Characteristics

• Panic, Avoidance and endurance are all behavioural characteristics of a phobia.
• Avoidance can be physical (e.g. not going near the thing) or mental (thinking about it causes anxiety)
• Selective attention, irrational beliefs and cognitive distortions are all cognitive characteristics of a phobia.
• Anxiety, fear and unreasonable emotional response are all emotional characteristics of a phobia.