The Top Ten Phobias of the World – Is Your Phobia Here

If you’re a hypochondriac, press the back button now! In no particular order, these are the top ten phobias in the world with a brief description to help you decide whether you suffer from them.

1. Fear of public speaking

Said to be worse for a lot of people than fear of death itself, this is the phobia of standing up in front of a group of people and potentially making a fool of yourself.

2. Fear of death

The grim reaper will strike us all, that’s for certain. You may be able to achieve resurrection by being cryogenically frozen but no-one knows for sure. So death is something that you need to at least acknowledge even if you’re still afraid of it happening.

3. Fear of flying

Surprisingly common and usually a hybrid of several fears: fear of being in an enclosed space, phobia of heights and the worry about not being in control, although a rational tempering of this last part would be that there’s a better than average chance that the pilot wants to survive the flight as well.

4. Fear of spiders

Whether they’re creepy crawly spiders or ones whose venom will cause you to become ill or even dead. A lot of people learn that they should be afraid of spiders at an early age. You’re sitting there, innocently playing with a spider when your mother walks into the room and screams. An instant phobia for the rest of your life.

5. Social Phobia

Although this can be confused with a fear of crowds, since the two often go hand in hand, this is generally a phobia about having to mix socially. Normally it applies in person and there are even sources of help on social networking websites such as Facebook.

6. Fear of needles

At heart, we’re all a bit squeamish and the fear of needles or injections neatly takes that to the next level. This can sometimes be avoided by the simple act of looking the other direction but more often you need to talk to the dentist or whoever else is threatening to stab you with a sterile needle to come up with an alternative.

7. Fear of germs or dirt

Taken to its extreme, you could end up like Howard Hughes who sought to protect himself from dirt and germs. This can be linked with OCD as the obsessive behavior of always washing your hands or cleaning everything around you can manifest itself that way.

8. Claustrophobia or fear of enclosed spaces

Many people suffer from this problem and are worried about small spaces. These don’t have to be physically small – most people would argue that whilst the seats on a plane are often cramped the actual cabin that you’re in is reasonably sized. But claustrophobia doesn’t care about nuances like that and can manifest itself even when the space isn’t small by most standards.

9. Fear of snakes

Another fear that has its roots in perfectly good places. Some snakes are poisonous so it makes sense to be afraid of those species. But others are perfectly harmless, even if they’re a bit slithery.

10. Fear of thunderstorms

Again, not without its roots in common sense. Historically we wouldn’t have been sheltered by modern buildings and thunderstorms and the associated lightening would be something to be scared of.

The good news is that with the right tools, you can cure any phobia in a very short space of time.