Fear becomes an obsession when you have to change your lifestyle to deal with it. A phobia is an extreme or irrational fear or terror caused by a particular object or situation that significantly limits your life.

If you have a phobia, you will have to try to avoid an object or situation that most people consider harmless.

Exposure, or even the thought of being in contact, with the object of your phobia causes you to panic.

But you don't have to live with a phobia. Professor Isaac Marks of the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London says all phobias can be treated. “No one needs to continue to suffer,” he said. "People can overcome phobias."

Some phobias, such as fear of snakes (phobia of the eyes), do not normally affect daily life, but others, such as agoraphobia (fear of the outdoors can make it very difficult to have a normal life.

“People seek help when a phobia begins to interfere with their lives – for example, they may have to take time off work because they cannot take public transport or stay at home to avoid encounters,” says Marks. remove everyone.

The phobia can be specific - such as fear of spiders, heights, or dentists - or more general, such as fear of the great outdoors, fear of interacting with others (social phobia), or fear of develop fear (phobophobia).

The Most Common Phobias

According to an Anxiety UK survey, the 10 most commonly reported phobias in the UK are:

social phobia – fear of interacting with other people

agoraphobia – fear of open public spaces

emetophobia – fear of vomiting

erythrophobia – fear of blushing

driving phobia – fear of driving

hypochondria – fear of illness

aerophobia – fear of flying

arachnophobia – fear of spiders

zoophobia – fear of animals

claustrophobia – fear of confined spaces

Phobias are often accompanied by panic attacks. People with phobias tend to avoid the places that cause this panic attack.

How did the obsession begin?

It is not known exactly how phobias develop, but specific phobias are thought to originate in childhood, between the ages of four and eight.

“Sociophobia and agoraphobia start much later,” says Salkovskis. "Sociophobia primarily begins in puberty, and agoraphobia usually begins in the late teens or early twenties."

He says that familiarizing children with the things they fear is a good way to prevent the development of phobias.

"That way, we can eliminate a person's fear of spiders (for example) before it becomes an issue later in life."

Help for phobias

For specific phobias, treatment includes some kind of exposure to the thing you fear most.

Self-exposure therapy, a form of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), can be done using self-help books, self-help groups, or online self-help resources.

Our Mental Health Self-Help Guide is based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and has been shown to be very effective in helping people with phobias and mental health issues other.

Antidepressants may also be helpful for some people with phobias.

It is important to treat your phobia as soon as symptoms appear. "Once phobias have been present for a year or more in adults, they tend to persist if you don't overcome them with guided self-exposure therapy," says Salkovskis.