Experts are advising us to begin getting out into nature, experience greenspace for health and shun remaining indoors, but there’s a fear brewing.

We're being advised to spend time in nature, like walking in parks or visiting forests, as it can improve our physical and mental health and well-being. If that's the case, why are there people who are now being diagnosed with something called geophobia something seen in children, but now also in adults? But as in anything, we fallible human beings may have a problem with it, and that's where an unusual and unexpected phobia came to be.

The DSM-5 recognizes four types of phobias: animal (like spiders and insects), natural environment (like heights and storms), blood-injection-injury (like needles and invasive medical procedures), and situational (like airplanes, elevators, and closed spaces). There is also an “other” category for phobias that do not fit into these four groups.

In the situational phobia, I worked with a woman who would not take a job above the second floor in any building. She had a dreadful fear of elevators. How did she overcome it? One of the workers in the building brought her up in the freight elevator each day and held her hand until they reached her floor.

When we talk about phobias, we usually think of things that scare us and have caused us distress in the past, leading us to avoid them. I had a college professor tell our class that if you wanted, you could have 1000 phobias. All you had to do was take any word and put phobia after it.

So, we could have a Facebook phobia, hip-hop music phobia, newspaper phobia, or any phobia you care to create. Yes, this is bordering on silly, but I wanted to make a point that my professor had made. He was indicating that many things have been termed phobias which probably shouldn't carry the designation. Too many people receive diagnoses, especially in mental health, that are terribly inaccurate. Is geophobia one of them? How about one most of us have never heard of? Tokophobia? It's an intense fear of childbirth.

Geophobia or biophobia isn’t restricted to causing problems for people because there are real environmental concerns here. Why do people develop biophobia? As I said, phobias are usually caused by some fear or interaction with something. Insects are one item of fear in the realm of phobias. Of course, it may also result from learning as children see that adults fear something like insects. I’ve seen adults panic when any type of bug comes near them. One woman ran into the road to avoid a ladybug, and a car almost hit her. Her daughter, as a result of seeing how afraid of bugs her mother was, developed a deathly fear of ladybugs.

First, let’s consider how this phobia became an environmental concern. Fear, disgust, and aversion toward insects are irrational feelings that a lot of people have, especially those who live in wealthy countries. People’s so-called “entomophobia” has been pointed out as a major reason for the ongoing decrease in insects around the world. Some sources say 25% of people in the U.S. have this phobia. Go into any grocery store and take a look at how many products to kill insects are for sale.

We need insects in our world, even the ones we don’t like or fear. Bees are pollinators, and without them, crops cannot produce, trees don’t provide fruits, and even flowers may disappear.

Insects also provide food for birds, and if we use any product that creates poisoned insects or vermin, birds eat them and can die. In New York City, Flaco, an owl that had escaped from the zoo lived in Central Park for months until he died after a collision with a high-rise building. When they inspected his body and blood, they found he had probably eaten poisoned rats.

What about other bugs? Do you have a garden? It's a great place to connect with nature (remember “forest bathing”) and destress, but it needs insects and small creatures to stay healthy. One creature is a worm, which plays an important role in soil health.

So, this is a phobia with wide-ranging results for people and the environment. But phobias, like so many other things, can be dealt with effectively, and relief from them is possible. What types of therapies are most helpful with phobias?

Psychotherapy, especially cognitive behavioral therapy, is more effective than other treatments, whether used independently or with other therapies. Technology-assisted treatments help people deal with their fears and are easier to handle than in-person exposure therapy. Medications are only being looked into as additions to exposure treatment, but the results are only sometimes positive. A few cognitive-based treatments that aim to change the ways that phobias make people afraid and how they are activated have shown success.

Bottom line: If you have a phobia and it is affecting your life, you can get help to overcome it. Phobias don’t have to run your life, but first, you have to learn how to separate them from your level of anxiety. It’s possible to find therapists specifically trained in phobia therapy. Try it.