Till now we have learned quite a lot about phobia. For instance, in our previous article on Phobia List Starting With “D”, we learned about symptoms of phobia. However, there’s a lot more that we have not learned so far. Before we start with our Phobia List Starting With “E”, we will like to cover another topic – “how phobia is diagnosed?”. There are actually a set of guidelines according to which phobia is diagnosed. These guidelines can be found in DSM-5, which is the abbreviation for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5^th edition). The criteria outlined in the manual are provided below.

Phobia List Starting With “E”: How is Phobia Diagnosed?

The criteria for diagnosis of Phobia are:

A person displays a marked anxiety or fear for a particular situation or object. In case of children, anxiety or fear may take the form of clinging, freezing, tantrums and crying.
The situation or phobic object is responsible for invoking anxiety or fear in the person almost always.
The person either endures the phobic object or the situation with intense anxiety or fear or the person simply avoids the object or situation.
Compared to the actual threat or danger posed by the situation or object, the anxiety or fear is out of proportion.
The avoidance of the object or situation, the fear or anxiety caused by the phobic object or situation is persistent and lasts for at least 6 months.
Significant clinical distress is caused by the phobic object or situation causing the anxiety, avoidance or fear. Such fear, avoidance and anxiety is also leading to social and occupational impairment.
The disturbances that are experienced by the person because of the phobic object or situation cannot be explained properly using the symptoms of other mental disorders or avoidance of various other situations which can be associated with symptoms similar to panic.

Now that the criteria for diagnosis of phobia are mentioned, let us take a quick look at the Phobia List Starting With “E”.