People often want to know what the difference between a fear and a phobia is. If a phobia is a fear then what’s the difference? 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. If we came face to face with a man wielding a knife late at night it would be rational for us to experience fear us we would feel at risk of being attacked. On the other hand a phobia of spiders would be irrational as something as small as a spider poses no threat. 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. A person with a phobia will experience levels of fear totally out of proportion to the actual threat posed by the source of their fear.
Fear is an important survival instinct as it allows us to recognize when we are in danger so that we can get 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. Phobias are not mental disorders or illnesses. They are just irrational fears.
Phobias fall under several different categories.
Simple phobias are those where just the sight of something such as a spider will trigger fear.
Complex phobias are phobias where there are lots of different fears altogether at the same time. An example would be a fear of flying where the person might by afraid of crashing, losing their mind and being in a confined space etc.
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.
Agoraphobia is a very common phobia. This is a complex phobia that is often mistaken by people to be a fear of open spaces. Agoraphobia is actually a fear of being in a place or situation from which escape is impossible, difficult or embarrassing. People who suffer from agoraphobia often have a safe zone in which they can live within without experiencing fear. Going beyond the limits of their safe zone may cause them to start to feel anxious and panic. Some agoraphobia sufferers experience such intense fear that they cannot even leave their own home without having a panic attack.
The good news if you suffer from fears and phobias is that you can get over them. They don’t have 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 necessary. There are some very effective self help programs available for teaching people how to overcome phobias such as The Linden Method and Panic Away.
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