Phobias Are a Common Mental Illness

When I was a little girl, a spider decided to have babies in my room. All I really remember is hundreds of tiny specks all around the edges of my ceiling. I was terrified, and I slept in a sleeping bag on my parents’ floor for quite a while afterward.

For years — and we’re talking well into adulthood — I couldn’t go to bed without first carefully checking the ceiling for spiders. Any suspicious speck had to be dealt with immediately, or I couldn’t go to sleep. It was fear, and it was real. It was only after I had kids and different kinds of fear — related to parenting — crept into my psyche that I stopped the nightly spider-check ritual. (Other parents might recognize those fears: Is he breathing? When is a fever too high? Will she make friends at school? How can I make sure I’m not raising a bully? What if something happens to me?)

I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” —L.M. Montgomery

Especially around Halloween, people love to be scared — visiting haunted houses, going to horror movies — and the reasons behind it have to do with the amazing way our brains and emotional systems work. At times, fear can be fun, even exhilarating — as long as our rational minds understand that we are safe.

There are times, though, that fear manifests more darkly. Phobias — like fear of spiders, or of the dark, or of going to the dentist — are very real and are considered some of the most common mental illnesses in the United States. In fact, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 8 percent of adults have some kind of phobia, often falling into one of four categories: fears of the natural environment, fears related to animals, fears related to medical treatments or issues and fears related to specific situations. Abnormal levels of fear can have a serious impact, causing significant stress and affecting day-to-day life. If phobias and the resulting anxiety are serious, it might be a good idea to seek treatment to keep those fears from growing and becoming debilitating.

So while you might love a good scare, remember everyone is different and might not be as excited at being pulled through haunted houses. Be gentle with them. At least, we can all enjoy autumn — the cooler days, the colorful leaves, the weekend festivals full of fun for the whole family and of course, pumpkins. It’s not hard to see why it’s the favorite time of year for so many people. 

Kim O'Brien Root: Kim O'Brien Root was a newspaper reporter — writing for papers in Virginia and Connecticut — for 15 years before she took a break to be a stay-at-home mom. When the lure of writing became too strong, she began freelancing and then took on the role of the Health Journal’s editor in Dec. 2017. She juggles work with volunteering for the PTA and the Girl Scouts. She lives in Hampton, Virginia, with her husband, a fellow journalist, their two children and a dog.