Phobias

• Phobias are a type of anxiety disorder
• What is anxiety?

  An emotion all people experience and is a natural response to potentially dangerous stimuli.
• Phobias are characterised by uncontrollable, extreme and irrational behaviour, and enduring these fears evokes high anxiety levels that are out of proportion to any actual risk.
• Approximately 5 to 10 percent of the population in the UK have some form of phobia, this means that it is the most common mental disorder.
• What are the three types of phobias?

  Specific, social and agoraphobia
• What is a specific phobia?

  When sufferers are anxious in the presence of a particular object or specific situation.
• What is the most common category of phobia?

  Specific
• What is social phobia?

  When sufferers have an inappropriate level of anxiety in social situations, it can be triggered during a performance, interaction or even when just thinking about the situations. This results in avoidance of these situations that can have a detrimental effect on their quality of life.
• Social phobia is estimated to occur in about 3 to 7 percent of the population and usually begins in adolescence.
• What is agoraphobia?

  Sufferers are anxious when they leave home or a safe place and are in a situation they cannot easily leave, such as when they are in an open space or in a crowd.
• What is the least common type of phobia?

  Agoraphobia