Almost all phobias can be successfully treated and cured. Treating simple phobias involves gradually becoming exposed to the animal, object, place or situation that causes fear. This is known as desensitisation or self-exposure therapy.
Phobias persist for several years or even decades in 10–30% of cases, and are strongly predictive of onset of other anxiety, mood, and substance-use disorders.
As a child gets older, the nature and intensity of those fears often diminish, but sometimes the fears do follow us into adulthood.
Genetic factors.
Some people avoid the object or situation that triggers their phobia. But this can make your fear worse over time. Being in a scenario involving your phobia can be very difficult though. You may need professional help to enable you to do this.
1. Arachibutyrophobia (Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth) Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth.
“There's no need for anyone to continue to suffer,” he says. “People can overcome phobias.” Some phobias, such as the fear of snakes (ophiophobia), won't usually affect everyday life, but others, such as agoraphobia (the fear of open spaces), can make it very hard to lead a normal life.
Women develop specific phobias roughly twice as frequently as men. In addition, women tend to predominate in certain phobia categories.
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.
1. Acrophobia. Acrophobia is the fear of heights and it affects more than 6% of people. People who have acrophobia can have anxiety attacks, which causes them to avoid high places, such as bridges, towers, or tall buildings.
The most effective way to overcome a phobia is by gradually and repeatedly exposing yourself to what you fear in a safe and controlled way. During this exposure process, you'll learn to ride out the anxiety and fear until it inevitably passes.
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.
Use self-help resources
Some people use self-help books or online programmes to help cope with phobias. These are often based on principles of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). They will help you develop your own programme to reduce anxiety and make it easier to deal with your phobia triggers.
An estimated 12.5% of U.S. adults experience specific phobia at some time in their lives.
About 19 million Americans have one or more phobias that range from mild to severe. Phobias can happen in early childhood. But they are often first seen between ages 15 and 20. They affect both men and women equally.
Anxiety disorders affect nearly 1 in 5 adults in the United States. Women are more than twice as likely as men to get an anxiety disorder in their lifetime. Anxiety disorders are often treated with counseling, medicine, or a combination of both.
Around 7.7% to 12.5% of the population will experience a specific phobia in their lifetime.
Phobias are one of the most common mental illnesses in the United States. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH), approximately 12.5% of adults in the U.S. will deal with a specific phobia in their lifetime.1 Women are more likely to experience phobias than men.
For the majority of people with undiagnosed or untreated anxiety disorder, there are many negative consequences, for both the individual and society. These include disability, reduced ability to work leading to loss of productivity, and a high risk of suicide.
Simple phobias are fears about specific objects, animals, situations or activities. Some common examples include: dogs. spiders.
What is nyctophobia? Nyctophobia is an extreme fear of the dark. The name comes from the Greek word for night. Children and adults with nyctophobia may fear being alone in the dark.
What is algophobia? Algophobia is an extreme fear of physical pain. While nobody wants to experience pain, people with this phobia have intense feelings of worry, panic or depression at the thought of pain. The anxiety of algophobia can also make you more sensitive to pain.
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.