Top 10 Phobias

Phobia is a word probably familiar to many people. When a person flaps around a room, has a panic attack or shakes uncontrollably, there are chances that he is suffering from phobia. A phobia is an irrational fear and the sufferers are very well aware that their behavior is abnormal. It is a subconscious fear and no rationality or logic can help. According to the psychologists Rosenhan and Seligman, there are some specific phobias that evolve. However, few others argue that it’s the lack of cultural learning that generates phobia. For instance, though South Americans are surrounded by most dangerous species of spiders around the world, they are least afraid of them. It is likely that a bad childhood experience could generate a never ending phobia. In this article, we will discuss the most common top 10 phobias around the world.

1. Arachnophobia: Arachnophobia is the fear of spiders and almost half of women and 10 % of men have fear for spiders to some extent.

2. Aerophobia: It means fear of flying. This phobia is very much general in most of the people. It could develop if someone watches plane crash news or loses a close relative in a plane crash accident.

3. Social phobia: It is a phobia associated with negative emotions in a person. People suffering from this phobia are afraid of being misjudged or accused. It begins most commonly in childhood or adolescence. Almost 5.3 million American adults are said to be suffering from this phobia.

4. Acrophobia: It means fear of height and is a very common phobia. In such condition, people feel that their head is tossing when they look down from great heights.

5. Claustrophobia: People suffering from anxiety are in general a victim of this phobia. During this anxiety disorder, a person feels himself extremely enclosed and confined.

6. Agoraphobia: Agoraphobia involves intense fear and avoidance of any situation or place. The sufferers feel that the escape might be impossible and any help unavailable in such situations. They develop sudden panic attacks.

7. Emetophobia: It’s the fear of vomiting. In such situations, a person has a deep fear to vomit and is also scared of seeing someone vomiting.

8. Carcinophobia: It is an acute form of fear from cancer. This fear is very unnatural and the sufferer takes every negative bodily symptom to be a cancer.

9. Necrophobia: Necrophobia is the fear of the dead. They are most common in people who are afraid of death. These people are even afraid of seeing the dead bodies of animals.

10. Brontophobia: people having fear of thunderstorms come in this category. This phobia is most common in children. However, this specific phobia has also been found among adults and teenagers. It is also called Astraphobia, Keraunophobia, and Tonitrophobia .

Besides the above mentioned top 10 phobias, there are many other phobias affecting people. These phobias are generally developed in childhood days. Children undergoing a negative childhood experience develop a negative attitude about themselves, which generally pops out in the form of common fears of one form or the other.