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A phobia is an irrational fear
A phobia is a mainly irrational fear of something. It is not an illness. It is not
a mental disorder. Nor is it a lack of will-
A phobia can make one's life miserable, cause embarrassment, and undermine self confidence and self esteem.
However you do not have to 'learn to live with' a phobia -
The types of phobias
- Simple Phobias: fear of a single stimulus such as fear of heights, ladders, frogs, enclosed places, etc.
- Complex Phobias: a fear of a number of stimuli. In fear of flying, for example, the person may be afraid of crashing, being enclosed in the plane, losing self control etc.
- Social Phobias: simply put, this means you are afraid of what might occur when in the company of other people, for example, fear of blushing, losing self control, forgetting what you are about to say, fear of trembling, etc.
- Panic attacks: a panic attack can be a quite terrifying ordeal unless you understand what is going on and why it is going on. Panics are very common and appear to mainly affect people who normally give the impression of being confident, reliable and dependable.
- Agoraphobia: Literally 'fear of the market place' and, up to a decade or so ago, the term was used to describe people who were afraid of open spaces. 'Agoraphobia' is now used to describe those who experience increasing nervousness the further they travel from their own home. In severe cases they may not venture from home at all.
(This way of classifying phobias is pragmatic rather than medically or psychologically accurate. For example agoraphobia and panic attacks are often categorised as 'social phobias'. However both of these conditions are so common and they so seriously restrict personal freedom that I prefer to give them their own category.)
The difference between a fear and a phobia
The distinction generally made is to say that a fear is rational and when fear becomes irrational it is a phobia.
In reality the difference is mainly one of degree and the handiest way to distinguish them is by saying that a phobia is different from a fear by being more irrational. Because, having being fuelled by our imagination, every fear will have a degree of irrationality to it
Irrational fear
A phobia is an irrational fear -
Take the example of a phobia of snakes. If you live in the United Kingdom there is a slight possibility that you may be out in the countryside on a warm summer's day and you may possibly come across one of our increasingly rare adders, and you just might not see it, and it might be so unaware of your very silent approach that it doesn't quietly slip away, and you might possibly be walking about without wearing shoes, and you might possibly step on it and get bitten.
All of this is not very likely, I agree, but it is just possible. And therefore a UK resident has some reason to be fearful of snakes.
Yet, while the likelihood of being bitten by an adder in the UK is very small, someone who is afraid of snakes can be so fearful that they cannot even pass a pet shop just in case there may be snakes on display in the window. They may even have to leave the room if snakes are featured on the television. Or be unable to look at picture of snakes in a magazine.
Why you are phobic is irrelevant!
Most people who are phobic tend to be fixated on discovering why they have the condition.
This is great news for the psycho-
But then what? You still feel phobic -
But you still feel phobic... Because understanding the causes does little to alleviate
the gut-
But it makes a lot more sense to first get the thorn out of your finger so it stops
hurting you -
In the Phobias section of this site
Fear of Flying (Including what is fear of flying, common traits, causes, questions & answers)
Some common phobias (including heights, wasps, public speaking, performance anxiety, animals, dogs, bridges, car travel, interviews)