Triskaidekaphobia. Even the name is intimidating. On the other hand, it's simply an irrational fear of the number 13. Which seems so random. Why are people afraid of such weird stuff? I mean, we all know about arachnophobia, but then again spiders can be harmful and they are creepy. But to harbor a fear of a number? How's that gonna hurt anyone? I guess it isn't any weirder than xanthophobia (fear of the color or word yellow), metrophobia (fear of poetry), or chaetophobia (fear of hair).
How do we get these phobias in the first place? There are three main psychological theories that are often applied to phobias, but there are problems with all of them. Arachnophobia is one of the most common phobias, so I'll use it to illustrate the theories.
1. The psychodynamic view is that the object of fear is actually just a symbol of the real thing that is feared. So basically, if a person was bitten by a dog as a child, and saw a spider during or shortly after the bite, the person might transfer their fear and anxiety from the dog onto the spider. Nobody really likes this theory much. There are lots of things that are scary and even traumatic to us when we're young, but we don't have phobias stemming from all of them.
2. The classical conditioning theory (remember Pavlov's dogs) says that the fear of spiders could be conditioned, if spiders were linked to traumatic events. A person developing arachnophobia would only develop the phobia if he/she learned to link the spider with the trauma. Which makes this problematic, too, because it requires the phobia to exist only because it reminds someone of a fearful experience. How many people have fearful experiences with the word yellow, or poetry?
3. Evolutionary psychology says that awareness of potential sources of danger could either lead people to fear them, or at least make it easier for us to fear them. Social learning shows that fears can be transmitted through observation, so a person who develops a particular phobia would apparently have to observe another person reacting fearfully to a spider. Imagine a group of early humans exploring a cave, coming upon dangerous spiders, being bitten, and getting very sick or maybe even dying. The rest of the community would develop an awareness of the spiders and learn to avoid them. This makes some sense, but wait, there's more. Like if you apply the theory to modern things that people have phobias about, like cars or computers. And it fails to explain how relatives (people with the shared DNA) don't share the same phobia.
Here's my explanation. A phobia, by definition, is a persistent, excessive, and irrational fear with a specific trigger, which is NOT explained by post-traumatic stress (a person is afraid of spiders because spiders actually caused stress and/or harm) or another mental disorder. (A person with OCD might have a "phobia" about dirt, but it's really a way of showing their obsession with cleanliness.) That means my "arachnophobia" isn't technically a phobia: I'm highly allergic to insect bites and stings ... my fear is rational. BUT, phobias tend to start when a situation triggers the fight-or-flight response, and the event is recorded by the amygdala, so the body can recognize the situation as dangerous or deadly in the future. And it does, even when later similar situations are not dangerous or deadly. They're essentially a form of anxiety disorder.
When it comes down to it, the phobia response is a neurological glitch, sort of like hiccups. Which is why they are relatively easy to treat. So if you have a true phobia, don't worry about it!
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