What exactly is a phobia?

A phobia is a persistent and intense fear of a particular stimulus, situation or object. The word phobia comes from the ancient Greek meaning fear or dread. It is much more intense than simply feeling afraid and may be involve feelings of panic or actual panic attacks when the feared situation is encountered. When I see a phobia client for the first time I like to discuss in detail their feelings about the feared stimulus/object, I like to discover the origin if relevant and initially to establish the severity of the phobia or if it is in fact a simple fear. Some phobias can have a lot of different elements to them and may have become complicated over the years.

In contrast with a rational fear, a phobia is an unreasonable exaggerated fear of an object or situation. ‘Simple phobias’ refer to the fear of specific things, for example, spider phobia (arachnophobia). A simple/monophobia which is very common is agoraphobia - the fear of being out of your home or other place where you feel safe, and feeling stuck or trapped in an environment which is unfamiliar. Suffers of agoraphobia will commonly experience feelings of panic and may have actual panic attacks as a result of being in a crowd, in a supermarket, on a bus or any public or open space.

When the phobic person encounters, or even anticipates being in the presence of the feared object or situation, they usually experience immediate intense anxiety. Anxiety of this kind can bring about physical feelings such as those listed below. The phobic person when faced with their fear may experience an intense fear of losing control, and may be worried about embarrassing themselves or fainting.

Fast breathing (hyperventilation)
Tight Chest
Breathlessness
Fast heart beat (palpitations)
Choking sensation
Flushing / feeling hot
Sweating
Feeling faint
Numbness or 'pins and needles'
Tension headache
Weak feeling in the body / legs feeling like jelly
Dizziness
Churning feeling in the stomach
Diarrhoea

Phobia: Subject Index   >>