<P> Hypnotherapy can be used alone and in conjunction with systematic desensitization to treat phobias . Through hypnotherapy, the underlying cause of the phobia may be uncovered . The phobia may be caused by a past event that the patient does not remember, a phenomenon known as repression . The mind represses traumatic memories from the conscious mind until the person is ready to deal with them . Hypnotherapy may also eliminate the conditioned responses that occur during different situations . Patients are first placed into a hypnotic trance, an extremely relaxed state in which the unconscious can be retrieved . This state makes patients more open to suggestion, which helps bring about desired change . Consciously addressing old memories helps individuals understand the event and see it in a less threatening light . </P> <P> Phobias are a common form of anxiety disorder, and distributions are heterogeneous by age and gender . An American study by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) found that between 8.7 percent and 18.1 percent of Americans suffer from phobias, making it the most common mental illness among women in all age groups and the second most common illness among men older than 25 . Between 4 percent and 10 percent of all children experience specific phobias during their lives, and social phobias occur in one percent to three percent of children and adolescents . </P> <P> A Swedish study found that females have a higher incidence than males (26.5 percent for females and 12.4 percent for males). Among adults, 21.2 percent of women and 10.9 percent of men have a single specific phobia, while multiple phobias occur in 5.4 percent of females and 1.5 percent of males . Women are nearly four times as likely as men to have a fear of animals (12.1 percent in women and 3.3 percent in men)--a higher dimorphic than with all specific or generalized phobias or social phobias . Social phobias are more common in girls than in boys, while situational phobia occurs in 17.4 percent of women and 8.5 percent of men . </P> <P> The word phobia comes from the Greek: φόβος (phóbos), meaning "aversion", "fear" or "morbid fear". In popular culture, it is common for specific phobias to have names based on a Greek word for the object of the fear, plus the suffix - phobia . Creating these terms is something of a word game . Few of these terms are found in medical literature . In ancient Greek mythology Phobos was the twin brother of Deimos (terror). </P>

When the exposure to a feared object is rapid and intense rather than slow and gradual it is called