Famous People With Phobias
The famous are not immune to having phobias, and in fact, suffer them just as
much as other Americans do; experts estimate that
roughly 1 out of 20 Americans
suffer from one or more phobias.
One of the most common forms of
phobia includes fear of flying, or aviophobia (also known as aerophobia).
Famous people who suffer from this disorder (which is, ironically, most inconvenient,
considering that they need to have expedient transportation) include: Aretha Franklin, singer; Whoopi
Goldberg, actor; Billy Bob Thornton, actor; and boxing champion Muhammad Ali. Former President Ronald Reagan
was also aerophobic.
Natalie Wood was hydrophobic,
or had a fear of water; this was especially disturbing and raised some questions because she drowned in an
apparent boating accident in 1981.
Tennis star Andre Agassi is arachnophobic, or has a fear of spiders. Author Anne Rice has stated
that she is afraid of the dark, also called ahluophobia. Adolf Hitler was claustrophobic.
Napoleon Bonaparte, who was the emperor of France, suffered from ailurophobia, a fear of
cats.
Donny Osmond suffered from anxiety and panic attacks
so severe during the run of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat that he was afraid he was going to pass
out.
He actually avoided shopping centers, not
necessarily because of agoraphobia, but because he thought people were going to recognize him and make fun of
him.
Therapy and medication helped him overcome this.
Notably, this is often how agoraphobia develops, which is a fear of open spaces; sufferers of agoraphobia can
become housebound, and often, agoraphobia develops slowly over time because people seek to avoid those
situations that cause them panic, not because they start with a fear of open spaces.
As their panic becomes more and more severe, and
they avoid more and more situations, they slowly become truly agoraphobic.
Barbra Streisand has social
phobia; social phobia is often something many of us experience, to some degree or
another.
We may be standing in line at the post office, and be very
self-conscious because we think everyone is looking at us. Of course, this is not true, but we still feel it
is.
While most young people, such as adolescents, often experience this
as a developmental stage and simply because those years are often fraught with self-consciousness anyway,
adults can also develop this in more severe and lasting form.
(Of course, adolescents can develop social phobia to the point
where it needs treatment as well, and it can also continue into adulthood, but it is just that in
adolescence, this is often a mere developmental stage.)
Streisand’s phobia apparently
began in 1967, when she was on stage and forgot the lyrics to the song she was singing. After that
experience, she began to fear that she would embarrass herself and gave up singing in public for quite
awhile.
Through medication and therapy, she learned to control these fears
and began to sing in public again in 1994.
Want to boot your air and travel phobias and anxiety into
touch?
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