People can develop phobic reactions to animals, social situations and activities.
Broken down by age and gender, the NIMH study found phobias were the most common psychiatric illness among women in all age groups and the second most common illness among men older than 25. Symptoms A phobic disorder can be so mild that it hardly affects a person's life. The feared object or situation may enter the person's life so rarely that the phobia doesn't interfere with the ability to work, socialize and go about a daily routine. But other phobic disorders may focus on something as common as running water and may thus prevent showering, bathing or brushing one's teeth. Or they may arise whenever the person ventures from home, preventing work, social life or grocery shopping.