A phobia is when someone has an irrational fear of an object such as fear of heights, fear of snakes, and other things. The name phobia is derived from Phobos, who is the Greek god of fear and most phobias have a Greek name. Most all phobics know what causes their fear and they know how to solve their phobia by just staying away from a certain object or place. This could be very disturbing to the individual because some phobics are scared of open places (Agoraphobia) and some are scared of large crowds, this could be harmful to their social lives, they couldnt go to movies, concerts, or even sporting events. When a person has a phobia and they are experiencing their fear they may suffer from panic attacks or even severe anxiety.There are some striking statistics regarding phobias. Women are more likely to suffer from phobias rather than men for example; it was estimated that 95 percent of all Zoophobics (fear of animals) are women of average or lower intelligence. Specific phobias can strike more than 1 and 10 people in the U.S. alone. No one knows just what causes them, though they seem to run in families so they must be passed on from generation to generation. Phobias usually first appear in adolescence or adulthood. Phobias start suddenly and tend to be more persistent in adults rather than in a child: only about 20 percent of adult phobias vanish on there own. When children have specific phobias such as fear of animals, those fears usually disappear over time. Approximately 4 to 5 percent of the U.S. population have one or more clinically significant phobias in a given year. Specific phobias occur in people of all ages. The average age of onset for a social phobia is between 15 and 20 years of age, although is can often begin in childhood or in late adulthood. Freud was one of the first people to carefully study phobias. He believied that the phobias object is chosen to symbolize the real source of fear or conflict. Freud believ...