Oh my, RESEARCH ATTACK, but I wanted to understand this better. In a way we're all correct, but there are various types of phobias which are more or less severe, and all fall under the category of anxiety disorders.
http://www.merck.com/mrkshared/CVMH...om&word=phobia&domain=www.merck.com#hl_anchor
"The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy
Section 15. Psychiatric Disorders
Chapter 187. Anxiety Disorders
Topics
[General]
Panic Attacks And Panic Disorder
Phobic Disorders
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Acute Stress Disorder
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Anxiety Due To A Physical Disorder Or A Substance
Phobic Disorders -- General Description
Disorders involving persistent, unrealistic, yet intense anxiety
that, unlike the free-floating anxiety of panic disorder, is
attached to external situations or stimuli.
Persons who have a phobia avoid such situations or stimuli or
endure them only with great distress. But they retain insight and
recognize the excessiveness of their anxiety."
IT IS NOTED THERE ARE THREE MAIN TYPES OF PHOBIC DISORDERS
1. Agoraphobia
2. Specific Phobias
3. Social Phobia
And you need to read the whole section of the Merck Manual to understand the specific, sometimes subtle differences. CBT/exposure seem to be the most effective treatment in some. Meds are recommended in other cases, etc. I only put in portions of the text.
"AGORAPHOBIA
Anxiety about or avoidance of being trapped in situations or places
with no way to escape easily if panic develops.
Agoraphobia is more common than panic disorder. It affects 3.8% of
women and 1.8% of men during any 6-mo period. Peak age of onset is
the early 20s; first appearance after age 40 is unusual..........
SPECIFIC PHOBIAS
Clinically significant anxiety induced by exposure to a specific
situation or object, often resulting in avoidance.
Specific phobias are the most common anxiety disorders but are
often less troubling than other anxiety disorders. They affect 7%
of women and 4.3% of men during any 6-mo period.
Symptoms and Signs
Some specific phobias cause little inconvenience--eg, fear of
snakes in a city dweller, unless he is asked to hike in an area
where snakes live. However, some phobias interfere severely with
functioning--eg, fear of closed places, such as elevators, in a
person who must work on an upper floor of a skyscraper.
Some specific phobias (eg, of animals, the dark, or strangers)
begin early in life, and many disappear later without treatment.
Others (eg, of storms, water, heights, flying, or enclosed places)
typically develop later in life. Phobia of blood, injections, or
injury occurs to some degree in at least 5% of the population.
Persons with this phobia, unlike those with other phobias or
anxiety disorders, can actually faint, because an excessive
vasovagal reflex produces bradycardia and orthostatic hypotension.
Many persons with anxiety disorders hyperventilate and feel faint
because of changes in their blood gas levels, but those who
hyperventilate virtually never faint............
SOCIAL PHOBIA
Clinically significant anxiety induced by exposure to certain
social or performance situations, often resulting in avoidance.
Humans are social animals, and their ability to relate comfortably
in social situations affects many important aspects of their lives,
including family, education, work, leisure, dating, and mating.
Social phobias affect 1.7% of women and 1.3% of men during any 6-mo
period. However, more recent epidemiologic studies suggest a
substantially higher lifetime prevalence of about 13%. Men are more
likely than women to have the most severe form of social anxiety,
avoidant personality disorder (see Ch. 191)........."
