What are your fear triggers...

Things that make you feel anxious or scared, even if you're unsure why?

There are a few common fear triggers, termed "fear stimuli" by researchers. Most of us have already seen lists of things like heights, spiders, small spaces... But have you ever wondered why some people are afraid of those things, and others aren't? And what about the rest of your fears - do they also fit into a pattern that can be explained away as a conditioned response to something in your past? Let's find out.

1) Situational fear: It has been shown that there is a strong correlation between individuals who experience excessive fear/anxiety centered around particular situations and those who were present during or witnessed an intense event at some point in their lives. Situational fear comes from associating the object of the fear with the intense event.

2) Fear of social situations: Some individuals are more susceptible to excessive fear when in a group situation, with their feared object being center stage. This can also be explained through fear conditioning - it is thought that these individuals were conditioned during an intense experience to link particular stimuli with anxiety or discomfort in social settings.

3) Disease-related fears: People with excessive fear surrounding specific diseases often find that they experienced something traumatic in relation to the disease around the time they became aware of its existence. For instance, someone might develop excessive fear of rabies after hearing an account about how the virus killed hundreds of people on his television screen. Just like situational and social fears, this type of excessive fear can be attributed to fear of condition.

4) Unpredictable threat response: Some people respond unpredictably in threatening situations, either cowering in fear or lashing out aggressively. This has been shown to be related to excessive fear experienced in the absence of a clear stimulus - in other words, excessive fear, in general, can cause unpredictable behavior in threatening situations.

5) Fear of losing control: Many individuals are afraid of their excessive fear getting out of hand and resulting in them doing something embarrassing or dangerous. These fears are not necessarily limited to public settings -- for example, someone who is deathly afraid of burning her home down may be just as likely to experience excessive anxiety when left alone with an open flame (cigarettes, candles...).

6) Fear of unexpected loss: People who experience excessive fear may find that they become accustomed to the suffocating feeling and become afraid when it goes away. They may also find themselves becoming anxious about expected losses, such as a loved one moving out for college, because the sudden change reminds them of other losses in their past.

7) Fear-related avoidance: Finally, excessive fear can result in people actually avoiding specific situations or objects altogether just so that they don't have to deal with their fears - this is called "escape-avoidance training." Someone might avoid parties entirely, so she doesn't have to experience excessive fear. Escape-avoidance training only increases the feelings of anxiety and risk associated with whatever was being avoided in the first place, so it's a vicious cycle.