The Golden Question: Why Do Phobias Occur?

One of the most frequently used words when describing a phobia is “irrational”. Over time, that word has taken on a specific connotation which implies some kind of failing on the part of the person to whom it is applied. It is unfortunate in a way that the idea of a phobia is linked in so closely with the idea of a sufferer being almost childish in the way they behave. It seems to imply that they have chosen to act in an immature manner, when really they would like nothing more than for the feeling of fear to go away.

It is often hard to trace a phobia to its root cause. We can make guesses and be reasonably confident that they are correct, but to assume in so doing that we have diagnosed the cause and made a major step to curing the phobia would be a gross error. In actual fact, phobias are often the result of a complex series of events which may be seemingly unconnected. You can believe that a person is scared of bees because they were once stung by one, but you may miss the fact that they read an article about a time when a single bee sting killed an unfortunate individual (who happened to have an allergy).

Some phobias are more prominent than others. This makes for an interesting question – as most phobias are to do with external factors, and given the huge number of external factors we all see in a given day, in a week, and over the course of a year or even a lifetime, why are certain things more prone to be the subject of a phobia? If we rule out potentially dangerous things with their own instinct such as dogs, snakes and spiders, we still have things such as the dark, flying and enclosed spaces. While all of these things can, logically, be extrapolated to be contributory factors to dangers, they are also entities which have no risk in and of themselves.

We are scared of the dark because we fear that something may lurk within the dark. We are scared of flying because we have seen that sometimes a plane crashes. We are afraid of enclosed spaces because we fear that they may not open up again. None of these fears are strictly rational. If we cannot see something lurking in the dark, then anything that may be lurking will be similarly impaired. Planes crash less often than just about any mode of transport, and there are few confined spaces in which you can become trapped against your will indefinitely.

Phobias are able to thrive, in many ways, because of the imagination of the person who suffers from them. although being imaginative has many important advantages and can be hugely useful in many jobs, its free expanses within the mind mean we are unfortunately prone to fear things which do not merit our fear.