Types of phobias: exploring fear disorders

What kinds of phobias exist and how do they differ from each other?

Phobias have long been a part of the collective unconscious in the West.. Even those who have never experienced a phobia in any of its forms know that human beings are capable of developing an irrational fear of practically everything that can be perceived or imagined: clowns, spiders, specific colors, etc. But... would it not be more appropriate to speak of types of phobias than of "phobias" as if they formed a single unit?

This is precisely what makes phobias such an interesting subject: there are as many of them as there are elements in our habitat and our cultures. In other words, they are practically infiniteIt is always surprising to see to what extent there can be people who at a certain moment in their lives develop an atrocious fear of things, ideas or living beings that can hardly be described as dangerous. For example, in this article you have some examples of strange phobias.

What are the types of phobias that exist?

That variety makes it difficult to make a "mental map" of phobias and to know which are the most common ones.. In reality, it is impossible to have access to a totally exhaustive and detailed classification of phobias, because the variety of phobias is very possibly infinite, and therefore it is useless to pretend to create an exhaustive classification with all the types of phobias: there will always be some that will be out of the schemes. Anything or any thought is prone to generate an irrational fear under certain circumstances.

However, it is possible to trace general classifications of the types of phobias. They may not be perfect or totally exhaustive, but at least they are useful and give a rough idea of how these irrational fears are usually expressed. Thus, a classification of types of phobias that includes the most common ones could be the one we offer below.

1. Specific phobias

The types of phobias that belong to the category of specific phobias have in common that that which generates fear is a situation, object or concrete being. That is, something that can be easily identified and separated from the rest. In addition, the DSM IV manual distinguishes between five subtypes of specific phobias: those related to Blood and injections, phobias triggered by animals, those related to natural environments, situational phobias and the category "other specific phobias".

Some examples of rare disorders that can be included in this type of phobia are ligirophobia, or fear of loud sounds, crystallophobia, or fear of crystals, or cardiophobia, or fear of vascular accidents such as heart attacks. However, in the following lines we will focus on the most common and well-known phobias.

1.1. Phobia of animals, or zoophobia

Here we would include all those phobias related to living beings with a worse image, such as spiders or snakes, but technically it can be technically framed as a phobia of animals.However, technically, any of those types of phobias whose triggering stimulus is an animal, whether it is a hummingbird, a raccoon, a crab or any of the possibilities that evolution offers us, can technically be included in this category.

Three specific types of phobias in this category that deserve honorable mention because they are so common are ophidiophobia, arachnophobia and cynophobia, snake phobia, spider phobia and dog phobia, respectively. It may be useful in certain cases to have a certain respect for these animals because of their ability to harm us, but of course spiders and dogs are numerous enough to make being too afraid of them very counterproductive.

Other examples of animal phobia are found in anxiety disorders such as musophobia, or fear of mice, as well as in hypophobia or escolechophobia.

1.2. Blood phobia, or hematophobia

One of the great classics and which, according to some studies, seems to be one of the most common types of phobias. However, blood phobia has a special feature that distinguishes it from the rest: it often leads to fainting.. You can read more on this subject in the article dedicated to this phenomenon.

1.3. Natural environment phobias

1.3.1. Acrophobia, or fear of heights

The fact of being at a greater or lesser height with respect to the place that we perceive as "ground" or base of the place where we have climbed has an obvious relationship with the danger to which we expose ourselves. The greater the height, the greater the risk of death in the event of a fall. However, sometimes the fear of heights can be so severe and incapacitating that it can be considered a type of phobia related to the natural environment. related to the natural environment. This is especially relevant if we take into account that in cities, sudden changes in height are frequent, especially in buildings.

1.3.2. Astraphobia, or fear of storms

Thunderstorms are usually associated with many things that can be quite frightening.And when they are coupled with a traumatic component related to past experiences, the existence of astraphobia is not at all uncommon. This is a type of phobia that can give special problems, because the noise of the storms penetrates walls and makes it difficult to calm down.

1.3.3. Pluviophobia, fear of the rain

One of the strangest types of phobias, since in this case the phobic stimulus is rain itself, an element that hardly poses a real risk beyond flooding. However, it is believed that since it is a relatively frequent meteorological phenomenon in many parts of the world, it can be associated with unpleasant or traumatic events with relative ease.

1.4. Situational phobias

1.4.1. Aerophobia, or fear of flying in airplanes

Airplane phobia is possibly the most common situational phobia in the world.. Not only is there the component of fear of dying in the event of failure of the surrounding machinery, but also the fact of being in a small space with many strangers crowded together makes the stress difficult to reduce.

1.4.2. Claustrophobia, the fear of confined spaces

Narrow places or places with walls that are very close to each other generate a feeling of distress in many people, but can also make people in many people, but they can also cause some people to panic. Claustrophobia is one of the best known types of phobia because of the seriousness of fearing this type of space in societies where much of life takes place inside buildings and enclosed spaces.

1.4.3. Amaxophobia, or fear of driving

Irrational fear of driving is one of the unpleasant surprises that many people discover when it is time to take their first practical car lessons (the other surprise is the estimate of the money they are going to spend on them).

But amaxophobia is particularly dangerous among all types of phobias, because it prevents prudent driving and puts one's own life and that of others at risk. In fact, within the category of specific phobias, it is one of the most frequent reasons for consultation in psychotherapy offices. You can read more about amaxophobia in this article.

2. Social phobia

A category of types of phobias different from the one we have seen up to now is the one that social interaction phobia. Social phobias can be very varied, appear only in certain contexts and not in others, and can be based on different reasons, such as fear of aggression that can be triggered or fear of marginalization.

One of the frequent symptoms among people suffering from social phobia is erythrophobia, which is the fear of blushing. On the other hand, this is one of the types of phobias in which catastrophic thoughts are more common, since it appears the anticipation of very embarrassing situations or that suppose a significant wear of the public image of oneself: hesitations when speaking, falls, inability to look into the eyes... The anticipation of this causes the anxiety level to rise, so that the phenomenon known as self-fulfilling prophecy occurs.

Social phobia can become highly disabling, because it greatly limits the options available to the person when making friends, asking for help, negotiating, looking for a job, etc.

You can delve deeper into the causes, symptoms and treatments for social phobia by reading this article.

Bibliographical references:

• Albano, A. (2003). Treatment of social anxiety disorder. En Reinecke, M.A. Dattilio, F.M., Freeman A. (Eds.), Cognitive therapy with children and adolescents: A casebook for clinical practice (pp. 128 - 161). Nueva York: Guilford Press.
• American Psychiatric Association (2013), Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.), Arlington: American Psychiatric Publishing.
• Cavallo, V. (1998). International Handbook of Cognitive and Behavioural Treatments for Psychological Disorders. Pergamon. pp. 5 - 6.
• Edmund J. B. (2005). The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook, 4ª ed. New Harbinger Publications.
• Kendall, P.C., Aschenbrand, S.G., Hudson, J.L. (2003). Child-focused treatment of anxiety. En A. E. Kazdin, J.R. Weisz (Eds.), Evidence-based psychotherapies for children and adolescents (pp. 81 - 100). Nueva York: Guilford Press.
• Perugi, G; Frare, F; Toni, C (2007). Diagnosis and treatment of agoraphobia with panic disorder. CNS Drugs. 21 (9): pp. 741 - 64.
• Tillfors, M. (2003). "Why do some individuals develop social phobia? A review with emphasis on the neurobiological influences". Nord J Psychiatry. 58 (4).