10 Most Common Phobias

These are the ten most common phobias across the world. Chances are that almost everyone you meet will have experienced at least one of these phobias.

1. Agoraphobia This is usually expressed as a fear of open spaces, but sometimes it can also be a fear of crowded places. It can manifest itself as panic attacks.
2. Arachnophobia This is the fear of spiders. It's so common, they've even made a movie of the same name. Despite the fact that most spiders are not harmful, we seem to have a collective fear of them.
3. Acrophobia The fear of heights. Maybe it's standing close to the edge of a cliff, or looking out of the window of our hotel room. Fear of heights manifests in lots of ways. At it's extreme, it may even mean that we can't take a ride in an glass fronted elevator.
4. Claustrophobia The opposite of agoraphobia. This is the fear of confined or enclosed spaces. This is often accompanied by a fear of being unable to escape from the situation. It can be experienced in elevators, trains or planes.
5. Aviophobia The fear of flying. Even though flying is one of the safest forms of transport, people are often afraid of flying. It's often a combination of several other phobias, including not being in control and a fear of having a panic attack.
6. Dental Phobia It is estimated that up to 15% of the Western world are afraid of dentists. This could be partly due to fears about needles, dentist's drills and even white coats.
7. Social Phobia This usually manifests as a fear of some social interaction. Some of the biggest fears included in this are the fear of public speaking and interview anxiety.
8. Mysophobia This is the fear of germs. It can be related to obsessive compulsive disorder. Mysophobia is often accompanied by repeated hand washing and an avoidance of anything that is viewed as unclean.
9. Aquaphobia The fear of water, often accompanied by a fear of drowning. Up to 1 in 50 people are estimated to have a fear of water.
10. Fear of Commitment This often refers to the avoidance of marriage or other long-term partnership. Strictly speaking, it's not a medical phobia but it definitely ranks up there with other phobias in terms of how common it is.

So there you have them, some of the 10 most common phobias in the world.By Carl Walker

How are Anxiety and Weight Loss Related?

There are a number of things in life that can cause a person to lose weight. Many causes relate to a number of different physical health problems, such as types of terminal illness or sicknesses that are not always easily treated, or mental health problems, such as depression or stress. While the weight loss that is caused by physical health problems are easy enough to figure out and even treat, the weight loss that is due to mental health problems can be more difficult to treat because there is no physical reason for the individual to be losing weight.

People suffering from depression can often have a change in appetite that will either greatly increase their weight or more commonly cause a loss in appetite, which often causes a loss in weight. Intense anxiety, however, more often causes a significant loss of appetite in a person, which can then cause them to lose a lot of weight. Anxiety is a stress on the body, especially when a person finds that they are more anxious about life than they should be. When most people are anxious or worried, they can have a difficult time in thinking of anything else other than about what makes them feel anxious or worried. The appeal of food goes away and they can't bring themselves to eat because they are too tense to eat. They are distracted and their health becomes something that is no longer a great concern. Being this tense and not eating proper meals, or miss eating altogether, can be quite detrimental to a person's health. If this is allowed to go on for too long, some people will lose so much weight that they will begin to suffer other medical problems caused by the lack of proper nourishment.

There are many reasons as to why someone would become so anxious about something, much in the same way that depression can be a result of many different things; it depends on the person, their personality, what they have been through, their genetics and what their life is like. Any of these factors can easily be what is contributing to a person's anxiety and to their loss of appetite. Anyone who is so anxious and worried that they have lost their appetite to the point where they are beginning to lose weight should seriously consider contacting a therapist. Online therapy is becoming more popular for people to use these days, especially people who worry about other people finding out that they are seeing a therapist. The online therapist can communicate with the patient and find out why the patient is so distressed that their interest in food is gone. When the issue is found, the online therapist or counselor can then work with the patient to help them get over their anxiety and worries. In many cases, the therapist is successful in helping the patient deal with what is bothering them, and the patient begins to have more of an appetite as their issues are dealt with.

By: Jennifer Baxt

How to Get Rid of Negative Feelings

Negative feelings are one the worst things we can experience as a human being. And you might be reading this because you have some sort of negative feeling(s) that you have or encounter on a daily basis. I may know what you're going through right now the thing is I'm just like you.

There is not a day that goes by in my life where I do not encounter negative feelings. I've probably tried hundreds of different ways to cope with them, from trying my best not to think of a negative thought when it comes around the corner to reframing my thoughts into something else.

But no matter what, my negative feelings still keep coming like a tidal wave one after another.

Before you submerge yourself into another method of how to get rid of negative feelings, I want to share what has helped me. I can truly say that if you can master this, then you'll be able to handle your negative feelings a lot better in the long run, rather than just deal with the symptoms for a brief moment(e.g. do something, it goes away, it comes back later, repeat, etc.).

The key to getting rid of negative feelings isn't a giant mystery, but many people get angry, depressed, jealous, irritated, anxious, confused, and worried over things that may seem impossible to overcome. It would be pretty nice if we could stay detached to our emotions and not let them affect us and our thinking, but emotions are part of the body; they here to stay. And since we think about hundreds if not thousands of thoughts per day, it's natural that a few of those thoughts can affect how we feel. The biggest one being fear.

• Fear that we cannot do it...
• Fear that it will not work...
• Fear that this is impossible...
• Fear that this is not for me...
• Fear that we are always out of luck...
• Fear that we will never win...

When this happens, our imaginations run wild with more negative thoughts, and this can totally cause our bodies to go beyond just negative feelings. Do you ever feel so out of sync with yourself that you start to analyze every different rational way just to get a hold of your emotions? Then what happens is you're so in the midst of analyses paralyses that your body actually because paralyzed? At this point the mere process of just taking action is not even an option anymore.

If you're a person who constantly finds themselves analyzing your feelings, what you need to do is stop. This will always cause you to have negative emotions. They won't go away just because you started to reframe your thoughts into something differently. What happens when another similar situation comes up? What happens if it's worse? Will you have to come up with another hundred ways until you reframe your negative thoughts and feelings into something else?

I used do this a lot for hours and the end result was always the same; either staying the same place where I was hours ago or backtracking.

For example:

"I'm afraid that people will think lowly of me if I do something wrong."

This is negative thinking will cause tension in your body, and you're body will then tell your subconscious to stop working. Then your mind go into a mode where all you are doing is battling with yourself endlessly through heated analyses.

• "Why would people think lowly of me?"
• "Who are these people?"
• "Should I keep going?"
• "Just go!"
• "What do I need to do?"

All this talk of analyzing the situation is useless...

If you want to get rid of negative thinking, do not battle your body with your other thoughts! What you need to do is start trying to be in complete harmony with your body. They should be an aligned, not disjointed.

In other words: just be.

When a negative situation comes up, such as a negative thought or a negative emotion; let it be.

Nothing outside of your physical body is actually happening; everything is going on inside of you.

When you feel worry, anxiety, or fear, let it be. Accept that it's there; don't try to fight it.

When any negative situation comes, be prepared for it, be aware of it, but most importantly, be conscious of it.

Sometimes when this happens, you'll absolutely need to stop what you're doing and go somewhere where it's completely silent and just sit there being undisturbed by. This may take 1 hour; this may take 10 minutes. It depends on how strong the negative emotion is but whatever you do, don't try to fight your negative feelings.

Don't question it, don't analyze it, don't talk about it, and don't obsess or think about it.

Just be.

Be aware of your feelings and allow them run through your body. As hard as it may be at first, if you can do this, then you will be able to channel that negative energy into something positive later on.

Understand that whatever thought caused the uncomfortable you are having, you first accept that it is what it is. The second thing is being conscious of how that makes you feel? Specifically where is the feeling located? Do you feel in it in your chest, your arms; your whole body? Maybe you can't even identify where it is because the feeling moves from place to place in your body.

Don't go into an emotional tantrum like some people do. This just feeds into the negative feelings even more. Just stay still. Recognize these feelings and actually feel them.

This may be contrary to what people belief, but the truth is your not escaping your feelings. You're facing them straight on.

As you're feeling them, say to yourself, "I understand that this is what I am thinking about right now, and I understand that this is what I'm feeling right now. I accept this."

To really understand how to accept something, sometimes you won't even need words at all; you won't even need to say what is written above. Words may cause even more trouble if you start talking within your mind again. It should be silent.

You just are just being at the moment.

You are absorbing whatever happens to be the case.

Whatever you are thinking and feeling, you accept.

If you don't know something, then you don't know. Accept the feeling of not knowing something. If you truly accept something for what it is, you should feel an instant calmness to you.

Anger, jealous, curiosity, and fear should slowly dissipate from your body and you should be able to think more clearly and logically on what to do next once these feelings are gone.

You're not fighting your negative feelings; you're absorbing them and being in sync with them.

The more you are able to do this, the easier it becomes. It's definitely a skill that is worth investing in my opinion because if you can learn to accept the small negative feelings that you are having, then you will be able to learn how to deal with bigger negative feelings the next time it comes. But you'll be prepared when the 83th negative situation comes up, you'll be so completely detached from it that you'll simply brush it off and move on. That's what you're working up to.

It definitely beats taking pills from doctors that are just a temporarily relief. If you can't accept the first negative feeling, then you won't be able to get through the others. You'll constantly have to rely on short term alternative routes to escape the uncomfortable.

I've always disregarded the quote, "No pain, no gain." I've heard so many quotes in my lifetime that sometimes I just neglect them. But this quote sums it up.

Each time you feel a negative feeling, it may be painful but accept it. You're battling it; you're absorbing it. You're gaining ground each time you do this and by the time the 83rd negative situation comes you; you'll be so detached to it that you'll just move on. You'll be indifferent.

The real question isn't how to get rid of negative feelings? People who try to "get rid of it" in my opinion, are taking the wrong first step and will have a hard time doing so because you're in constant battle with something that's naturally a part of you.

Emotions are not something where you can just "remove" or "erase" as you're not getting rid of anything.

You're absorbing something and putting it for better use later on.
And the key to doing this first understand it and accept it. Allow to to be there.

Or to put it how I'd liked to put it: just be.

By doing this, you'll be able to conquer your negative feelings, move forward, and be prepared when the next one comes up.

By Tristan Lee