In this case, the phobic individual may be able to live a relatively anxiety-free life by simply avoiding one specific animal. Other people have phobias that are broader and more likely to occur in a wide variety of places or situations. Individuals who suffer from these broader types of phobias may need to drastically alter their lives to avoid exposure to the places or situations that they fear. In extreme cases, the phobia may actually dictate the person's type of employment, job location, driving route, recreational and social activities, home environment, and other important aspects of normal daily life. Phobias become disorders when they are disabling or distressing and interfere with functioning.
Doctors consider phobia to be a form of mental illness within the family of anxiety disorders.
Medically related fears, such as fear of blood and fear of injections, are also classified as specific phobias. Specific phobias related to the environment or blood are especially common among children between the ages of five and nine, while other forms of specific phobias tend to begin later in life, especially in young adults between the ages of 20 and 30. A person with social phobia is afraid of being in a situation where he or she may be humiliated, embarrassed or judged by others, such as social situations, particularly where unfamiliar people are involved. In some cases, the fear is limited to giving a single type of performance, such as a lecture, concert, business presentation or theater play. In other cases, however, the fear is more generalized, so that the phobic individual avoids many different types of social situations.