Why Do We Have Phobias?

Kiah Pickering, Staff Writer

    Why do we have phobias? What makes us so scared of certain things and objects? Genetic and environmental factors can cause phobias. Children who have a close relative with an anxiety disorder are at risk of developing a phobia. There are high incidents of people developing phobias after traumatic brain injuries.

    Simple phobias can often be linked to an early negative child experience. For example, if your trapped in a small space when you’re young, you may develop a fear of small spaces when you’re older, Claustrophobia. Other factors in the family environment, such as having parents who are particularly anxious, may also affect the way you deal with anxiety later in life.

    Abbey Storer, Freshman at Thunder Ridge High School, has many phobias. A few of them are, fear of feet, spiders, snakes, holes, and finally clowns. Storer says “ I’ve just always hated those things ever since I was young… They gross me out and it’s just a sight I do not every want to really see, ever.”

    Storer’s story of encountering of a phobia begins when she was little, she had a situation with a snake. She was hiking with her dad and mom and she wandered off and wanted to play. Storer then came across the snake and she started to scream, because she didn’t know what to do with it. So Storer just stood still and the snake came up to her and wrapped around her foot; her foot started to lose color and she couldn’t feel her foot. After that, Storer has always hated snakes and hiking in the desert. Storer will never go back to that place, ever.

Storer’s story may be unique to her, but many phobia sufferers have similar traumatizing events. Don’t be afraid of a phobia, but be aware that they do exist.