Your Questions Answered: What Is A Phobia?

Many people confuse the idea of a phobia with that of a fear. Although the words have similar meanings, it is not the case that every fear is a phobia. Indeed, not every phobia is strictly a fear – in some cases it may be an irrational and/or intense dislike of something – as is frequently the case with homophobia or xenophobia. To be strictly accurate, a phobia is the intense and irrational dislike or fear of something, which prevents the sufferer from behaving or thinking clearly in the presence of the thing that they fear.

In severe cases, even the idea of the thing that they fear can be a major problem for the sufferer of a phobia. Not everyone who is scared of flying, for example, can justifiably be termed a pteromerhanophobe (Pteromerhanophobia is the technical and medical term, but for understandable reasons people tend to stick with the phrase “fear of flying”). Some people don’t like flying, and get nervous every time they fly, but someone who suffers from pteromerhanophobia is not only scared when they get on a plane, but terrified the moment they know that they will have to – and in extreme cases, even by the mere idea of doing so.

A phobia is a debilitating fear which causes real anxiety about a situation and can do so even when that situation is not present. It is very different from a simple fear which can be logically defeated or worked around. For example, if someone expressed a fear that their house was going to be flooded by high rain fall, they could be reassured by the information that the local rainfall for their area would be nowhere near high enough to affect their home. However, if someone has a phobia related to dogs, needles, or the number thirteen – all common phobias – logical exercises will present no help in getting them to set their fears aside.

There are countless situations where perfectly well-meaning friends try to help phobia sufferers by telling them facts which they think will make the sufferer look at things differently. That is not how a phobia works. You can tell someone that they are far more likely to be killed in a car crash than in a plane crash, and if they are a pteromerhanophobe then they are vastly unlikely to take any consolation from that fact, even if they do accept it as the truth.

Fears can be worked around and, if they are perfectly reasonable fears, can be avoided. A phobia is a psychological condition which bypasses the logical centers of the brain and can only be defeated with effort and persistence. Often the best approach is through exposure therapy, where the sufferer is invited, or even forced, to face their fear and come through it. Eventually, someone with a fear of dogs can be persuaded that they have no need to be scared – but cajoling them and telling them that their fear is silly is not the way around it. Fear is a natural and useful emotion – it is when it becomes a block to rational thinking and everyday life that it becomes a phobia, and needs to be addressed.

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