The 10 Most Common Phobias

A phobia is an uncontrollable fear of something that does not necessarily represent a danger. Palpitations, feelings of suffocation, hands trembling, cold sweats… when faced with the dreaded object, a crisis of anguish is assured! In this article, you'll discover the 10 most common phobias.

1. Agoraphobia

People with agoraphobia suffer from crowd anxiety and, more generally, are afraid of being wherever they may feel stuck and not get help quickly if they feel uncomfortable in any way. It is not so much the place that is feared, but its configuration.

The fears most often mentioned in the context of this phobia: loss of knowledge, fear of falling, having a heart attack or going crazy.

The most feared places: cinemas, restaurants, shopping centers, churches, supermarkets, bridges, public transport, highways.

2. Claustrophobia

Claustrophobia is a specific and limited form of agoraphobia, and it is also related to the place in which the individual is found.

It is caused by being in enclosed or confined spaces, such as elevators.

The symptoms felt are: fear of running out of air, fear of never getting out and a sensation that the walls are shrinking.

Claustrophobia is the fear of confinement. Behavioral and cognitive therapy can overcome this disabling phobia.

3. Aerophobia

The name of this phobia is less known than what it denotes: fear of aircraft.

Taking the plane for an aerophobe is something that cannot be imagined, as he or she is convinced that he or she will die during the flight, take-off or landing, regardless of the vehicle or the flight time (30 min or 8 hours).

For those who manage to get into the plane, the fear appears long before departure, as soon as the journey is scheduled, and it increases as the date of the journey approaches, and it becomes intense within a few hours before the flight, before reaching its paroxysm with a state of hypervigilance throughout the flight.

4. Arachnophobia

Arachnophobia is the fear of spiders. There are approximately 26 million people who dread these little 8-legged beasts, whether tiny or enormous, hairy or not, harmless or poisonous.

This fear can be disabling in everyday life, because spiders are part of our environment. The sight of spiders generates anxiety, which disrupts the sufferer’s breath and their circuit of rational thought. Consequences: tachycardia, dizziness, stomach pain, panic attacks, even vomiting or fainting. So many symptoms on which the person has no control…

5. Zoophobia

Zoophobia is fear of animals in general. It can be related to a particular animal, such as spiders (arachnophobia), snakes (ophidiophobia), bees (apiphobia) or dogs (cynophobia).

This irrational fear is triggered by everything that is not human and manifests itself in the following way: anguish in the presence of one or several animals, so-called intrusive thoughts in connection with animals, panic attacks at the sight of animals, etc.

These individuals are physically and psychologically unable to go to a zoo.

6. Brontophobia

Brontophobia is the fear of storms, thunder and lightning. For example, a brontophobia person cannot sleep in a camping tent if the weather is bad.

The term is little known, but the phobia is frequent.

Behavioral and cognitive therapy can overcome this intense and irrational fear.

7. Emetophobia

Emetophobia is an irrational fear of vomiting: fear of vomiting in public, fear of seeing another individual vomit, fear of looking at vomiting gestures or of being nauseous.

The individual concerned will then develop avoidance behaviors: he or she will not consume alcohol, make rich meals, he or she can even go as far as developing anorexic disorders, he or she will not eat leftovers even if they’re still good, etc.

Emetophobia is one of the most widespread phobias in the world.

8. Social phobia

Social phobia corresponds to the intense fear of the other’s judgment in all situations requiring self-expression: public speaking, job interviews, speeches, etc.

The individuals most concerned are those who fear the gaze of the other, judgment, criticism and, by extension, rejection. A link has been established with the education received: if parental behavior is not benign in childhood, then the risk of developing social phobia becomes stronger.

Sweaty hands, accelerated heartbeat, reddening of the face, trembling, memory loss are the main symptoms of social phobia.

9. Hypochondria

Hypochondria is a known term, and this phobia is one of the most frequent today: medicine has certainly made progress, but there is still something of the uncontrollable that the hypochondriac cannot manage on a daily basis…

This disorder, characterized by fear and permanent and excessive anxiety about the health and proper functioning of an individual's body, is reflected on a daily basis by obsessive body self-examinations and an erroneous interpretation of the signals sent by it. The hypochondriac is thus persuaded that they have an incurable disease…

10. Carcinophobia

It is a form of hypochondria, but focused on one particular disease: cancer. Being a serious and often fatal disease, cancer crystallizes many anxieties. However, it itself is the object of angst, which is paradoxically reassuring: in hypochondria, anxiety is diffuse, we suffer but we do not know what exactly, what it is that adds to the overall anxiety.

The fear of cancer is difficult to reason with and can sometimes lead to delayed consultation and diagnosis, whereas early detection is essential.