You get nervous every time you board a plane. You usually turn your head when having blood drawn, as you can’t stand the sight of the needle going into your arm, or the blood coming out. When you have to give a presentation, you often stay up late the night before, worried about how well the event will go. Depending on the degree of psychological distress that these experiences cause, you may be living with one of the common phobias that affect millions of Americans.
What Exactly Are Phobias?
Phobias are types of anxiety disorders. They are characterized by excessive worry and disproportionate fear related to certain experiences, circumstances, and situations.
There is no single cause of phobias. Your risk of developing one of these conditions can be influenced by a variety of genetic (hereditary) and environmental (experiential) factors.
List of the Most Common Phobias
The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) includes entries for three phobia-related anxiety disorders:
- Social anxiety disorder (social phobia)
- Agoraphobia
- Specific phobia
As we will discuss throughout the rest of this section, this deceptively brief list of phobias includes a broad scope of conditions, all of which can be sources of persistent, overwhelming, and even life-altering psychological distress.
We’ll begin with social anxiety disorder, or social phobia.
The symptoms of this condition are related to situations where you may be observed by others, judged negatively, and rejected.
Situations that can trigger the onset of social phobia symptoms include:
- Dining in a restaurant or eating with a group of people
- Giving a speech or presentation
- Meeting someone new
- Having a conversation with someone you don’t know well
Circumstances like the ones listed above are common sources of nervousness or “butterflies.” But if you have social phobia, your emotional distress can be so severe that it undermines your ability to function at work, in school, or in other important areas of life.
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) estimates that about 7.1% of the adult population in the United States (or about 18.3 million people ages 18 and above) had symptoms of social phobia in the previous 12 months.
Agoraphobia is a location-based disorder. If you have this condition, you will be extremely fearful or worried about being in the following types of situations:
- Riding in a car, bus, train, or other form of public transportation
- Being in a parking lot, on a bridge, or in another wide-open space
- Being in a store, theater, or other enclosed space
- Standing in a line or being amid a crowd of other people
- Leaving your home by yourself
For many people with agoraphobia, the fears that these situations bring about are related to a deep concern that they will be unable to escape or get help if a crisis occurs, or if they have a panic attack.
The NIMH reports that about 1.3% of U.S. adults (or about 3.3 million people) will develop agoraphobia at some point in their lifetime.
Specific phobia involves intense fear or anxiety when in the presence of (or even thinking about) certain objects or situations.
It would be virtually impossible to create a comprehensive list of phobias that fall into this category, but the following are examples of some of the more common ones:.
- Arachnophobia: Fear of spiders
- Acrophobia: Fear of heights
- Aerophobia: Fear of flying
- Ailurophobia: Fear of cats
- Aquaphobia: Fear of water
- Cynophobia: Fear of dogs
- Claustrophobia: Fear of enclosed spaces
- Hemophobia: Fear of blood, which can include seeing your own or someone else’s blood
- Mysophobia: Fear of germs, contamination, or infection
- Trypanophobia: Fear of needles or injections
- Zoophobia: Fear of animals
NIMH data indicates that about 9.1% of adults in the U.S. had symptoms of specific phobia in the previous 12 months. The past year prevalence of specific phobia is more than twice as high among women (12.2%) than among men (5.8%).
How Are Phobias Treated?
Treatment for phobias can involve a variety of elements and occur at several levels.
If you have been enduring severe symptoms that have caused considerable disruption, you may be best served in an inpatient or residential program, where you can benefit from full days of structured care as well as round-the-clock support.
After completing inpatient or residential care, you may then step down to a partial hospitalization program (PHP) or an intensive outpatient program (IOP) for continued support as you prepare to transition out of treatment.
The PHP and IOP levels may also be ideal starting points if your symptoms aren’t severe enough to require 24/7 care and support.
Within these various levels of care, treatment for many common phobias often involves a combination of medication and therapy.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved sertraline (Zoloft), venlafaxine (Effexor), and paroxetine (Paxil) to treat social phobia. Physicians may also prescribe certain antidepressants and anxiolytics (anti-anxiety meds) on an off-label basis to patients who have agoraphobia or specific phobia, depending on the nature and severity of their symptoms.
Whether or not you receive medication, you will likely need therapy to help you manage your symptoms and regain control of your life.
Types of Therapy for Phobias
- Individual psychotherapy
- Group therapy
- Family therapy
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)
- Exposure therapy
- Virtual reality exposure therapy
If your phobia is related to a traumatic experience from your past, services such as eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy may also be included in your treatment.
Personalization is an essential element of effective treatment for patients who have been living with phobias or other mental health concerns. Services that are extremely helpful to one person may be ineffective for someone else.
This is why it is so important to find a treatment provider who will work closely with you to identify the full scope of your needs and understand how your phobia has affected your life. A reputable and effective provider will use this information to develop a customized plan just for you.
To learn more about phobia treatment in Southern California, or to schedule a free assessment, please visit our Contact page or call Montare Behavioral Health today.
