A phobia is an extreme or irrational fear of something, key word is irrational one person could have a phobia of puppies and another person can love puppies while thinking how irrational the person with a phobia of puppies is. There is no exact reason someone has a phobia they could have experienced a traumatizing event to they are just flat out terrified of something. Someone with a phobia might not think they have one they may just believe they have a fear of something.

You can recognize a phobia from the symptoms, trouble breathing, sweating, trembling, feeling of choking, pain or tightness in chest, headache/dizziness, numbness, feeling faint, and disorientation there are many more symptoms but that was a few to sum up the main ones a person may get.

There are many different types of phobias some more common than others like arachnophobia (fear of spiders) or Trypophobia (fear of holes), there are also the less common ones like Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (fear of long words), Anatidaephobia (fear of ducks), and Bananaphobia (fear of bananas), there are an endless amount of phobias and each one can effect the person with a phobia differently.

You might want to get help for a phobia if it drastically affects your everyday life, like if you live in a big city and you have the fear of being crowded (Agoraphobia) then you should probably get help, but if the phobia does not greatly impact your everyday life like a fear of sharks (Galeophobia) and you live in Kansas it will not be a problem.

Never pressure someone into confronting their phobia unless they are comfortable with it, because their reaction is unknown and could be more than you would be able to handle so when having or being around someone with a phobia be understanding of it as well as them and their limits.