THE EXPLAINER PHOBIAS

AN EXPLORATION INTO THE ORIGINS AND TREATMENTS OF IRRATIONAL FEARS

In the context of mental health, a phobia is far more serious than a mild aversion.

Many of us dislike flying, or giving a talk in front of our colleagues, and we might not be too happy if a large, slobbery dog, no matter how gentle, came bounding toward us. But as long as we can tolerate these kinds of situations without too much distress, and our lives aren't adversely affected, then we haven't got a phobia for any of these situations as such.

In contrast, people diagnosed with a relevant phobia would experience an intense, extremely unpleasant fear reaction that could be overwhelming. So much so, that it might interfere with their day-to-day lives. Flying phobias, social phobias, and a fear of dogs (even cute ones) are common examples - but there are dozens of others, including some quite bizarre examples, such as trypophobia, which is a fear of clusters of holes (like you get in crumpets), sedatephobia (a fear of silence) and gerascophobia (a fear of ageing).

ARE PHOBIAS A DISORDER?

Phobias are a formal psychiatric diagnosis in the anxiety category. To be diagnosed, you'd need to have experienced a phobia for at least six months, and your fear reactions to the focus of your phobia would need to be out of proportion to the danger you were in.

Psychiatry recognises five main categories of 'specific phobia' (between 3 to 15 per cent of people will develop one of these at some point in their lives): animal phobias (spiders and snakes are common examples); environmental phobias (such as heights or deep water); blood/injection phobias (think needles or the mere sight of blood); situational phobias (such as bridges or dentists); and finally an 'other' category that covers almost everything else, such as a fear of swallowing or being sick.