- Describe phobias and how they are acquired
- Describe social anxiety disorder and generalized anxiety disorder
- Explain panic disorder and panic attacks
- Describe obsessive-compulsive disorder, body dysmorphic disorder, and hoarding disorder
- Describe post-traumatic stress disorder and its risk factors
Anxiety Disorders and Phobias
Everybody experiences anxiety from time to time. Although anxiety is closely related to fear, the two are not the same:
- Fear is an immediate response to an imminent threat.
- Anxiety involves apprehension, avoidance, and cautiousness about a potential future threat or negative event (Craske, 1999).
Even though anxiety feels unpleasant, it can be useful. Anxiety can motivate us to prepare and problem-solve—for example, studying for an exam, showing up on time, or planning ahead to avoid financial trouble. In healthy amounts, anxiety can help keep us safe.
Anxiety becomes a problem when it is excessive, persistent, and out of proportion to the actual threat. When anxiety interferes with daily life—relationships, school, work, or health—it may indicate an anxiety disorder.
anxiety disorders
Anxiety disorders are characterized by excessive and persistent fear and anxiety, along with related behavioral changes such as avoidance (APA, 2013). These disorders are among the most common mental health conditions in the United States and around the world.
Current estimates indicate:
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About 19% of U.S. adults experience an anxiety disorder in a given year.
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Over a lifetime, roughly 31% of U.S. adults will meet criteria for an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives.
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Anxiety disorders are diagnosed more often in women than in men, with U.S. estimates showing approximately 23% of women and 14% of men affected in a given year (NIMH).
Anxiety disorders often co-occur with other mental health conditions, including depression and substance use disorders, which can complicate diagnosis and treatment.
Specific Phobia
The word phobia comes from Greek and means “fear.”
specific phobia
A specific phobia involves an excessive, persistent fear or anxiety about a specific object or situation (such as heights, spiders, injections, or flying) (APA, 2013). People with specific phobias often recognize their fear is out of proportion to the actual danger, but still feel overwhelmed and may go to great lengths to avoid the trigger.
This avoidance can create real problems. For example, someone with a fear of flying might decline a job that requires travel, limiting their career options.
| Phobia | Feared Object or Situation |
|---|---|
| Acrophobia | heights |
| Aerophobia | flying |
| Arachnophobia | spiders |
| Claustrophobia | enclosed spaces |
| Cynophobia | dogs |
| Hematophobia | blood |
| Ophidiophobia | snakes |
| Taphophobia | being buried alive |
| Trypanophobia | injections |
| Xenophobia | strangers |
Specific phobias are common; in the United States, around 12.5% of the population will meet the criteria for a specific phobia at some point in their lifetime or roughly 9% of people during the past year.
agoraphobia
Agoraphobia is listed in the DSM-5 as its own anxiety disorder. Although it literally means “fear of the marketplace,” it is better understood as fear and avoidance of situations where escape might feel difficult or help might not be available if panic-like symptoms occur (APA, 2013).
Situations that may trigger agoraphobia include:
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public transportation
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open spaces (like parking lots)
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enclosed spaces (like stores or theaters)
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crowds
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being outside the home alone
Acquisition of Phobias Through Learning
Many psychologists believe phobias often develop through learning. Rachman (1977) proposed three common pathways:
1) Classical conditioning
A neutral stimulus becomes associated with a frightening or painful experience.
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Example: A child who is bitten by a dog may later fear dogs. The bite triggers fear naturally, and later the sight of any dog may trigger fear through association.
2) Vicarious learning (modeling)
A person learns fear by watching someone else react fearfully.
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Example: A child watches a cousin panic around spiders and later becomes fearful of spiders too. This has been shown in humans and in other primates (Mineka & Cook, 1993; Olsson & Phelps, 2007).
3) Verbal transmission (information)
Fear develops through repeated messages that something is dangerous or disgusting.
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Example: A child hears constant warnings that snakes are terrifying and learns to fear them without ever having a negative direct experience.
Why Some Phobias Are More Common Than Others
One interesting puzzle is that people often develop strong fears of things that are rarely dangerous today (like spiders), but are less likely to develop phobias of modern hazards that cause far more harm (like driving or firearms).
One explanation is prepared learning: the idea that humans may be biologically predisposed to learn fear responses more easily for certain evolutionarily relevant threats (Seligman, 1971; Öhman & Mineka, 2001). Across human history, rapid fear-learning for snakes, heights, or thunder may have increased survival. Research shows fear conditioning tends to happen more quickly for fear-relevant stimuli (like snakes and spiders) than for fear-irrelevant stimuli (like flowers) (Öhman & Mineka, 2001). Similar patterns have been observed in monkeys (Cook & Mineka, 1989).