Phobia meaning

A phobia is when you have intense or even overpowering fear and anxiety in certain situations or when you encounter certain objects. While phobias can involve the same things as ordinary fears, the effects of phobias are more severe. In the most severe cases, people with phobias critically limit their lives to avoid encountering what they fear. Overview What are phobias? A phobia is when something causes you to feel fear or anxiety that’s so severe it consistently and overwhelmingly disrupts your life. Phobias are a type of anxiety disorder, and there’s one diagnosis for almost all of them: specific phobia. Only one phobia, When you aren’t in a situation that directly involves your phobia, you can recognize that the fear is much more severe than it should be. But knowing that doesn’t change how you feel. If you encounter something that triggers your phobia, you’ll feel overwhelming fear or anxiety. You might be able to keep functioning, but doing so will be extremely difficult. How many different phobias are there? Because phobias, including the feelings of fear or anxiety they cause, affect everyone differently, there’s no set number of fears. However, experts group fears into five main categories: Category Examples of phobias Animals. Alligators, dogs, snakes. Natural environment. Heights, storms, water. Blood, medical procedures or injuries. Needles, sharp objects, pain. Situations. Driving, flying, enclosed spaces. Other. Children, choking, clowns. The most common phob...

• Social phobias: Now known as social anxiety disorder, this phobia is marked by a fear of social situations in which a person might be judged or embarrassed. • Agoraphobia: This phobia involves an irrational and extreme fear of being in places where escape is difficult. It may involve a fear of crowded places or even of leaving one's home. • Specific phobias: When people talk about having a phobia of a specific object such as snakes, spiders, or needles, they are referring to a One important thing to remember is that virtually any object can become a fear object. The names of specific phobias are often formed as nonce words, or words coined for a single occasion only. These names themselves are often formed by taking a Greek prefix that represents the fear object and adding the -phobia suffix. Because of this, any attempt at a completely exhaustive list of phobias would be a futile exercise. Any list of phobias could grow with the addition of newly coined terms for previously unnamed specific phobias. This video has been medically reviewed by A • Ablutophobia: Fear of bathing • Achluophobia:Fear of darkness • Acrophobia: Fear of heights • Aerophobia: Fear of flying • Algophobia: Fear of pain • Agoraphobia: Fear of open spaces or crowds • Aichmophobia: Fear of needles or pointed objects • Amaxophobia: Fear of riding in a car • Androphobia: Fear of men • Anemophobia: Fear of air • Anginophobia: Fear of angina or choking • Angrophobia: Fear of anger • Anthrophobia: Fear of f...

This article is about the clinical psychology. For other uses, see A phobia is an Phobia The Fear of an object or situation Usual onset Rapid Duration More than six months Types Causes Genetic and environmental factors Treatment Frequency Specific phobias: ~5% Social phobia: ~5% Agoraphobia: ~2% Phobias can be divided into It is recommended that specific phobias be treated with Specific phobias affect about 6–8% of people in the Contents • 1 Classification • 1.1 ICD-11 • 1.2 DSM-5 • 2 Causes • 2.1 Environmental • 2.1.1 Classical conditioning • 2.1.2 Vicarious conditioning • 2.1.3 Informational/Instructional acquisition • 2.2 Genetic • 3 Mechanism • 3.1 Limbic system • 3.1.1 Amygdala • 3.1.1.1 Disruption by damage • 4 Diagnosis • 4.1 Specific phobias • 5 Treatments • 5.1 Therapy • 5.2 Systematic desensitization • 5.3 Medications • 5.3.1 Antidepressants • 5.3.2 Benzodiazepines • 5.3.3 Beta-blockers • 5.4 Hypnotherapy • 6 Prognosis • 6.1 Specific phobia • 6.2 Comorbidities • 7 Epidemiology • 8 Society and culture • 8.1 Terminology • 8.2 Non-medical, deterrent and political use • 8.3 Popular culture • 8.3.1 Movies • 8.3.2 Television shows • 9 Research directions • 10 See also • 11 References • 12 External links Classification Fear is an emotional response to a current perceived danger. This differs from anxiety which is a response in preparation of a future threat. Fear and anxiety often can overlap but this distinction can help identify subtle differences between disorders, a...

• I have a dreadful fear of heights. • She fled from the attacker in terror. • The thought of giving a speech filled me with dread. • I don't want to cause you any alarm, but there's a rattlesnake in the path ahead of you. • The family ran from their home in fright when the earthquake struck. • Panic spread through the crowd when someone shouted "Fire!"

Noun Fortunately, there is a way to overcome your phobias. — Manasee Wagh, Popular Mechanics, 2 Mar. 2023 Sajak, 76, went on to ask if Ashley's fish phobia began in her childhood. — Charmaine Patterson, Peoplemag, 14 Mar. 2023 Eventually, the two decided her phobia stemmed from watching a movie that featured a snake. — Carina Woudenberg, Discover Magazine, 3 Dec. 2021 In some contexts, some leaders and some countries try to actually push buttons and trigger phobias. — CBS News, 29 Mar. 2023 These things are happening everywhere now, like these sorts of oppressions and phobias have become much more open. — Grant Sharples, SPIN, 9 Mar. 2023 People with irrational phobias expect Society to bend around them. — Jacobina Martin, Washington Post, 4 Mar. 2023 There’s no specific treatment beyond the therapy or anti-anxiety medications a doctor might prescribe for any other phobia. — Sarah Leupen, The Conversation, 5 Apr. 2023 There was literally this phobia. — Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 27 July 2022 See More These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'phobia.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.

A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder that causes an individual to experience extreme, irrational fear about a situation, living creature, place, or object. When a person has a phobia, they will often shape their lives to avoid what they consider to be dangerous. The imagined threat is greater than any actual threat posed by the cause of terror. Phobias are diagnosable mental disorders. The person will experience intense distress when faced with the source of their phobia. This can prevent them from functioning normally and sometimes leads to In the United States, approximately Share on Pinterest Image credit: PeopleImages / istock A phobia is an exaggerated and irrational fear. The term ‘phobia’ is often used to refer to a fear of one particular trigger. However, there are three types of phobia recognized by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). These include: Specific phobia: This is an intense, irrational fear of a specific trigger. Social phobia, or Agoraphobia: This is a fear of situations from which it would be difficult to escape if a person were to experience extreme panic, such being in a lift or being outside of the home. It is commonly misunderstood as a fear of open spaces but could also apply to being confined in a small space, such as an elevator, or being on public transport. People with Specific phobias are known as simple phobias as they can be linked to an identifiable cause that may not frequently occur in the everyday life of an individual, such ...

What are phobias? A phobia is an excessive and irrational fear reaction. If you have a phobia, you may experience a deep sense of dread or panic when you encounter the source of your fear. The fear can be of a certain place, situation, or object. Unlike general anxiety disorders, a phobia is usually connected to something specific. The impact of a phobia can range from annoying to severely disabling. People with phobias often realize their fear is irrational, but they’re unable to do anything about it. Such fears can interfere with work, school, and personal relationships. An estimated Genetic and environmental factors can cause phobias. Children who have a close relative with an People with ongoing medical conditions or health concerns often have phobias. There’s a high incidence of people developing phobias after Phobias have different symptoms from serious mental illnesses such as Many people dislike certain situations or objects, but to be a true phobia, the fear must interfere with daily life. Here are a few more of the most common ones: Glossophobia: This is known as performance anxiety, or the fear of speaking in front of an audience. People with this phobia have severe physical symptoms when they even think about being in front of a group of people. < Acrophobia: This is the fear of heights. People with this phobia avoid mountains, bridges, or the higher floors of buildings. Symptoms include Claustrophobia: This is a fear of enclosed or tight spaces. Severe claustr...