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People who have phobias may experience a number of symptoms, including the following that are common to all types of phobias:

• Persistent, irrational fear of an object, activity or situation
  
  
• Anxiety from mere anticipation of an encounter with a feared stimulus
  
  
• Physical symptoms such as sweating, rapid heartbeat, breathing difficulties and intense anxiety (e.g., panic attack)
  
  
• Impaired ability to engage in normal tasks due to fear
  
  
• Inability to control fear despite knowledge that it is irrational or out of proportion with the stimulus causing the fear
  
  
• Strong desire to avoid the source of fear, including taking unusual measures to keep away from such objects, people or situations

Symptoms associated with specific phobias include: