20.Some Common Phobias – How to Dominate Your Fears and Phobias

1. Hypochondria
This is a type of Somatoform Disorder, as discussed in a previous chapter. Hypochondriacs imagine themselves developing serious diseases like cancer, diabetes, or some other serious problems. They refuse to believe people, even doctors, who tell them they are healthy. People who were once overwhelmed by the sight of a serious disease condition or by death can develop this disorder.

2. Claustrophobia
This is the fear of being in closed or too narrow spaces. People suffering from claustrophobia may feel like suffocating or drowning once they find themselves in these places.

3. Arachnophobia
People who dread spiders, even small ones, probably have this phobia. They may have acquired this fear when they read about the dangers of poisonous spiders, or if they were actually bitten by one and seriously hospitalized as a result.

4. Hydrophobia
Some people fear drowning so much that the mere sight of water gives them the creeps. They are the victims of hydrophobia. Hydrophobia is often associated with those inflicted with rabies. This is a deadly type of hydrophobia.

5. Acarophobia
People who are afraid of itchy insects have this phobia. They have acquired this type of phobia when they have actually experienced the itchy sensation brought about by the insect bite, or if they have seen such bites from other people in extreme proportions.

6. Acerophobia
People who fear things that are sour or cause sourness are suffering from acerophobia. In severe cases, they imagine that the sourness can kill them.

7. Agliophobia
Individuals who fear pain so much - that even a slight sensation, sight, or thought of pain is unbearable – are victims of agliophobia.

8. Agraphobia
People suffering from agraphobia have the irrationally weird notion that many people are out to sexually assault or rape them.

9. Agyrophobia
Streets make agyrophobic people cower in fear. They feel like crossing the street is equivalent to the death march.

10. Ailurophobia
Just hearing a cat’s meow can send chills up the spine of people suffering from ailurophobia. Some of them may imagine the cat’s claws scratching them.