What Are The Ten Most Common Phobias?
(1) Arachnophobia: It is an irrational fear of spiders, and according to a study around 50% women and 10% men suffer from ‘arachnophobia’ to some extent.
(2) Ophidiophobia: It is the fear of snakes and the second most common of all phobias and it is also known as herpetophobia. Some studies suggest that ‘ophidiophobia’ is an inborn condition and dates back to the primitive humans.
(3) Acrophobia: The word comes from two words height and fear, which means that acrophobia is the fear of heights. It is often confused with ‘vertigo’, which is not correct.
(4) Agoraphobia: A person is said to be agoraphobic if he/she is afraid of going to public places or open places. This is more common among women than men and some scientist often associate agoraphobia with panic attacks because around one-third of people who suffer from panic-attacks are also agoraphobic.
(5) Cynophobia: It is the fear of dogs and in most cases the reason for this fear is some terrible experience with a dog(s) during childhood.
(6) Astraphobia: Also known as ceraunophobia, tonitrophobia or brontophobia, it is the fear of thunder and lighting. It mostly occurs in the children.
(7) Trypanophobia: It is an irrational fear of medical procedures, especially injections. Its causes have been traced to be genetic.
(8) Social Phobias: It is the fear of social situations. The people suffering from these phobias avoid social gatherings and there are several forms of this phobia.
(9) Pteromechanophobia: It is the fear of flying and some scientists often take it as a combination of two phobias: (a) fear of enclosed spaces and (b) the fear of heights. In extreme cases, mere mention of flying can cause vomiting in the person suffering from pteromechanophobia.
(10) Mysophobia: It is a mental condition in which a person reacts abnormally to even a small amount of dirt present on his. People suffering from this phobia have excessive tendency to clean themselves.
