the specific phobia disorder type and must be overcome.
You might think that some specific phobias don’t interfere with your personal life. For example, if you have hoplophobia (fear of weapons) it is unlikely that you will notice the symptoms and consequences of the phobia because you do not have a weapon in front of you every day. It is possible that you can go your whole life without seeing a weapon and without noticing the consequences of the phobia.
But this does not mean that it should not be treated since the appearance of a phobia is related to the anxiety disorder and in that case, sooner or later you will begin to notice how it is negatively influencing your life. Swift whatever it is seeks professional help as soon as possible.