There are two biological and evolutionary fears that we are all born with: a fear of falling and fear of loud noises.
Phobias are born when a person begins to organise their life around avoiding the thing that they are afraid of.
Phobias are psychological and a learned response in the brain and can be defined as a fear of a fear, an extreme reaction to fear triggered by a stimulus or a one time faulty learning.
They are very common: in UK alone 10 million people have a phobia (NHS Choices 2012). Estimates of the proportion of people who are likely to experience a specific anxiety disorder during their lifetime are 12.5% for specific phobias compared to 4-10% for major depression.
Types of phobias:
There are many known single phobias, such as acrophobia, agoraphobia, anthrophobia, achlophobia, aquaphobia, astraphobia, aviaphobia, bacteriaphobia, prontophobia, claustrophobia, hematophobia, glossophobia, mysophobia, nomophobia, ophidiophobia, panaphobia, xenophobia, zoophobia and so on, however they can be divided into two main cathegories:
Simple Phobias – fears about specific objects, animals, situations or activities, such as:
Dogs, spiders, snakes, enclosed spaces, doctor or dentists, flying, heights etc
Simple phobias usually start during early childhood and often disapper on their own as the child gets older.
Complex Phobias
Complex phobias tend to be more disabling than simple phobias as they are often associated with deep-rooted fear or anxiety, such as with agoraphobia or social phobia.
Complex phobias usually start later in life. Although the exact causes of complex phobias are ofen unknown, it is thought that genetics, brain chemistry and life expererience may all play a part.