Fear is a normal emotion within us all. It is related to the survival instinct. It alerts us to a threat, and prepares us for action – either ‘fight or flight’.

When a fear is said to be ‘irrational’ or illogical, absurd, nonsensical, or ridiculous – we call it a ‘phobia’. There are three types of phobias;

agoraphobia (such as large, open spaces where there are few ‘places to hide’),
social phobia (such as fear of other people, performance anxiety etc), and
specific phobias (such as spiders, snakes, dogs, water, insects, flying, heights, confined spaces etc).

Somewhere between 10 – 20 percent of people suffer from at least one significant phobia. It is the most common mental disorder among women and the second most common in men worldwide.

The feeling of fear may be accompanied by heart palpitations, ‘cold sweats’, clammy hands, ‘butterfly stomach’ sensations, dizziness, and an overwhelming need to ‘run away’ and ‘escape’. This is often, but not always accompanied by feelings of intense ‘worry’ or ‘anxiety’.

When confronted with the feared situation, the sufferer may even have a ‘panic attack’, the spontaneous onset of intense fear that makes them feel as if they might stop breathing and pass out, or even have a heart attack and die.

The Phobia List - Peter Zapfella