a phobia may be a learned response that a person develops early in life from a parent or sibling (brother or sister) genetics may play a role – there's evidence to suggest that some people are born with a tendency to be more anxious than others.
Fear can be innate or learned. Examples of innate fear include fears that are triggered by predators, pain, heights, rapidly approaching objects, and ancestral threats such as snakes and spiders.
Many phobias develop as a result of having a negative experience or panic attack related to a specific object or situation. Genetics and environment. There may be a link between your own specific phobia and the phobia or anxiety of your parents — this could be due to genetics or learned behavior.
Research suggests that phobias can run in families, and that both genetic and environmental factors (nature and nurture) can contribute to developing a phobia.
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.
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the fear of long words. Understanding the phobia can help you overcome it and live a fulfilling life. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is one of the longest words in the dictionary, and ironically, it means the fear of long words.
1) Arachnophobia – fear of spiders
Arachnophobia is the most common phobia – sometimes even a picture can induce feelings of panic. And lots of people who aren't phobic as such still avoid spiders if they can.
We are born with only two innate fears: the fear of falling and the fear of loud sounds. A 1960 study evaluated depth perception among 6- to14-month-old infants, as well as young animals.
As we age, we produce much less adrenaline, which can cause racing hearts and dizziness. This means the intense fears we may have experienced in youth no longer trouble us as much. However, older people often experience a greater sense of vulnerability, so things like heights or big crowds become more of an issue.
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 are among the most common of all mental illnesses, and they are usually the most successfully treated. Phobias are divided into categories according to the cause of the reaction and avoidance.
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.
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.
Fear of the unknown is universal, but it seems to take form most commonly in three basic human fundamental fears: Fear of Death, Fear of Abandonment or Fear of Failure.
A phobia can develop during childhood, adolescence or early adulthood. They can be linked to a frightening event or stressful situation. However, it's not always clear why some phobias occur.
A phobia is an uncontrollable, irrational, and lasting fear of a certain object, situation, or activity. This fear can be so overwhelming that a person may go to great lengths to avoid the source of this fear. One response can be a panic attack. This is a sudden, intense fear that lasts for several minutes.
Women and girls develop specific phobias much more frequently than men and boys. The types of phobias females develop also tend to differ from the phobias found in males.
“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.
Scientists already know that fears and phobias are shaped in part by genes. Identical twins, for example, are more likely to develop phobias for the same objects, such as snakes or rats, than non-identical twins.
A fear of falling, like a fear of animals is considered an innate fear. It means we're born with the fear as part of our survival instincts. "That's because it's adaptive to have certain fears," Norrholm said. "It make sense to have a fear of falling."
More than 60 per cent of Australians fear public spaces or large crowds.
Introduction: Fear of clowns or coulrophobia is a little understood phenomenon despite studies indicating that it has a high prevalence in the general population.