I was scared of dogs until I was about 16. Fairly straight-forward, since I was bitten by one at a young age.
Right now... I have the wonderful combination of a fear of making phone calls, and having to ask people things (more or less. It isn't so easy to define exactly what these two fears actually are, but they're pretty messed up when then they happen to me.)
Needless to say, for such 'small' problems, they really mess up my life.
Any guesses as to which fairly critical activity most frequently causes trouble?
If you said job hunting, you get a cookie. But unfortunately, you can add to that list (at various times in my life), shopping, ordering takeout, making a doctor's appointment... Etc.
Yay for stupid problems that completely ruin your life...