Your phobia may develop from factors in your childhood environment. For example you might have parents or guardians who are very worried or anxious. This may affect how you cope with anxiety in later life. You might develop the same specific phobia as a parent or older sibling.
We are born with only two innate fears: the fear of falling and the fear of loud sounds. A 1960 study evaluated depth perception among 6- to14-month-old infants, as well as young animals.
Fear can be innate or learned. Examples of innate fear include fears that are triggered by predators, pain, heights, rapidly approaching objects, and ancestral threats such as snakes and spiders.
Many phobias start because of a bad experience or panic attack related to a specific object or situation. Sometimes even seeing or hearing about a bad experience can be enough to trigger a phobia. Genetics or learned behavior. There may be a link between your specific phobia and the phobia or anxiety of your parents.
Answer and Explanation: Humans are born with two fears, the fear of loud noises and the fear of falling. When an infant hears a loud and unexpected noise, the infant generally experiences an acoustic startle reflex and starts crying.
1) Arachnophobia – fear of spiders
Arachnophobia is the most common phobia – sometimes even a picture can induce feelings of panic. And lots of people who aren't phobic as such still avoid spiders if they can.
Experiencing long-term stress.
Stress can cause feelings of anxiety and depression. It can reduce your ability to cope in particular situations. This might make you feel more fearful or anxious about being in those situations again. Over a long period, this could develop into a phobia.
A phobia can develop during childhood, adolescence or early adulthood. They can be linked to a frightening event or stressful situation. However, it's not always clear why some phobias occur.
As we age, we produce much less adrenaline, which can cause racing hearts and dizziness. This means the intense fears we may have experienced in youth no longer trouble us as much. However, older people often experience a greater sense of vulnerability, so things like heights or big crowds become more of an issue.
True fearlessness actually does exist, however. It's an effect of an extremely rare disease called Urbach-Wiethe. Only about 400 people have ever been recorded with the condition. Symptoms include a hoarse voice and small bumps around the eyes, as well as calcium deposits in the brain.
Between 8 and 12 months of age—around the same time they understand the meaning of a fearful face—babies begin to produce fearful expressions and other fear-based behaviors, like clinging to a parent, making distressed sounds, or turning away.
As they grow and learn, with the support of adults, most kids are able to slowly conquer these fears and outgrow them. Some kids are more sensitive to fears and may have a tough time overcoming them. When fears last beyond the expected age, it might be a sign that someone is overly fearful, worried, or anxious.
Family Studies Suggest a Genetic Link
If a family member has a phobia, you are at an increased risk for a phobia as well. In general, relatives of someone with a specific anxiety disorder are most likely to develop the same disorder.
(Note: There are five core fears, or “universal themes of loss,” that capture the basic interpretations of danger that we all make. They are 1) fear of abandonment, 2) loss of identity, 3) loss of meaning, 4) loss of purpose and 5) fear of death, including the fear of sickness and pain.)
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the fear of long words. Understanding the phobia can help you overcome it and live a fulfilling life. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is one of the longest words in the dictionary, and ironically, it means the fear of long words.
Most phobias can be treated successfully. Simple phobias can be treated through gradual exposure to the object, animal, place or situation that causes fear and anxiety. This is known as desensitisation or self-exposure therapy.
A person may develop a phobia of any type of situation or thing. Because of this, there are hundreds of different phobias that people may experience.
Dogs, heights, tunnels, darkness, water, flying, and injuries involving blood are a few of the more common irrational fears. While PTSD is always caused by a traumatic event, specific phobia can result from either a traumatic event (experiential-specific phobia) or not (nonexperiential-specific phobia).
Phobias can limit your daily activities and may cause severe anxiety and depression. Complex phobias, such as agoraphobia and social phobia, are more likely to cause these symptoms.
Phobias and the brain
Individuals who suffer from phobias have been shown to display increased activity of the amygdala when exposed to phobia-inducing stimuli, noted on functional MRI. The amygdala is known to be associated with emotional reactions.
More than 60 per cent of Australians fear public spaces or large crowds.
2. Trypophobia: Fear of Circle Clusters. Although this common phobia could come off silly at first, many people have a very real struggle with trypophobia. There are many theories of what causes trypophobia, most of which point toward human evolution.