What causes a phobia?

It must be said, that there are almost as many phobias as there are objects or situations to which the fear can attach itself.

However, whatever the object or situation that the person is afraid of, the mechanisms making the phobia happen are almost always the same.

Quite often, phobias are caused in our childhood.  The reasons for this are...

• A child's understanding of what is, or isn't a real danger, isn't as developed as in an adult.
• A child cannot make as rational a decision about a situation or object as can an adult who has a lifetime of experiences to draw from.
• Children tend to experience extremes of pleasure, shame, guilt and fear much more easily than an adult.
• A child's subconscious mind 'screens' terrible memories from a young child, protecting the child from unbearable memories (A process called 'repression').
• A child will absorb fears from those around him/her... picking up phobias unwittingly transferred to them from a well meaning parent ("uurgh... quick... get away from that spider !!!")

All these facts work together to produce a fear known as a phobia in the child.

The initial cause of a phobia, is a real fear experienced by the child.  Remembering that children can experience a very high level of fear relatively easily, this can lead to such a high level of fear, that the mind 'represses' the event to protect the child from the memory of it.

Quite often, however, the process of repression doesn't quite screen off all of the memory, and the child is left with a feeling of fear, but with no idea of where this fear came from

This fear is often very strong, but 'unattached'.  This unattached fear is called 'free floating anxiety'.

The mind, however, likes to attach things to one-another, and soon this 'free floating anxiety', as it is known, symbolically attaches itself to an object or situation, and in that split second, a phobia has been formed.

Now that this symbolic link has been formed, it will trigger the fear, whenever the object or situation is present, so, for example, when someone sees a spider, the link triggers the original fear to be felt once again.

Almost any object or situation can be the focus of a phobia, because this 'free floating anxiety' is so free to roam about looking for something to attach itself to.  Often, however, the object or situation that the phobia is formed around, is transferred from a well meaning parent.

To give another example of this, suppose a little girl goes through the process of repression mentioned above, and a 'free floating anxiety' has been formed, and is 'floating' about, waiting to attach itself to something.

Imagine then, that the mother is terrified of thunderstorms, and as a storm approaches, the mother takes the girl into the understairs cupboard to hide, just as she had done every time in the past.  This is just the sort of thing that the free floating anxiety has been waiting for, and attaches itself to thunderstorms. 

It is quite possible, that from that moment on, that little girl will have a phobia of thunderstorms that has been transferred to her from her well meaning mother. 

It may be, that she goes on to develop a fear of loud noises, or flashes, or heavy rain, whatever, and may have no conscious recollection of the original cause of her fears.

If you would like more information on the types of phobias, and how they differ from everyday fear, see the 'fears and phobias' page.

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