Fear is an emotion. It is generally induced when the subject perceives a threat. Phobia is the Greek word for ‘fear’ and can be defined as the “excessive or unreasonable fear of an object, place or situation.
The difference between fear and phobia
Does that mean that fear and phobia are one and the same? The answer, according to experts, is NO. There is a subtle difference between what is fear and what can be termed as phobia. The main difference lies in the intensity and severity of the emotions experienced in fear and phobia.
Consider the following example:
It is dark, and you are out for a walk. Suddenly a dog jumps on you and bites you. What do you feel? Pain, fear, shock and terror. But will you turn into a dog phobic? The answer is probably not. Imagine for an instance the dog went away or was restrained. Naturally, your fear would subside. However, there are people who have a phobia towards dogs (and that is termed as Cynophobia). In such people, the memory would be relived over and over and the person would be afraid of all dogs, including small poodles, and the great big Danes. He or she would keep thinking of the situation again and again.
In short: Phobia is the heightened form of fear. The Phobic person often tries to fight his phobia leading to greater form of anxiety and also experiences extreme fatigue in the process.
Simply put: Phobia = Fear²
What are different types of phobias?
There are several types of phobias. The common types of phobias can be divided into ‘simple’ phobias or ‘social’ phobias. Simple phobias mainly include fear of specific types of objects, insects or situations such as the fear of flying. Social phobias includes the types of phobias like marked fear of social or performance situations.
How do phobias start? What are the signs and symptoms?
Phobias are very common and may sometimes develop in childhood itself. Traumatic events, anxiety or panic causing situations can trigger the onset of a phobia. Symptoms include:
- Racing heart
- Shortness of breath
- Discomfort in chest/abdomen
- Intense fear that may lead to embarrassing oneself
- Passing out
Phobics try very hard to avoid the triggers of their phobia.
How to cope with various types of phobias?
Cognitive behavior therapy can help a phobic:
- Confront the situation
- Deal with his/her frightening thoughts
For example, a person with the fear of spiders is encouraged to read up on spiders, touch their pictures, touch a jar containing the spider , touch the rubber models of spiders and so on, until the individual is able to pick up a large spider.
Therapists also encourage the phobic to write down frightening thoughts along with rational thoughts. For example: people with fear of heights can write:
- I fear I will fall from the building
- And counter this statement by saying: I have stood here several times and nothing of the sort has happened
Everyone is afraid of something
Consider the following points if something frightens you:
- There are several different types of phobias and some are arguably worse than others.
- If you are suffering from any of these phobias, you are not alone. Approximately 10 percent of Americans are known to suffer from at least one type of phobia.
- If your phobia is interfering with your normal life, i.e., you are avoiding situations which matter or are experiencing extreme anxiety, sweating or trembling etc, then there are several counseling approaches that can help you.
For more information on different types of phobias, see the comprehensive phobia list.
This website is really helping me learn what is actually happening to me lately.
I am afraid of being alone at night
I never knew that I had Enochlophobia, the fear of crowds. If it is possible, could you give more strategies to help get rid of this phobia? There were strategies to calm down, but not ones to stop it. Thanks!
Thank you so much for this website. I have found out some of my new phobias. One phobia I had not seen here was Zuigerphobia, the fear of Vacuum Cleaners, which I have. I really want to know more about this phobia. It is fine if you don’t input this phobia but it would be great if you did. Impressive job on this website! You should really be proud because you are really changing peoples lives in a positive way. Thank you!
Thank gosh I thought i was weird for being a grown woman afraid of the vacuum. My mum sweepered up my hand and took the top skin of my hand off when I was 2 and since then whenever someone comes at me with one I scream and cry. I can run it myself but if someone else is using it I can’t be around them.
i know right
I have found this website very helpful. It has helped me find out more about my two phobias: Nosophobia, the fear of illness, and Thanatophobia, the fear of death. My Nosophobia has recently surfaced after reading, hearing, and watching things about sickness. I am only 11 years old, but have two phobias that are damaging my school life and family life.
I have to write a report… 🙁
My fear is of falling,I’m 69 years old,had both knees replaced and have fallen a few times,now I get lightheaded maybe a little dizzy when I walk.
I’m terrified of dead animals. Dead people? Fine. What is this phobia called and how to explain to people when I run screaming down the street at the sight of a dead bird. Still scared of the place I saw a dead snail. I can’t go fish shopping all those dead things. What should I do??
I Have a Fear of Dying, I picture myself laying on my Death Bed Grasping for Air, Not being Able to Breath, Like im Drowning or Being in a Lot of Pain when i Die! It Scares me Very, Very Much.. To the Point of Having a Panic Attack, What can i do to Stop this from Happening? Im Tired of being Afraid!
As I think brother you can stop that by telling yourself that everyone will die and if you die it doesn’t mean you are the first or the last person who will die so never ever try to feel that dying is a bad thing and tell youself that this is only a dream. It doesn’t mean that you are really going to die, maybe you will die one day, maybe too soon or too far whatever, just believe that everyone will test the death.
That’s my opinion
I’m an adult and suffer with monophobia, agoraphobia, fear of death or/and the pain of death, social anxiety,Panic attacks, my list is long. Help would be most welcome.
I have a fear of going to school, its so bad, everytime i wasnt in school with all these people for like two days I cant even sleep at night. Every time when i am standing in front of the class and have to speak I cant say a word and its getting hard for me to breath.
I suppose a fear of the fear of phobias is called phobophobphobia??
I have a fear of looking up at tall buildings that I can’t go into a city without being freaked out by the tall structures.
I have fear of birds, heights, terrorists, poison, panic attacks, hospitals, doctors, the dark, the woods, any kind of zoo, tsunamis and riptides, drowning and being buried alive, school, knives, spiders, long roads, and mostly blood because all these things make me either vomit or pass out.
What is the phobia called those who has fear of riding bike?
Probably transperphobia, but I may be wrong
My fears are heights and holes T_T
And i forgot to add my other fear crowds..
I am a Kinemortophobic (having the fear of zombies). I know they are not real, but the nightmares and the fact that, indeed a zombie virus is possible, is so scary. All those stupid movies and games where people get mauled or turned into zombies freak me out. I don’t know why anyone would ever want to empathize such a scary topic.
I have a fear of holes…
I fear milliped but am trying my best to conquer it. At the sight of it I shout and run but I do kill it because I hate it.
Usually, I have lepidopterophobia or fear of butterflies. Even if it is very small, I still scream. My classmates wondered why I screamed when I saw a butterfly. But one day, I read your advice and I followed it and I conquered my fear of butterflies. Thanks for everything!
What do you call the fear if you are afraid to leave your house to face outside reality?
I get scared of rainfalls.
Hi, my fear is about sharp objects.
Thanks for making this website. I have phobia for snakes and I can’t even look at pictures of them. Even though I have never seen a live snake or a dead one. On movies I try not to look at them. And after reading on this site I can now face this phobia and say live snakes do not exist around me and the one in the picture cannot harm me.
Hi! My phobia is agoraphobia, the fear of crowds, but I don’t usually experience it because there are not many crowds so I can safely go outside.
Here’s a weird phobia: soteriophobia. The fear of the dependence on others or outside forces is very rare.
I didn’t know some of these phobias actually existed. I’m both vehophobic and androphobic to an extent. It’s tough because I can’t form a normal relationship with a guy. It’s extremely stressful for me when people try to hook me up with someone knowing that I’m uncomfortable. Sometimes I feel depressed when I see happy couples but, I just can’t bring myself to calm down and relax. I tend to run away from the opposite gender. Sometimes it’s the opposite, when they see how odd I am thanks to this phobia. As for the vehophobia, I can only drive calmly on a highway. As soon as I have to drive around town, drive in a busy area and most importantly, somewhere I’ve never been to before, I start to panic. I once had to drive my cousin somewhere and as I was making my way back, missed an exit and had an extreme anxiety attack (hyperventilating, crying, and to the point I had to pull over until I calmed myself down. I had my GPS on the entire time so, imagine if I had no GPS). At least with the driving, I have improved a lot and am able to control myself.
Well, I really have phobias.. It’s true that I get to panic.
I fear pictures of spiders and I can’t look at bad pictures of nasty diseases. I get anxiety and panic attacks.
I have an extreme phobia of bugs. When I see a live one I freeze and can’t move and if one touches me I scream, cry and run away. I’ve tried confronting my phobia but it just seems to get worse! I’m eighteen and I can dive into the ocean without a care, but bugs? No. I can’t look at pictures or even talk about them. I’m so done with being made fun of for my phobia too. Any ideas on how to get help?
Remember that you are 1,000 maybe 100,000 times bigger than them and they are more afraid of you than you are afraid of them.You can easily kill a bug but they can’t even hurt you.But even though I know this I have a fear of spiders so I might not be of any help to you.
Nice!
My biggest fears in life are fear of work and fear of driving. Both of these have hindered me in a lot of ways and it’s only been within the last year and a half that I’ve tried to really learn about them and myself to start gaining the confidence to break away from my fears.
And although there are a lot of times when I become depressed and disheartened because it feels like I’m moving too slow, I know that small steps are 100x better then not moving at all.
Thanks for making this website. It will always help people.
Well I really enjoyed this website and it helped me overcome my anxiety and fear.