A-Z Phobias: Causes, Symptoms, Treatments

A phobia is a persistent, irrational fear that causes a person to feel intense anxiety. People develop phobias about many things like darkness, social situations, spiders, or blood. Agoraphobia, one of the most common phobias, involves the fear of open places. A person with agoraphobia feels anxious in places where it would be hard to escape, like being in a crowd, standing in line, being on a bridge or traveling in a car. In extreme cases, they are so immobilized by fear that they become a prisoner in their own home. In some people, the response to a phobia can be fairly mild. For example, a person who has a phobia about flying might simply avoid airplanes. In other people, the phobia causes, or arises from, full-blown panic attacks with symptoms such as shortness of breath, sweating, irregular heartbeats and the shakes. Just why a person develops a particular phobia is not always clear. There appear to be both biological and psychological reasons. Psychologists classify phobias with other anxiety-caused problems and theorize they are a response to separation or loss. Heredity appears to play a role, and so does brain chemistry. There are several physical conditions, like minor heart problems and thyroid disease, that are sometimes seen in agoraphobic people. There is lots of interesting research being done nowadays, and many people can get help for the problem.

A
Air - Aerophobia
Animals - Zoophobia
Auroral lights - Auroraphobia

B
Bacteria - Bacteriophobia
Beards - Pogonophobia
Bees - Apiphobia or melissophobia
Being afraid - Phobophobia
Being alone - Autophobia or monophobia
Being beaten - Rhabdophobia
Being bound - Merinthophobia
Being buried alive - Taphophobia
Being dirty - Automysophobia
Being egotistical - Autophobia
Being scratched - Amychophobia
Being stared at - Scopophobia
Birds - Ornithophobia
Blood - Hematophobia
Blushing - Ereuthophobia
Books - Bibliophobia