Phobia Symptoms, Types, and Treatment

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According to the American Psychiatric Association, a phobia is an irrational and excessive fear of an object or situation. In most cases, the phobia involves a sense of endangerment or a fear of harm. For example, those with agoraphobia fear being trapped in an inescapable place or situation.

Phobia Symptoms

Phobic symptoms can occur through exposure to the feared object or situation, or sometimes merely through thinking about the feared object. Typical symptoms associated with phobias include:

  • Breathlessness
  • Dizziness, trembling, and increased heart rate
  • Fear of dying
  • Nausea
  • Preoccupation with the feared object
  • A sense of unreality

In some cases, these symptoms may escalate into a full-scale anxiety attack.

In response to these symptoms, some individuals may develop social anxiety disorder (SAD)—previously known as social phobia—and begin to isolate themselves, leading to severe difficulties with functioning in daily life and with maintaining relationships.

In other cases, such as with hypochondriasis, a person may seek out medical care due to a constant concern with imagined illnesses or imminent death.

Types of Phobias

The American Psychiatric Association defines phobias as anxiety disorders and categorizes them into three different types:

  • Agoraphobia: This describes a fear of being trapped in an inescapable place or situation. As a result, the phobic individual may begin to avoid such situations. In some cases, this fear can become so pervasive and overwhelming that the individual even fears to leave their home.
  • Specific phobias: These involve the fear of a particular object (such as snakes or butterflies and moths). Such phobias typically fall into one of four different categories: situational, animals, medical, or environmental. A few examples of common fear objects include spiders, dogs, needles, natural disasters, heights, and flying.
  • Social phobias: A fear of social situations includes an extreme and pervasive fear of social situations. In some cases, this fear may center on a very particular type of social situation such as public speaking. In other instances, people may fear to perform any task in front of other people for fear that they will be somehow publicly embarrassed.

More examples of the four major types of specific phobias include:

  • Animal: Fear of snakes, rodents, cats, or birds.
  • Medical: Fear of seeing blood or visiting a doctor.
  • Natural environment: Fear of lightning, water, storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, or mudslides.
  • Situational: Fear of bridges, leaving home, or driving.

Prevalence of Social Anxiety Disorder

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, social anxiety disorder affects about 7% of adult Americans in a given year and specific phobias affect approximately 9%. In general, women are affected more than men.

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, only about 10% of reported phobia cases become life-long phobias.

Phobia Treatments

There are a number of treatment approaches for phobias, and the effectiveness of each approach depends on the person and their type of phobia. 

In exposure treatments, the person is strategically exposed to their feared object in order to help them overcome their fear. One type of exposure treatment is flooding, in which the patient is confronted by the feared object for an extended length of time without the opportunity to escape. The goal of this method is to help the individual face their fear and realize that the feared object will not harm them.

Another method often used in phobia treatment is counter-conditioning. In this method, the person is taught a new response to the feared object. Rather than panic in the face of the feared object or situation, the person learns relaxation techniques to replace anxiety and fear.

This new behavior is incompatible with the previous panic response, so the phobic response gradually diminishes. Counter-conditioning is often used with people who are unable to handle exposure treatments and has been effective for treating children and adolescents.

Finally, for both adults and children with social phobia, medication like a low dose of a benzodiazepine or potentially an antidepressant (like a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, or SSRI) in combination with cognitive-behavioral therapy can prove helpful.

Get Advice From The Verywell Mind Podcast

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A Word From Verywell

If you think you may have a phobia, please seek out treatment from a licensed therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist. You deserve to develop control of this fear, and you can with proper therapy. 

7 Sources
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
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Additional Reading
  • American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing. 

  • National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (UK). Social Anxiety Disorder: Recognition, Assessment and Treatment. Leicester (UK): British Psychological Society (2013).

  • National Institute of Mental Health. The Numbers Count: Mental Disorders in America (2013).

  • Richard T.A. Social Anxiety Association. Social Anxiety Fact Sheet: What Is Social Anxiety Disorder? 

  • Samra, Chadan K., Abdijadid, Sara. Specific Phobia. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing (2020).

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd
Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."