As Humans we are all afraid of something.

The reluctant orunwillingness to do something for the fear of the outcome. The sensation ofanxiety and nervousness. For certain people these emotions become so intensethat being afraid turns into fear.  Oneof the most basic human emotions that is ancient and universal. However, somepeople possess the emotion of fear so deeply that it becomes irrational.

Thatirrational fear manifests its self into a phobia. This paper will attempt todefine phobias, analyze the different psychological reasoning for thedevelopment of phobias’ and explore the three broad categories of phobias andthe treatments. Anxiety is an emotionlike fear, with one critical difference. Nothing triggers the feeling ofanxiety.

This emotion manifests it’s self-due to the anticipation of impendingdanger or the occurrence of something undesirable, but the danger is no longerhappening. Anxiety can be mild or intense, a little of it keeps you alert. Whenanxiety becomes long lasting and too intense and stars to interfere with dailylifestyle, it has turned into a phobia. When a person has a Phobia for anobject or situation. They do whatever they can to avoid all possible contactwith the target of their fear, they often ponder on the possibilities ofencountering in a set circumstance.

“The phobic symptoms are so intense thatthey cause distress or interfere with social or occupational activities of theperson (Singh, 2016).” A phobia of a certain object or situation is notsomething that one can usually control nor predict. When danger takes anindividual by surprise the environment becomes more stressful. Generally,phobias can be a result of inheritance of genes, negative experience orunfavorable incident. Individuals with phobias may experience symptoms ofsweating, shortness of breath, chest and abdominal discomfort, trembling andheart palpitations (Leifer, 1966) .

Numerous Psychologisthave researched the explanation of phobias. It was classified as an anxietydisorders, which fundamentally are anxiety disorders based on fear. Generally,phobias are defied as avoidance and fearful, exaggerated reactions to certainsituations, cations and objects (Leifer, 1966).

Freud (1909) in hispsychoanalytic theory suggest that the development of phobias in humans waslargely reflected on regression and displacement of aggressive and sexualdrives. He believed that phobias were symptoms of unsettled dispute between thesuperego and the Id. These disputes or conflicts stemmed from childhood and islater displaced or repressed onto the feared object and the original source ofthe phobia was not the object (Leifer, 1966). Other researcher’s such as, Seligman (1971) Marks (1987; Marks , 1994), and Menzies and Clarke (1995) believed phobias were anevolutionary phenomenon. “The stimuli feared by phobias reflect the dangersthat our prehistoric ancestors faced in their Pleistocene Savannah environment(H.

Merckelback et. al.).” Because of natural selection, fear of theseevolutionary dangers and situations have become genetically coded withinhumans. Ohman (1993) although, argued that “phobic stimuli are analyzed by fastand subcortical information processing routines.

These information processingroutines would provide a crude analysis of the stimulus and then initiate animmediate fear response (H. Merckelback et. al.)”.

Insulating that, a phobiasreaction to fear the phobic stimulus, emerges before the person becomes fullyaware.