Nature or Nurture? Did you come with it already installed, or did you learn how to do it? There is evidence to show that we all have varying sensitivity towards a given stimulus, and the fact that a parent suffers with the same Phobia, can lead people to go with the pre-loaded version.
The phobias I have encountered in over 30 years of practice, leads me to believe it’s far more likely to be learned behaviour. So, a helpless infant, whose primary care-giver has a phobia, knows, instinctively, to fear whatever is triggering the parent.
Since Phobia tends to have a simple trigger, it is ideal for a no-nonsense approach to locate and un-hook, the real cause of the trouble.