A phobia is an intense fear of an object or situation that is out of all proportion to the situation that evokes it. An estimated one in nine people accepts mild phobias as a part of life. However, in times of great personal stress, even the mildest phobia can turn into a real and terrifying fear that can lead to hyperventilation and panic attacks. Phobias can be subdivided into three groups:

SIMPLE PHOBIAS These may be a fear of animals, such as birds, spiders, cats, snakes, mice, or dogs; a fear of nature, for example, heights, darkness, thunder, lightning, water, wind, or death; or a fear of illness or injury, such as vomiting, blood, needles, or hospitals.

SOCIAL PHOBIAS People suffering from social phobias display an abnormal fear of meeting new people, socialising, eating with others, speaking in public, or criticism.

AGORAPHOBIA This is a network of fears and avoidances that is associated with a feeling of being trapped, where there is no easy escape to a place of security. People suffering from agoraphobia commonly fear crowded shops, lifts, planes, underground trains, motorways, buses, queues, lifts, cinemas, or being a long way from home.

Phobic reactions often have their origins in traumatic experiences from the past, or in childhood fears that have failed to diminish over time. However, the single main factor that perpetuates a fear or phobia is avoidance.

If you start to avoid certain situations because they may make you feel anxious, your anxiety will immediately go down, but only in the short term. Consciously and subconsciously you stamp in the message, "The only way I can cope with this situation is to avoid it”. However, the next time you are faced with the same situation, your desire to avoid will be even greater, as you imagine that your anxiety level will go up and up to an even higher point. What you do not realise is that, if you stay in the situation, after a time, your anxiety naturally begins to decrease of its own accord. If you leave the situation quickly or avoid it altogether, you will never find this out.

If it is not tackled, continued avoidance of particular situations can start to interfere with your daily life. One way to control it is deliberately to confront your fear. The next time you are exposed to a situation you have been avoiding for weeks, months, or even years, try to stay in it, however unpleasant it feels. Tell yourself that although you feel a high level of anxiety now, you need to go through this before the anxiety can start to diminish. At the second exposure your anxiety will be slightly less and will continue to decrease with each successive exposure to the fear. Gradually, it will return to a normal, acceptable level. This is the principle behind the treatment known as graded exposure, or systematic desensitisation.

A phobia is an avoidance of a situation because you imagine your anxiety will rise to unacceptable levels. However, if you progressively confront that fear and stay in the situation, your anxiety will go down. Initially, you will feel anxious, and your anxiety will take time to reduce, but every subsequent time you confront the feared situation, your anxiety is slightly less and returns to normal more quickly. This is the principle of graded exposure or systematic desensitisation.