There are actually three general types of phobias: the specific phobias, social phobia, and Agoraphobia.

Among the three, specific phobia is indeed the biggest class type.

It normally includes animal phobias, natural environment phobias, situational phobias, blood-injection-injury phobias, and other phobias.

From the five types of specific phobias, situational phobias are the ones that are quite more common nowadays in our modern society.

Basically, situational phobias are considered fears triggered by a specific situation. They oftentimes include:

• Fear of enclosed spaces or claustrophobia
• Fear of flying
• Fear of tunnels
• Fear of bridges
• Fear of home surroundings or eicophobia/oikophobia
• Fear of cars or motorphobia
• Fear of dentists
• Fear of driving

When To Seek Help

In real sense, although phobias like situational phobias are very common in today’s time, they still actually rarely cause considerable distress or any delay on your everyday activities. However, if you have a more serious phobia, it may in way indeed impact your day-to-day functioning, from your relationships to your occupational functioning.

Just like for an instance, if you have fear of enclosed places or claustrophobia, instead of accepting a very good job offer, you might just turn it down because you have to ride the elevator (an enclosed space) to finally get to the office. In an instance like this, when avoidance of the object or situation you are afraid of already interferes with your normal functioning or keeps you from doing things you actually have to do, then maybe it is finally time to seek medical help.

Oftentimes, we just ignore our fears not knowing that they will just cause much if not prevented or eliminated as early as possible.

Possible Treatments

According to some studies, the most effective form of therapy for the treatment of specific phobias like situational phobias is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) called systematic desensitization or exposure therapy.

Normally, in desensitization or exposure therapy, you will be exposed in a safe and controlled way to the object or situation that you are afraid of. Essentially, the most commonly used exposure therapy would involve gradatory encounters with the concerned object, at first only through your imagination and then eventually already in real sense.