What is Phobia?

According to American Psychiatric Association ‘Phobia is a type of irrational response to a normal stimulus.’

The person having phobia remains normal in normal circumstances but quickly changes their behaviour as soon as he is exposed to a particular stimulant. And this stimulant is different for different people and the symptoms can include from a fear to a panic attack. The phobias have no natural base or valid reason instead they develop differently in different people mainly due to any bad personal experience with the specific stimulant in any part of the life and the effect of that stimulus on the body has been recorded in mind which leads to production of feeling of fear or any other behaviour as soon as the person sees the stimulus.

The main difference between anxiety and phobia is that anxiety is triggered by stress and the patient behaves abnormally in the times of stress and becomes normal as the stress is relieved but the phobia can be triggered any time in life by exposing to a specific irritant stimulus both in normal as well as stress state. The onset of Phobia is not linked to stress, instead it is linked to a specific stimulus that is the reason many persons having Phobias behave normally in stress situations and can ensure long periods of stress easily.

List of Phobias:

The list of Phobias is very long and can be written from A to Z.

The most common types of Phobias are Hydrophobia (fear of water), Acrophobia (fear of height), Aerophobia (fear of Airplane), Trypanophobia (fear of needles) and many more but there are also some Phobias which are rarely present.

In the following list we will discuss 10 most uncommon types of Phobias which you never knew before.

1-Arithmophobia:

It is the type of irrational response that is produced after seeing some numbers. The most common example of this is tetraphobia in which a person hates number 4 and tries to avoid it completely.

2- Barophobia:

This is a special type of fear that produces in response to the stimulus of gravity. They also have a fear of falling from height and can not resist the force of gravity. Such people can not become astronauts in their whole life.

3- Claustrophobia:

This type of Phobia is caused by exposure to closed space. The person behaves normally all the time but when exposed to a closed or packed space develops fear and other symptoms. The most common example of Phobia of closed space is Lift Phobia. Some people always use stairs in place of lift even if it is available all day. These persons complain that while moving in lift they start sweating or have irregular heart beat. The reason for this is thinking about the risk of breakage of lift cords and becoming of lift as a freely falling object resulting in the death of a person due to suffocation. Sometimes the arguments of affected persons are right but many times they exaggerate their own thoughts and develop a wrong concept on the basis of these thoughts which is not a right thing.

4- Cyberphobia:

It is a type of Phobia that results in irrational behaviour in exposure to Computers, Laptop, Internet and all the latest devices. This is most common in older adults and is based on a valid reason that they don’t know how to run a computer because there was no computer in their times. This is one of the reasons for their reluctant behaviour towards all modern technologies including Android mobile phones.

5- Somniphobia

In somniphobia a person is unable to sleep because of his fear of sleeping. He thinks that after sleeping he may get bad dreams or see other horrifying objects during sleeping. This type of Phobia has been reported due to excessive and recurrent occurrences of nightmares during sleep.

6- Decidophobia:

This is a Phobia in which a person is unable to decide between two options that which will be best for him. Such a person is unable to define his path, remains confused about available options, which one to choose and which one to leave. This person is not able to take any decision of his life on his own and needs the help and guidance of significant others.

7- Logophobia:

In this type of Phobia the phobic person has difficulty in recognizing words, he may write some words wrong or spell them wrong. The person is unable to pronounce or write a specific word or words throughout his life and when those words come in front of him he starts to develop symptoms of Phobia.

8- Alektorophobia

It is one of the most ridiculous categories of Phobia in which a person has Phobia to hens. A person can develop Phobia for hens if he had any bad experience with hens in his life. Such persons avoid pets, think that hen can harm him in any way and change his path after seeing hens around himself.

9- Nomophobia:

There is a special and latest type of Phobia which develops in the youth or teenagers when their mobile phone or tablet is taken by their parents and kept under lock. It is also called fear of losing a cell phone. These days youth can’t live without their cell phone and can not think about remaining far from their mobiles even for a small period of time.

10- Gamophobia

Some people have a Phobia to marriage. This is the most interesting type of Phobia in which a person finds a lover, dates with her/him, develops a long term relationship but doesn’t want to marry that person. This type of Phobia is not a normal thing, it is the result of childhood memories of a person who had been mentally suffered in past due to broken marriage or disputes of his parents and don’t want to face such a situation in future or he has a fear of losing his lover after proposing him/her  for marriage or some other very strong reason.

Final Words:

Phobias are difficult to identify but if identified on time can be treated by counselling the person or starting his cognitive behaviour therapy as well as full time support from his family. It may take a long time to get out of any Phobia but can be corrected because nothing is impossible.