Phobia

Do you ever have a strong fear of something? I'm sure all of us have experienced this term many times, if not at least once in our lifetime.

Phobia means a strong, irrational fear of something that actually poses little or no actual danger. It is a type of anxiety disorder and has now becomes very common in our society. I've came across this term just few days ago when I read about neurotic stress-related disorders. There're many terms denoting types of fear, but most of them are rarely seen, or even never been case-reported before.

There're few phobias that are very common among all of us. Here is the list of them:

1. Agoraphobia -- Fear of open spaces or of being in crowded, public places like markets. It is the cause of 60% of all phobic patients. Over 2/3 are female. Some of them may abuse alcohol or drugs in a effort to overcome their phobia.

2. Social phobia -- Fear of scrutiny by other people in comparatively small groups ( as opposed to crowds), leading to avoidance of social situations. It occurs in 3-4% of general population and average age of onset is 20-35 years old.

3. Specific phobias -- a.k.a isolated phobias. It is restricted to highly specific situations such as proximity to particular animals, heights, thunder, flying, blood, etc. I believe almost all of us have certain specific phobia. As for me, I've phobia toward specific insect, well, not gonna to tell what is it, or otherwise my groupmates will surely give 'something' surprise to me =P
I've found few interesting terms in this category as follow:

Phobia -------- Object of fear
Acrophobia -- Fear of Heights
Algophobia -- Fear of Pain
Achluophobia -- Fear of Darkness
Alliumphobia -- Fear of Garlic (too bad, garlic is so essential. Read more -here)
Elurophobia -- Fear of Cats
Anuptaphobia -- Fear of staying single
Arachnophobia -- Fear of Spider
Claustrophobia -- Fear of Closed spaces
Ichthyophobia -- Fear of Fish
Metathesiophobia -- Fear of changes
Myrmecophobia -- Fear of Ants
Xenophobia -- Fear of strangers or foreigners
Teleophobia -- Fear of Religious ceremony
Alektorophobia -- Fear of Chicken
Tonitrophobia -- Fear of Thunder
Selaphobia -- Fear of Light flashes
Zoophobia -- Fear of Animals
Obesophobia -- Fear of gaining weight
Logizomechanophobia -- Fear of Computer (?... sound funny)

Well, I found that it is not difficult to construct the term as long as you know Latin language, so there're probably thousands of terms.

Treatment is different in each case but general ones include psychological therapy and medications, such as antidepressants, behavioural therapy, beta-blockers, etc.
Of course not all ppl who fear of something obligatorily require these treatments. Anyway do not hesitate to consult your psychologist if the fear has given you troubles in normal daily life.

Have a nice day. God Bless All!