What are these people afraid of?

"A phobia is a persistent, irrational fear that causes a person to feel intense anxiety". People can develop phobias about many different things, such as spiders, the darkness, social situations, food, enclosed spaces, to name but a few.

Phobias can affect anyone from any class or background or age.Reactions to phobias could range from mere avoidance to complete panic attacks, with its own set of symptoms. It appears as if heredity also plays a role in the development of phobias.

Here is a shortened list of the A-Z of phobias:

Agoraphobia - a fear of open spaces
Bibliophobia - a fear of books
Carcinophobia - a fear of cancer
Dendrophobia - a fear of trees
Ecclesophobia - a fear of church
Felinophobia - a fear of cats
Genuphobia - a fear of knees
Hydrophobia - a fear of the water
Isolophobia - a fear of being alone
Japanophobia - a fear of Japanese people
Kleptophobia - a fear of stealing
Lygophobia - a fear of darkness
Musophobia - a fear of mice
Necrophobia - a fear of death
Panophobia - a fear of everything
Ranidaphobia - a fear of frogs
Schlionophobia - a fear of school
Telosphobia - a fear of being last
Uranophobia - a fear of heaven
Venustraphobia - a fear of beautiful women
Wiccaphobia - a fear of witches
Xanthophobia - a fear of the colour yellow
Xenophobia - a fear of strangers or foreigners

(Health24, updated June 2010)