Our Most Common Fears
Allison Van Dusen ,12.14.06, 12:01 AM ET

We all like to think we're unique. But when it comes to our fears, we're
anything but.
might as well be called public sweating.
Some fears are just universal, but they don’t have to be misunderstood.
Most are evolutionary, experts say, and develop as a response to
situations thought to cause harm, such as a poisonous bite, or, in the
case of a closed space , those that make us vulnerable to a predator.
And if they aren't innate, we can easily pick them up from our parents
or by watching a frightening experience, such as a near-drowning.
"They all have some potential threat of danger," says Jerilyn Ross,
president and CEO of the national nonprofit organization the Anxiety
Disorders Association of America. "The higher the person's perceived
threat of danger, the more frightened the person will be."
Fortunately, for the majority of the population, these responses are
normal and oftentimes useful.
Children, for instance, may retreat from a high ledge because they sense
they could get hurt. Fear of public speaking, which can bring even the
toughest prosecutor to his knees, stems from the concern that he'll be
judged and seen as inadequate, unattractive and dumb. As a result, he
may spend more time preparing to make sure his presentation goes
smoothly.
But others, who experience irrational or excessive reactions to feared
objects or situations known as phobias, deal with an entirely different
brand of dread.
Ross herself once had a phobia of heights, which for years wouldn't
allow her to go above the 10th floor of her workplace, despite the fact
that she was an avid skier. Phobias, she says, can come out of the blue.
A person may have a panic attack while driving across a bridge, suddenly
feeling an overwhelming sense of impending doom, rapid heart beats, the
sweats, trembling and chest pain. The fear of another attack can make
him or her go to great lengths to steer clear of bridges, or whatever
circumstance triggered the reaction in the first place.
According to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, 19 million
people have specific phobias, such as crossing bridges or tunnels
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15 million have a social phobia, e.g., public speaking; and 2 million
have agoraphobia, when sufferers avoid places where they previously had
a panic attack. Those who have one phobia likely have others too.
The bad news is that more of us are experiencing these kinds of anxiety
disorders, says Robert Leahy, president of the International Association
for Cognitive Psychotherapy and director of the American Institute for
Cognitive Therapy. In his upcoming book tentatively titled Anxiety Free,
Leahy discusses how we came to live in the "age of anxiety." The average
child today, he says, has the same level of anxiety as the average
psychiatric patient in the 1950s.
Much of the rise in anxiety is related to people feeling their
connections with others are less stable--there's been an increase in
divorce, fewer people are getting married and they're less engaged in
their churches, synagogues and local institutions such as the PTA.
Surveys show that while many Americans' lives are improving in every
material way, their expectations for happiness are also rising and they
feel less satisfied. Acts of terrorism, despite the low odds of actually
being affected by one, have made walking through airport security and
riding the subway in a major city more stressful.
But don't get too depressed. According to experts, major anxiety
problems are treatable.
For phobias, that primarily means cognitive behavioral therapy. It
involves helping people face their fears and overcome them, says Dr.
Brian Doyle, clinical professor of psychiatry and of family and
community medicine at Georgetown University Medical School. By
confronting the feared object or situation in a gradual way, people
learn to control their reactions. Because certain situations are
difficult to access or recreate, some psychologists are even using
virtual reality as an aid.
Doyle, who often works collaboratively with psychologists to treat
patients, says there are a few different groups of medications, such as
beta-blockers, benzodiazepines and SSRIs that can calm the body or
provide short-term relief of anxiety too.
Though not a cure, therapy can help people live normal lives again. But
It isn't easy, says Barbara Rothbaum, a professor in psychiatry and
director of the Trauma and Anxiety Recovery Program at the Emory
University School of Medicine.
"Being scared of something,” she says, “and doing it anyway to get over
it--[that] takes courage.”