It was just a picture on the side of my computer screen, but I could barely breathe. I flung my hands to my face, shielding my eyes from the horror that they saw and, just barely peeking enough to see the corner of the screen, clicked the mouse to close the site. I know that my sometimes paralyzing fear of spiders is not rational. I am logical enough to even feel a little silly about it. A phobia is an irrational fear triggered by certain objects or situations.
Specific phobia is the fear of a specific object or thing.
The second category of phobia, social phobia, is the fear of social situations. And the last category of phobia is Agoraphobia, the fear of any situation that might provoke panic attacks, or fear of losing control. All three types of phobias create a physiological response in their sufferers. An increase in adrenaline causes one's heart and breathing to accelerate, muscles tighten and sweat glands to activate, it also triggers a release of stored sugar, increased metabolic rate and inhibited digestion. While it may have made sense for me to have this sort of reaction to spiders if I was living thousands of years ago, nowadays it makes my life more difficult.