Little Known Phobias

What Makes Your Skin Crawl?

Photo by Alexander Krivitskiy on Unsplash

Phobias are one of the most common mental illnesses in the United States. Approximately 12.5% of adults in the U.S. will deal with a specific phobia in their lifetime, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH). Women are more likely to experience phobias than men. Typical symptoms of phobias can include rapid heartbeat, nausea, trembling, feelings of unreality, and being preoccupied with the fear object.

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) identifies three different categories of phobias: social phobias, agoraphobia, and specific phobias.2 When people talk about having a phobia of a specific object such as snakes, spiders, or needles, they are referring to a specific phobia.

People with specific phobias will do everything they can to avoid what is causing their fear, even when doing so greatly interferes with their daily lives. People with phobias will experience intense anxiety, which is sometimes debilitating.

Most specific phobias fall into one of four major categories:

• Fears of the natural environment
• Fears related to animals
• Fear related to medical treatments or issues
• Fears related to…