What are the causes of phobias? It is unusual for a phobia to start after the age of 30; most of them begin during early childhood, teenage years or early adulthood. They can be caused by a stressful situation or experience, a frightening event, or a parent or household member who has a phobia which the child becomes progressively aware of.
Common causes for specific (simple) phobias
These usually develop when the child is between four and eight years of age. In some cases it may be the result of something that happened early in life. The trigger might have been an unpleasant experience in a confined space, which festered and developed into claustrophobia over time.
As mentioned above, witnessing a family member's phobia is a common cause for phobias which started during childhood. A kid whose mother suffers from arachnophobia is much more likely to develop the same phobia as well. Experts stress that phobias picked up from parents are learned fears - they are not genetically inherited.
Common causes for complex phobias
The causes of agoraphobia or social phobia are still a mystery, nobody is really sure. Health care professionals believe they are caused by a combination of life experiences, brain chemistry and genetics.
Social phobias are more likely to be caused by an extremely stressful experience than agoraphobia, researchers say.
Phobias and survival - there may be evolutionary explanations to many phobias. In prehistoric environments, remaining in wide open spaces would have increased the risk of being attacked and eaten by a predatory animal. The instinct of staying at home, especially for young children, aids survival.
Young children in their caves and huts would have had to rapidly learn to avoid dangerous snakes and spiders.
Social phobia may have been a useful survival instinct during ancient and prehistoric times. Being among people you do not know, from perhaps another tribe, was much more dangerous than finding yourself among a crowd of strangers in a shopping mall today.