A phobia is an unexplained, paralyzing fear of something real or imaginary and can have debilitating consequences for the person suffering from the fear.

Phobias are not the same as being afraid of a real stressful event; such as the fear one might feel immediately following an auto accident. That is a reaction to a real event.

A phobia can cause an anxiety or panic attack that can leave the person with an overload of adrenaline which causes the heart to race, the breathing to become difficult, the body to shake, and dizziness. These physical symptoms are often confused with the symptoms of a heart attack, which escalates the symptoms even further.

Phobias come in many sizes and shapes, and may be something as understandable as the fear of a spider, or something harder to understand, like the fear of going out of the house. Either way, the trigger of the fear is magnified and overwhelms the person with the fear.

The thing to understand is that the person with the phobia has no control over the fact that they are afraid. The terror completely controls their lives. The only thing that they can control is their focus on the fear. Family and friends are the first defense when it comes to assisting a family member with a phobia.

These fears appear to come from learned behavior and situations. If someone has a mother who is afraid of heights, it is possible to transfer that fear to the child. The child may grow up to have a fear of heights but no understanding as to why they have a fear of heights.

There are five types of phobias: natural environmental, animal, blood, situational, and the other category.

Dread surrounding the natural environment consists of an unnatural fear of tornadoes, thunder, earthquakes, lightning, or even tsunamis. This is not a normal fear, where someone could feel anxious if the weather radio goes off with a tornado watch announcement. This is fear that causes someone to have a physical reaction to a dark cloud in the sky.

Apprehension around animals is understandable if someone has been bitten by a dog, but for someone to lock themselves into their house because a dog walked down the street is irrational and comes under the phobia heading.

Blood is a very common anxiety, no one likes to have blood drawn, or the sight of an injury which results in blood can cause discomfort and slight anxiety, particularly if the blood belongs to them. But a fear surrounding blood may cause someone to faint at the sight of blood.

Situational phobias are those unnatural fears that affect someone who is afraid of flying. They may get all the way to the airport, go down the boarding ramp and at the sight of the plane door, turn around and flee the scene, with no regards to the money spent on a ticket. Someone with natural apprehension about flying will actually fly, even if they do have an anxious moment on the plane.

Other phobias may include the fear of loud noises, clowns, or the fear of choking.

People with these fears know that they have an unnatural terror and they know that the fear keeps them from leading a healthy and happy life. And they know that they need help to control it.