Phobias: Most Common Fears and Terrors

Phobias, Terrors, Fears

The human race is the only living creature able to feel different emotions and understand why they feel that way and be able to do something about it. Many other living creatures can only feel some of these things and cannot quite grasp the whole spectrum as to why they experience things like they do. For example, a dog will look at its owner and feel overwhelmed with happiness. It might understand that it is going through that sentiment because of seeing someone they love so much that is how far they will go. We humans can feel and understand many more sensations though.

The specter is quite large, being composed of many unique feelings of happiness, sadness, confusion, content, surprised, free, delighted, peaceful, eagerness, intrigued, impulsive, confident, uncertain, upset, lazy, powerless, inferior, superior and so on so forth. They are all wonderful and amazing in their own sense and we need all of them to feel complete and individual.

Fears and Terrors

There are some that we prefer over others. I am sure most of us will agree that we would rather feel ecstatic, admired or loved rather than upset, unwanted and hated. Some of the most disliked feelings are sadness, anger and fear. These are needed though, to make us grow, to make us comprehend how the world and the people in it work. We wish we could do without them but they help us become whole and fully capable of dealing with anything. If we could not feel sadness, joy would not be appreciated as much. If we could not get angry, we would live without rioting passion. If we did not have fear, we would not know what to stay away from because our body feels the danger emanating from it.

Yet, these feelings can be very crippling and life endangering if felt in excess. The one that takes the prize for being tormenting and relentless, is fear. It is especially strong on us. Our mind and heart race, telling us to run and cower away as quickly whenever we face something that debilitates and paralyzes us with terror. When in extreme and unusually large amounts of stress and horror, our bodies get into a state of shock and panic, being unable to do anything else. When this occurs because of a trigger such as an animal, being, thought or object, it is called a phobia. Many of us experience and suffer from phobias since there are so many things to be afraid of, especially if they were rather impacting or strong on us when very young.

Even though there are countless phobias, more than 100 really, there are some that we share the most. They are highly common and even people that do not suffer from the phobia can understand as to why we feel so freaked out and terrified when facing them. These are just the ones felt by most, especially since the triggers for them are bountiful. These are the ten most general phobias experienced by humans:

Necrophobia: The fear of death, this one is unusually stronger in younger adults that feel as if they have not accomplished much yet. There are cases when people that already know that their time is almost up start feeling unusually scared of the beyond and what it holds for them but those cases are very rare. The people that have this phobia not only fear dying but dead things too.
Arachnophobia: I sure understand this one myself since I live in a big house in the wilderness. This is the fear of spiders. It can be any spider too, it really does not matter. They are simply the trigger to the long and painful panic attacks and long hours without breath. Women tend to have this phobia more than guys but a great amount of men also suffer from it. Even things that sort of resemble a spider will freak the person out, sometimes causing uncontrollable weeping. This phobia is usually caused by an incident in youth or an event that occurred in an adult’s life when they were much debilitated and connected their emotions to a spider they might have seen.
Social phobia: As the name says it, this is the fear of being with people, society and awkward situations. Normally composed of things like get-togethers, parties, speeches, plays or any kind of scenario where one might be put on the spot, it makes them feel watched and terrified. The number of people suffering from this phobia has increased drastically since the 2000’s, partially because of all the new different ways society has learned to stereotype and judge, even extending to law systems such as some police men have done in earlier days. But that is besides the topic. This phobia is most common in teens, especially girls.
Cynophobia: Usually beginning or starting to affect someone after they have had a traumatic or very painful experience, this is the fear of dogs. Because canines are known to pounce, bite and thrash, one awful moment with one is not easily forgotten. Of course there are not many violent dogs but the ones that are can be very damaging.
Astraphobia: Most common in small children and usually overcome once they are adults, this is the fear of lighting, lightning flashes, and thunder. Many people do not get treatment for this phobia but it is very bad for your mind and heart to constantly feel terrified when there is rain or a slight chance of a thunderstorm.
Trypanophobia: This is a very prominent one that normally has its beginnings when a bad visit to the doctor occurs. It is the fear of needles or rather large and pointy objects. The feeling of it going through your skin and piercing you can very highly terrifying to many, sometimes keeping them away from medical care for years at a time.
Mysophobia: The irrational fear of germs and disgusting places, this is most prominent in attention seekers, hypochondriacs and old people. There are cases where one is in a terrible incident where after much washing they were still dirty but most of the time it is a subconscious decision that people take to feel afraid of it.
Agoraphobia: Slightly similar to a social phobia, this is the fear of being in an uncomfortable space, place or situation that we cannot easily leave from. This causes anyone that is suffering from it to stay away from people and any events that might seem dangerous to them, not leaving their house for days, maybe even weeks if possible. People get big panic attacks and uncontrollable wheezing and shakiness when seeing that they cannot leave and must endure whatever place they are in. This is most common to appear on people that used to be shy when young.
Acrophobia: Connected with vertigo and dizziness, this is the fear of heights or being very far up in the sky. It could be living in an apartment that is in the fifth floor, going to the roof and looking down or just getting on an airplane. People will freak out and get to the closest thing that resembles the ground when in these scenarios.
Claustrophobia: The fear of being in a tight and enclosed space, causing shortness of breath, panic attacks and general and uncontrollable fright, this phobia is also most common in women. Many times this has been caused because of an accident in their youth were they were trapped and unable to move for very long.

Although all these fears can control and destroy a person’s quality of life and well being, there are many ways to fight it and get better, with time eventually getting rid of it in whole. We do not have to live struggling with these triggers and running away each time. We can fight back little by little, taking small steps to embracing what it is we fear, exposing ourselves and knowing it cannot harm us.

Our life is not mean to be filled with one emotion only. We are supposed to have fun, enjoy, go crazy, laugh, dance and feel like the only thing, the only person that really matters is us, and that as long as we are ok, everything else will fall into place.

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