List of Phobias: Common Names and the 5 DSM-5 Phobia Types

There is no official list of phobias with a fixed number of names. The DSM-5, the diagnostic manual used by U.S. clinicians, groups specific phobias into five types: animal, natural environment, blood-injection-injury, situational and other^[1].

Two more phobias sit outside that group and carry their own diagnoses: social anxiety disorder, formerly called social phobia^[2], and agoraphobia^[7]. Every other name, from arachnophobia to emetophobia, labels the object of fear within one of the five specific phobia types.

Specific phobia is common: an estimated 9.1% of U.S. adults had one in the past year^[4]. Prevalence by age, sex and severity is on the specific phobias statistics page; the list below covers the names, the categories and what sets each apart.

Animal type

Fears of animals such as dogs, spiders, mice and insects^[1]. In the World Mental Health (WMH) Surveys, animal phobia was the most prevalent subtype, at 3.0% of respondents across countries and 1.4% to 8.7% by country^[3].

Natural environment type

Fears of heights, weather, darkness and water^[1]. Fear of heights had a cross-national prevalence of 2.8%, and fear of still water or weather events 2.3%^[3].

It was also the rarest type in one clinic sample: at a London specialist service, natural environment phobias made up 7% of adult specific phobia cases, the smallest share of any type^[1].

Blood-injection-injury type

Fears of seeing blood, getting an injection or being injured. Survey questions for this type also ask about avoiding the dentist^[5]. The WMH Surveys put blood-injection-medical phobia at 3.0%, level with animal phobia^[3].

It is the one type with a distinct physical signature. Exposure typically triggers a diphasic response: heart rate first rises, then falls, along with blood pressure, which can lead to fainting^[8]. One 2014 paper reports fainting or near-fainting in 80% of cases^[8].

Situational type

Fears of situations such as enclosed spaces, flying on a plane and riding trains^[1]. Fear of closed spaces had a cross-national prevalence of 2.2%, and fear of flying 1.3%, the lowest of the subtypes measured^[3].

These are the phobias most likely to prompt treatment. In the WMH data, treatment use was highest for fear of flying (28.4%), closed spaces (27.5%) and heights (26.0%)^[3].

Other type

A catch-all for fears that fit none of the above, such as vomiting, choking or incontinence^[1]. Emetophobia, the fear of vomiting, is the leading example: it was the most common single phobia among people seeking treatment at the London service, at 17.8% of adult specific phobias and 23.4% of those in children^[1].

Social anxiety disorder, formerly called social phobia, is persistent fear of one or more social or performance situations involving unfamiliar people or possible scrutiny by others^[2]. The core fear is acting in a way, or showing anxiety symptoms, that will be embarrassing or humiliating^[2].

Because public speaking is a performance situation, glossophobia generally falls here rather than among specific phobias. An estimated 7.1% of U.S. adults had social anxiety disorder in the past year^[2]. Prevalence detail is on the social anxiety disorder page, and treatment trials are reviewed in CBT for social anxiety.

Agoraphobia is intense fear of any place or situation where escape might be difficult. It involves avoiding situations such as being alone outside the home, traveling in a car, bus or airplane, or being in a crowded area^[7].

It is much less common than specific or social phobia: past-year prevalence among U.S. adults was 0.9% for females and 0.8% for males^[7]. See the agoraphobia page for more.

The answer depends on who is counted. In community surveys, animal phobias lead. The WMH Surveys, which interviewed 124,902 people in 22 countries between 2001 and 2011, found animal and blood-injection-medical phobias tied at 3.0% each, followed by heights at 2.8%^[3].

Clinic data look different. Among 1,017 patients with a specific phobia identified over five years at a London specialist service, phobia of vomiting was the single most common, and the other and situational types outnumbered animal phobias^[1]. The authors note that the very high female-to-male ratio for vomiting and animal phobias in treatment contrasts with community findings^[1].

Many people have more than one phobia. In the WMH data, 3.4% of respondents reported a single subtype and 4.0% reported two or more^[3]. In the U.S. National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), most specific phobias involved multiple fears, and more fears were associated with greater disability, impairment and treatment seeking^[6].

Women are affected more often. Lifetime prevalence in the WMH Surveys was 9.8% for females and 4.9% for males^[3], and NIMH reports past-year rates of 12.2% for U.S. females and 5.8% for males^[4].

Popular lists run to hundreds of entries because a name can be coined for almost any feared object by attaching -phobia to a Greek or Latin root. None of those names is a separate diagnosis.

A clinician assessing a fear of clowns, bridges or the number 13 would record specific phobia under one of the five DSM-5 types, and a fear that fits none of the named types goes under other^[1]. The label on a list does not change the criteria.

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, offered online as the fear of long words, is wordplay rather than a recognized condition. Trypophobia, an aversion to clusters of small holes, and nomophobia, anxiety about being without a phone, are also absent from the DSM-5 subtype scheme^[1].

Fear alone is not a phobia. Diagnosis requires unreasonable fear tied to a specific object or situation, avoidance of it, persistence over time, and clinically significant distress or impairment^[5].

NIMH describes specific phobia as an intense, irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger. Adults often recognize the fear as irrational, yet even thinking about the object or situation can bring on severe anxiety^[4].

Most phobias start early. The median age of onset was 8 years in the WMH Surveys^[3], and the mean was 9.7 years in NESARC, where the average episode lasted 20.1 years^[6]. New cases still occur in adulthood: a 2018 review notes that although specific phobias often begin in childhood, their incidence peaks during midlife and old age^[5].

Severity varies widely. Of U.S. adults with a past-year specific phobia, 21.9% had serious impairment, 30.0% moderate and 48.1% mild^[4]. For the difference between a panic attack and the looser term anxiety attack, see panic attack vs. anxiety attack.

Exposure therapy is the current treatment of choice for specific phobias, according to a 2018 review in The Lancet Psychiatry^[5]. It involves real-life (in vivo) or imagined contact with the feared object or situation^[5].

Öst's one-session treatment averages about 2 hours^[5]. In his group's studies, a single 3-hour session of massed exposure was as effective as multiple sessions totaling 6 hours for phobias of flying, blood and injections, and enclosed spaces^[5].

The evidence is not one-sided. A 2008 meta-analysis found multiple sessions may be somewhat more effective on questionnaire-based outcomes at follow-up^[5]. Virtual reality exposure, first used for fear of heights, remains a viable option for other specific phobias^[5].

Few people get treated. Only 8.0% of U.S. adults with specific phobia in NESARC reported treatment specifically for it^[6]. Across the WMH countries, 23.1% of people with a past-year specific phobia reported any treatment, from 9.6% in low and lower-middle income countries to 30.1% in high-income countries^[3].

Broader trial evidence for anxiety treatments is summarized in therapy for anxiety, and overall anxiety figures are on the anxiety page.