Even though there are hundreds of phobias, the vast majority of them fall into a category called specific phobias. Specific phobias are what most folk consider a phobia to be; a person is frightened by a thing, object or situation that should not be feared, especially not to the degree, that somebody with a phobia fears it. Nevertheless, specific phobias can be overcome without much trouble.

Although phobias do tend to sound rather bizarre, especially when people claim to have phobias of completely harmless things like birds and amputees, they do develop for a reason. Phobias are able to develop because of certain little used instincts that are intended to help us survive, but occur when fear is misplaced.

Phobias are irrational disorders and cause a person to be overly frightened of a thing or situation. Many times the person with the phobia realizes how ridiculous their fear is, but because it is an irrational disorder, they are powerless to resist the effects.

Out of all the different types of phobia, agoraphobia has perhaps one of the best stories out of all of them. For many years, agoraphobia was thought of as something very different from what its actual nature is. Agoraphobia means 'fear of the market place,' and was considered to be a specific situational phobia of going in public. However, we now know that the condition known as agoraphobia is not a specific phobia or a social anxiety phobia, but something altogether different.

If somebody who is close to you has a phobia, it can be difficult to understand and deal with. Phobias often seem silly if you have never had a similar experience, and many people who exhibit phobia symptoms are sometimes suspected of 'faking it. Because of the oddity of phobias, it is easy to suspect someone who suffers from phobic episodes of acting strange in order to get attention or make others feel sorry for them.

Amongst the various types of anxiety disorders there are also phobias, which are specific fears that a person develops, which may be intense and are often irrational. Common phobias may include closed in spaces, a fear of heights, driving, water, flying, spiders and blood. However, what is the difference between phobias and anxiety disorder. Having a healthy fear of something is one thing but having an anxiety related phobia is something totally different.