Types of Phobias

Fear can be one of the most powerful and devastating human emotions. Phobias are describes as irrational fears that can be quite crippling for the individual. There are numerous types of phobias, some common and some obscure. Phobias range from mental disorders to medical hypersensitivity, or can simply be an aversion to a certain situation. Many psychological phobias can be successfully treated with therapy, while some others can only be controlled by the individual.

Phobias or Fears

The numerous types of phobias identified by the medical community range from some of the more well known, such as:

• claustrophobia (fear of enclosed space)
• agoraphobia (fear of open spaces),
• arachnophobia (fear of spiders)

Or the bizarre:

• halitophobia (the fear of bad breath)
• koumpounophobia (the fear of buttons)

Medical practitioners list several types of phobias that describe a hypersensitivity to some condition such as:

• photophobia (hypersensitivity to light),
• phonophboia (sound)
• osmophobia (smells).

Phobias including Phobia

Additionally, numerous terms that include the word phobia are used to describe a certain type of discrimination or hatred. These types of phobia, some of which are well-known, include Xenophobia, the fear or dislike of outsiders, Homophobia, the fear or dislike of homosexuals and the gay culture, and Anglophobia, the fear or dislike of people from England and their culture. According to the American Psychiatry Organization, anxiety is a form of phobia.