What is a Phobia

            
            
             A phobia is a senseless, abnormal, specific fear. A person experiencing a phobia recognises that no actual danger is imminent. Phobias may be so compelling as to force a person to alter his/her way of life in order to avoid circumstances that trigger the phobia.
             A phobia can be an animate object, an inanimate object, something living or it can be heights, darkness closed spaces, infections, water and open spaces. .
             Phobia comes from the Greek word phobos, which means extreme fear or terror. .
             Phobia sufferers can be of any age but it is believed that a phobia is only properly .
             determined when a child is above the ages of five or six. .
             Phobias make people behave in an irrational way. .
             PANICKING .
             There was a recent case where a panicking elderly woman woke up members of her entire household out of their sleep in the early hours of the morning, in order for them to call the fire brigade to remove a slug that she saw in her kitchen. .
             FRANTICALLY .
             There was another case of a young man, who frantically ran out of his house and spent the night in his car when he sighted a mouse his house. It was not until someone thoroughly checked his house in the morning, to see if it the mouse .
             had gone, that he retuned home from his cold car. .
             It has been estimated that nearly eight per cent of all adults have a phobia of some sort. Recent surveys have been carried out and have shown that only one per cent of the population regard their phobias as "interfering seriously" with their life-styles.