9 Most Common Phobias (and How To Conquer Them)

The following list covers some of the most common phobias that will chill your bones and make your skin crawl.

1. Aerophobia: Fear of Flying

This specific phobia involves a profound fear of flying in an airplane. Sufferers often experience anxiety attacks during air travel, or they will avoid flying altogether.

2. Typanophobia: Fear of Needles

People suffering from trypanophobia will experience an irrational fear of needles or injections, such as vaccines or anesthesia. This phobia can focus on the needle as a feared object, or a patient may experience feelings of extreme dread regarding an injection of a foreign substance into the body.

This phobia can be extremely dangerous since many who suffer from this specific phobia will avoid medical treatments that could improve their health or potentially save their lives.

3. Acrophobia: Fear of Heights

Someone who suffers from acrophobia will experience an intense fear of heights. This common form is similar to other psychiatric disorders that likely sprang from a protectional evolutionary mental fail-safe. Even ladders and short heights can trigger symptoms of vertigo, rapid heartbeat and shortness of breath.

4. Arachnophobia: Fear of Spiders

A persistent fear of spiders is entirely understandable for any rational person who has ever had one of these creepy, eight-legged, multi-eyed nightmare creatures climb anywhere near their face.

However, besides the heebie-jeebies, this phobia likely stemmed from evolutionary traits that help humans identify and avoid dangerous animals. Many spiders are venomous, so fear of spiders makes sense as a self-protective mental health response.

5. Ophidiophobia: Fear of Snakes

Ophidiophobia is the extreme fear of snakes. Like similar animal phobias, this fear likely stems from personal trauma or a shared cultural depiction of the creature having malicious intent.

For instance, evil snakes appear in some of the oldest stories in the Christian Bible, as well as in other major religions and mythologies.

6. Claustrophobia: Fear of Enclosed Spaces

This common panic occurs when someone feels trapped or enclosed in a small space. Overwhelming feelings of danger lead to panic, increased heart rate and shortness of breath—all common symptoms that may be treated with anti-anxiety medication.

7. Mysophobia: Fear of Germs

Mysophobia is a particular fear that results in an excessive preoccupation with cleaning and sterilization.

This avoidance of dirt and germs is challenging because such "dangers" are microscopic or extremely challenging to identify — often leading to anxiety attacks and mental breakdowns since people without the phobia have difficulty understanding or relating to the sufferer.

8. Agoraphobia: Fear of Being Trapped

Unlike many other simple phobias on this list, agoraphobia is not a specific fear of a particular object or situation. This wide-spectrum fear revolves around the concept of becoming trapped in a situation without an opportunity to escape.

Think of that reoccurring nightmare of being stuck on stage in your underwear, and you can get a small taste of what people who suffer from this phobia likely experience daily.

Avoidance behaviors are common, with many agoraphobic patients becoming reclusive shut-ins to avoid the risk of triggering an incident in public.

9. Trypophobia: Fear of Circle Clusters

This overwhelming fear of circle clusters or small holes may seem unusual, but it is shared by up to 15 percent of people. The exact cause of trypophobia is unknown, but evolutionary and behavioral theories point to clusters resembling dangerous animal hives or contagious diseases like measles or smallpox.

Honorable Mention: Social Anxiety Disorder

Commonly diagnosed as a generalized anxiety disorder, this is not technically a phobia. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-V) neither is a panic disorder, nor are other anxiety disorders.

It involves a persistent dread of social situations. Symptoms include experiencing a panic attack, as well as acute situations like parties, public speaking events or public transit can exacerbate negative symptoms.

Data from the National Institute of Mental Health suggests that roughly 12.5 percent of people will experience specific or situational phobias at some point in their lifetime. These irrational and excessive fear responses can stem from childhood trauma, substance use disorders and a broad spectrum of other origins.

Common symptoms of phobias include rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, trembling, nausea and other physical responses that mirror panic attacks.

Friends and family members can support loved ones with phobias by encouraging them to seek out treatment options, as most phobias will not go away on their own.

It may seem like an impossible task to treat fear or a social phobia since these maladies live in the mind. However, psychiatrists and other mental health experts have made leaps and bounds using the following techniques.

1. Behavioral Therapy

Behavioral therapy leverages classical conditioning (think back to Pavlov's dog) and operant conditioning as tools to treat phobias.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is also an effective strategy for battling phobias because it helps to identify and challenge unusual thinking patterns. Think of this strategy as bringing a flashlight into the dark, scary forest to realize that the noises you heard were caused by wind in some nearby brush.

Psychiatric disorders work the same way. If you can shed light on this monster that you've created in your head, it can be much more manageable to deal with.

2. Exposure Therapy

Some mental health professionals will tell you that exposure therapy is the most effective strategy for alleviating phobias. This can be an especially simple method for a social phobia that hinders someone's lifestyle and limits their activity.

3. Medication

Certain prescription drugs can have an incredible effect in alleviating many of the physical symptoms caused by phobias and social anxiety disorders. Anti-anxiety medication mixed with breathing and relaxation techniques can help address certain phobias over time.