Most people have fears of some sort, at some times in their lives. That is natural. But people who have a fear that stays with them constantly, or keeps coming back over and over again, are said to have a phobia.
Phobias can be fears of certain places, certain situations, or certain objects. Examples of some phobias are:
acrophobia, a fear of high places (tall buildings or mountain tops or high bridges)
agoraphobia, a fear of large, open spaces
ailurophobia, a fear of cats
claustrophobia, a fear of closed-in places (elevators or small rooms)
erythrophobia, a fear blushing
hydrophobia, a fear of water
mysophobia, a fear of dirt
nyctophobia, a fear of the dark
zoophobia, a fear of animals
Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, explained phobias as current fears that really substituted for other fears from a person’s childhood, even though the original fear may probably have been forgotten.
Doctors usually are able to treat people with phobias by helping them to remember the original incident that produced the fear in the first place.