So You Think You Have a Phobia?

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So You Think You Have a Phobia?

Thursday, July 9th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

What’s the difference between a fear and a phobia is a common question. After all a phobia is a fear so how do they differ? The difference is that a phobia is an irrational fear whereas fear itself can have a rational cause when there is a genuine threat.

Fear is an emotion that we experience when we are up against a situation that causes us to doubt our ability to cope. Being confronted late at night by a man carrying a knife would be cause for a rational fearful reaction because of the threat of being attacked. A phobia of spiders on the other hand is irrational as a tiny little spider can’t possibly harm you. A fear of spiders has no logical reason. The fact that it is irrational is what makes it a phobia.

People who suffer from phobias understand that their fear is irrational but that does not make them able to deal with it any easier. Somebody with a phobia will experience levels of fear that are not in proportion to the source of their perceived threat.

It is important to our safety and survival that we experience fear as it allows us to recognize danger and move out of harms way. But extreme fears and phobias can have a debilitating effect and stop people from living normal lives. They can have a detrimental impact on an individuals self confidence and cause them embarrassment. A phobia is not an illness or a mental disorder. It is simply an irrational fear of something.

Phobias are grouped into different categories.

Simple phobias are those where just the sight of something such as a spider will trigger fear.

Complex phobias occur as the result of several different sources of fear being present at the same time. The fear of flying is a complex phobia as the person might be afraid of several things such as crashing, feeling enclosed and they may fear losing their mind.

Social phobias are those where a person will worry about things going wrong during the company of other people. They may be worried about looking stupid, saying the wrong thing or not having anything to say at all.

Phobias can lead to panic attacks if the individual’s fear ends up causing them to be convinced that they are losing their mind or mistake the symptoms for those of a heart attack. If you experience panic attacks then you should be assured that they can’t harm you despite how scary they feel. Nobody has ever died as the result of a panic attack.

One of the most common phobias is agoraphobia. This is a complex phobia that is often mistaken by people to be a fear of open spaces. Agoraphobia is in fact the fear of finding oneself in a situation that is impossible, difficult or embarrassing to escape from. Agoraphobia sufferers often live within a safe zone and as long they stay within that radius they don’t experience any fear. If they venture beyond the radius of their safe zone then they may start to feel anxious and may panic. Some agoraphobia sufferers experience such intense fear that they cannot even leave their own home without having a panic attack.

If you suffer from fears and phobias then you should know that help exists to help your get over them. You don’t have to let them continue to control your life. Some people believe that they will have to remember the cause of their phobia in order to overcome it. But this is not the case. You can get hold of some great self help programs for learning how to eliminate phobias such as The Linden Method and Panic Away.

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