What Causes Phobias?

It is believed that a phobia can be caused by a combination of biological and life factors. A phobia can stem from a variety of circumstances including situations based on emotional trauma, disturbances and unpleasant situations experienced by an individual at any point in their life. Many times the emotional trauma is something that is deep seeded and appears in a person’s behavior when a memory develops into fear, hence becoming a phobia.

Many intense feelings are remembered in the body through nerve endings. Therefore, when a person is afraid of something a particular feeling is remembered and released through these nerves. This feeling may intensify over the years and develop into a fear of the feeling itself.

In addition, studies show that genetics can play a part in the development of a phobia as there are instances of twins who were separated at birth developing a fear of the same things, even though they were raised in different places.

Another group of phobias looks to be focused on specific cultures, where a group of people in one race or geographic area will form a fear of certain behaviors. This is very much different from certain social phobias that can form in groups of people regardless of culture or ethnicity.

Typically, a combination of factors must be present for a phobia to develop and many times phobic behavior is also furthered because of some other medical condition or anxiety problem.