Phobias have long been part of the collective unconscious of the West. Even those people who have never experienced a phobia in any of its forms know that human beings are capable of developing an irrational fear of practically everything that can be perceived or imagined: clowns, spiders, specific colors, etc. But… wouldn’t it be more appropriate to talk about types of phobias than about “phobias” as if they formed a single unit?
This is precisely what makes phobias such an interesting topic: there are as many of them as there are elements in our habitat and our cultures. That is, they are practically infiniteand it is always surprising to see to what extent there can be people who at a certain point in their life develop an atrocious fear of things, ideas or living beings that can hardly be described as dangerous. For example, in this article you have some examples of strange phobias.
TSuch variety makes it difficult to create a “mental map” of phobias and know which are the most common.. In reality, it is impossible to have access to a completely exhaustive and detailed classification of phobias, because the variety of these is quite possibly infinite, and therefore it is useless to try to create an exhaustive classification with all types of phobias: there will always be some that It will go outside the box. Any thing or thought is prone to generating irrational fear under certain circumstances.
However, they can be traced general classifications on the types of phobias. They may not be perfect or completely exhaustive, but at least they are useful and allow you to get a rough idea of how these irrational fears usually express themselves. Thus, a classification of types of phobias that includes the most common ones could be the one we offer below.
The types of phobias that belong to the category of specific phobias they have in common that what generates fear is a situation, object or concrete being. That is, something that can be easily identified and separated from the rest. Additionally, the DSM IV manual distinguishes between five subtypes of specific phobias: those related to blood and injections, phobias triggered by animals, those related to natural environments, situation phobias, and the category “other specific phobias.”
Some examples of rare disorders that can be included in this type of phobia are ligyrophobia, or fear of loud sounds, crystallophobia, or fear of glass, or cardiophobia, or fear of vascular accidents such as heart attacks. However, in the following lines we will focus on the most common and well-known phobias.
1.1. Animal phobia, or zoophobia
All those phobias would come in here. related to living beings with the worst image, such as spiders or snakesbut technically any of those types of phobias whose triggering stimulus is an animal can fall into this category, be it a hummingbird, a raccoon, a crab or any of the possibilities that evolution offers us.
Three types of specific phobias in this category that deserve an honorable mention because of how common they are are ophidiophobia, arachnophobia and cynophobia, snake phobia, spider phobia and dog phobia, respectively. It may be useful in certain cases to have a certain respect for these animals for their ability to harm us, but of course spiders and dogs are numerous enough that being too afraid of them can be very counterproductive.
Other examples of animal phobia are found in anxiety disorders such as musophobia, or fear of mice, as well as hypophobia or scolequiphobia.
1.2. Blood phobia, or hematophobia
One of the great classics and which, based on some studies, seems to be one of the most common types of phobias. However, The phobia of blood has a peculiarity that distinguishes it from the rest: it frequently leads to fainting. You can read more about this topic in the article dedicated to this phenomenon.
The fact of being at a greater or lesser height with respect to the place that we perceive as the “ground” or base of the place where we have climbed has an obvious relationship with the danger to which we expose ourselves. The higher the height, the greater the risk of dying in the event of a fall. However, sometimes fear of heights can be so severe and disabling that it can be considered a type of phobia related to the natural environment. This is especially relevant if we take into account that sudden changes in height are frequent in cities, especially in buildings.
1.3.2. Astraphobia, or fear of storms
Storms are usually associated with quite a few things that can be quite scary.and when in addition to a traumatic component related to past experiences, the existence of astraphobia is not strange at all. This is a type of phobia that can cause special problems, because the noise of storms passes through walls and makes calming down difficult.
1.3.3. Pluviophobia, fear of rain
One of the strangest types of phobias, since in this case the phobic stimulus is the rain itself, an element that hardly poses a real risk beyond floods. However, it is believed that since it is a relatively frequent meteorological phenomenon in many parts of the world, it can be associated with unpleasant or traumatic events with relative ease.
1.4. Situation phobias
1.4.1. Aerophobia, or fear of flying on airplanes
Airplane phobia is possibly the most common situational phobia.. Not only is there a component of fear of dying in the event that the surrounding machinery fails, but also the fact of being in a small space with many strangers crowded together makes the stress difficult to reduce.
1.4.2. Claustrophobia, the fear of closed spaces
Narrow places or places with walls very close to each other generate a feeling of anxiety in many people, but they can also cause some to go into a state of panic. Claustrophobia is one of the best-known types of phobia due to the seriousness of fearing these types of spaces in societies in which a large part of life takes place inside buildings and closed spaces.
The irrational fear of driving It is one of the unpleasant surprises that many people discover when they have to take their first practical car classes (the other surprise is the estimate of the money they are going to spend on them).
But amaxophobia is especially dangerous among all types of phobias, because it prevents safe driving and puts one’s own life and the lives of others at risk. In fact, within the category of specific phobias, it is one of the most frequent reasons for consultation in psychotherapy clinics. You can read more about amaxophobia in this article.
2. Social phobia
A category of types of phobias different from the one we have seen so far is the one that refers to social interaction. Social phobias can be very varied, appear only in certain contexts and not in others and be based on different reasons, such as fear of aggression that may be triggered or fear of marginalization.
One of the common symptoms among people who suffer from social phobia is erythrophobia, which is the fear of blushing. On the other hand, this is one of the types of phobias in which catastrophic thoughts are more common, given that the anticipation of very embarrassing situations appears or that involve a significant erosion of one’s public image: hesitations when speaking, falls , inability to look in the eyes… The anticipation of this causes the anxiety level to rise, which is why the phenomenon known as self-fulfilling prophecy occurs.
Social phobia can be highly disabling, because it greatly limits the options available to the person when it comes to making friends, asking for help, negotiating, looking for work, etc.
You can delve into the causes, symptoms and treatments for social phobia by reading this article.
