In this July 2022 issue of Mental Health Monthly we'll be looking at Phobias. We'll review some of the more common phobias, as well as some of the more uncommon ones. To begin, we'll start with some common phobias.
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Acrophobia - Fear of heights

Acrophobia is an extreme or irrational fear of heights. It is a particular case of specific phobias, which share both causes (differing in the source of the phobia) and options for treatment.

Acrophobia can be dangerous, as sufferers can experience a panic attack in a high place and become too agitated to get themselves down safely. Some acrophobics also suffer from urges to throw themselves off high places, despite not being suicidal.

"Vertigo" is often used, incorrectly, to describe the fear of heights, but it is more accurately described as a spinning sensation.

The most widely accepted explanation is that acrophobia stems from fear — fear of falling and being injured or killed: this is a normal and rational fear that most people have (people without such fears would die out).

A phobia occurs when fear is taken to an extreme — possibly through conditioning or a traumatic experience. Then, the mind seeks to protect the body from further trauma in the future, and elicits an extreme fear of the situation — in this case, heights.

This extreme fear can be counter-productive in normal everyday life though, with some sufferers being afraid to go up a flight of stairs or a ladder, or to stand on a chair, table, (etc.).

Some neurologists question the prevailing wisdom and argue that acrophobia is caused by dysfunction in maintaining balance and that the anxiety is both well founded and secondary. According to the dysfunction model, a normal person uses both vestibular and visual cues appropriately in maintaining balance. An acrophobic overrelies on visual signals whether because of inadequate vestibular function or incorrect strategy. Locomotion at a high elevation requires more than normal visual processing. The visual cortex becomes overloaded and the person becomes confused. Some proponents of the alternate view of acrophobia warn that it may be ill-advised to encourage acrophobics to expose themselves to height without first resolving the vestibular issues. Research is currently underway at several clinics.
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Arachnephobia or Arachnophobia - Fear of spiders

Arachnophobia is a specific phobia, an abnormal fear of spiders and sometimes other arachnids, such as scorpions and harvestmen. With an estimated half of all women, and one quarter of all men asked suffering from it in some degree, it is among the most common of phobias. The reactions of arachnophobics often seem irrational to others (and sometimes to the sufferers themselves). People with arachnophobia tend to feel uneasy in any area they believe could harbor spiders or that has visible signs of their presence, such as webs. If they see a spider they may not enter the general vicinity until they have overcome the panic attack that is often associated with their phobia. They may feel humiliated if such episodes happen in the presence of peers or family members.

The fear of spiders can be treated by any of the general techniques suggested for specific phobias.

Arachnophobia is, in many cases, the result of a traumatizing encounter with spiders in one's early childhood, though the experience may not be remembered. An evolutionary reason for the phobias, such as arachnophobia, claustrophobia, fear of snakes or mice, etc. remains unresolved. One view, especially held in evolutionary psychology, is that sufferers might gain some survival edge, by avoiding the dangers. Spiders, for instance, being relatively small, don’t fit the usual criteria for a threat in the animal kingdom where size is a key factor, but most species are venomous, and some are lethal. Arachnophobes will spare no effort to make sure that their whereabouts are spider-free, hence reducing sharply the risk of being bitten.

The alternative view is that the dangers, such as from spiders, are overrated and not sufficient to influence evolution. Instead, inheriting phobias would have restrictive and debilitating effects upon survival, rather than being an aid. For example, there are no deadly spiders native to central and northern Europe that could exert an evolutionary pressure, yet that is where the strongest fear for spiders began, suggesting cultural learning. In contrast, many non-European cultures generally do not fear spiders, and for some communities such as in Papua New Guinea and South America, spiders are included in traditional foods.
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Claustrophobia - Fear of confined spaces

Claustrophobia is an anxiety disorder that involves the fear of enclosed or confined spaces. Claustrophobes may suffer from panic attacks, or fear of having a panic attack, in situations such as being in elevators, trains or aircraft.

Conversely, people who are prone to having panic attacks will often develop claustrophobia. If a panic attack occurs while they are in a confined space, then the claustrophobe fears not being able to escape the situation. Those suffering from claustrophobia might find it difficult to breathe in closed auditoriums, theatres, and elevators. Like many other disorders, claustrophobia can sometimes develop due to a traumatic incident in childhood.

Claustrophobia can be treated in similar ways to other anxiety disorders, with a range of treatments including cognitive behavior therapy and the use of anti-anxiety medication.

Popularly, claustrophobia is considered to be the opposite of agoraphobia, or a "fear of open spaces". This is an oversimplification, however: claustrophobes may also fear being in crowds (known as Enochlophobia), and agoraphobia can also be characterized as a "fear of public spaces", and so a crowded city square might trigger claustrophobics and agoraphobics alike.
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Now we'll take a look at a few uncommon phobias.
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Anthrophobia or Anthophobia - Fear of flowers

Anthophobia, also known as fear of flowers or flower fear is defined as an abnormal and persistent fear of flowers. People suffering from flower fear experience undue anxiety even though they realize they face no threat from flowers. There is no specific flower which causes this fear, any genus or species of flowers can instill fear. So can any flower part, such as a petal or stem.

Fear of flowers is termed "Anthophobia," a word derived from the Greek words- "anthos", meaning flower and "phobos", meaning fear. Flower fear is also known as Anthrophobia.

Anthophobia is an intense fear of flowers that poses little or no actual danger. While adults with anthophobia realize that these fears are irrational, they often find that facing, or even thinking about facing, the feared situation brings on a panic attack or severe anxiety.

Typical symptoms of flower fear include breathlessness, dizziness, excessive sweating, nausea, dry mouth, feeling sick, heart palpitations, inability to speak or think clearly, a fear of dying, becoming mad or losing control, a sensation of detachment from reality or a full blown anxiety attack, although different people experience flower fear in their own way and may have different symptoms as such.

Like all fears and phobias, flower fear is created by the unconscious mind as a protective mechanism. At some point in your past, there was likely an event linking flowers and emotional trauma.

Whilst the original catalyst may have been a real-life scare of some kind, the condition can also be triggered by myriad, benign events like movies, TV, or perhaps seeing someone else experiencing trauma may also lead to flower fear.

But so long as the negative association is powerful enough, the unconscious mind thinks: "Ahh, this whole thing is very dangerous. How do I keep myself from getting in this kind of situation again? I know, I'll attach terrible feelings to flowers, that way I'll steer clear in future and so be safe." This is how flower fear is generated. Attaching emotions to situations is one of the primary ways that humans learn. Sometimes we just get the wiring wrong.

The actual flower fear manifests itself in different ways. Some sufferers experience it almost all the time, others just in response to direct stimuli. 
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Clinophobia - Fear of going to bed

Clinophobia, also known as Somniphobia, is the fear of falling asleep (from the Greek 'kline', a bed). Sufferers from clinophobia experience anxiety even though they realize that going to bed normally should not threaten their well-being. However, because they worry about having nightmares or wetting the bed, they often remain awake and develop insomnia. Insomnia then can become a real threat to their well-being.
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Francophobia - Fear of France or French culture (Gallophobia, Galiophobia)

Francophobia is a consistent hostility toward the government, culture, history, or people of France or the Francophonie. It's antonym is francophilia. Contemporary prejudice against the French often derives from criticisms from the immediate post-World War II period and the way of life of the artistic and philosophic elite of the time. Although those prejudices are particularly widespread in the United States and United Kingdom today, Francophobia has existed in various forms and in different countries for centuries. In China, the term "Francophobia" was introduced in summer 2006 by local media under its literal meaning of "Fear of the French." The term was used in the context of the eight-year standing soccer rivalry between Brazil and France.
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join us next month for part 1 of an in depth review of the many forms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.