Is it a Fear or Phobia?
Is my fear of spiders just a fear or a phobia? Do I truly have claustrophobia or do I just feel uncomfortable in small spaces? These are very normal questions. How do you know if you have a phobia? And what difference does knowing this make?
Fear and Phobia per definition
A fear can be defined as an emotional response to a threat. Seeing a bear would for example trigger this in you. However, as would seeing a spider as, even though it normally isn’t a real threat, you may perceive it as such.
A phobia on the other hand can be defined as an intense response to something that isn’t an actual threat. Phobias usually affect your daily life, causing anxiety and preventing you from performing daily tasks.
In short, the difference is that a phobia affects you on a much larger scale and usually isn’t based on a real threat.
How phobias start
Phobias can start at any age at any time but are more common to develop at a younger age. It is usually due to a bad, traumatic experience with a certain object or situation. This can lead to avoidance of that thing which increases the anxiety around it, making the phobia a larger problem. Maybe you almost fell from a very high distance and developed Acrophobia, the fear of heights. Or maybe you had a bad experience with getting a shot and developed Trypanophobia, a phobia of needles.
It is also shown that phobias can be passed down from your parents either by genetics or by behavior learned by them. If you for example had a parent with a phobia who avoided certain things, you could have learned to avoid it too and created a phobia within yourself.
There are many other ways one can develop a phobia but it usually comes down to the same thing: an idea of something being a threat. No matter if you picked it up from your parents or a personal experience, this belief sticks with you. It can be very difficult to get rid of without help.
How to get over a phobia
Getting over a fear can be hard, but getting over a phobia is even harder. Since a phobia can affect your daily life it is normal to develop ways to avoid encountering the thing triggering your phobia. However, this can get very obsessive as well as tiring. Therefore, it is always best to seek help from a professional.
The work in therapy to overcome a phobia usually has to do with Exposure Therapy. Have you ever heard of the saying ‘do it scared’? Well, that’s the principle of Exposure Therapy. It exposes you to the thing you are afraid of, though it causes a lot of anxiety, and over time teaches you to be less afraid of it.
Am I weird for having a phobia?
Having a phobia is most certainly not weird. In fact, it is more common than you might think. According to John Hopkins Medicine, around 19 million Americans have a phobia. In the United Kingdom, the estimated number of people with at least one phobia is 10 million. This is a lot of people!
The reason we may think having a phobia is weird is partly due to the lack of knowledge in society. Many don’t realise that having a phobia is very different from having a fear. But it’s also because we don’t talk about phobias as much as we should. But we can change this.
I can go first. My name is Lara and I had emetophobia, the fear of vomiting, which I got over through therapy. You can go next.
Final words
Having a phobia can be extremely difficult to deal with. Understanding the difference between phobia and fear is a crucial step in working towards getting rid of a phobia.
Sometimes it can feel hopeless and that the phobia will stay with you forever, but coming from someone who got over a phobia that was taking over my life through exposure therapy I can say with certainty: it is possible to get over a phobia.
If this post made you realise something about yourself or someone you know, please don’t hesitate to talk to someone about it. The lack of knowledge and awareness today is what makes having a phobia so shameful (even though it’s nothing to be ashamed of!)
Here are some links with some extra information on phobias:
Statistics on phobias: https://www.singlecare.com/blog/news/phobia-statistics/
What is a phobia? https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/phobias
Getting over phobias: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/specific-phobias/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20355162#:~:text=The%20most%20effective%20treatments%20are,learn%20to%20manage%20your%20anxiety.
You can also contact me if you need some advice or just to vent. This is a safe space.
Thank you for reading this post, remember to stay safe and TALK about mental health. Mental health is also health.