Or Dispobias: Is It A Fear Or Phobia?

573 Words2 Pages

Is it a Fear or Phobia?
People often mistake nature fears for phobias. On the Huffingpost website, a fear is defined as an emotional response to a real or perceived threat. According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, phobia is an exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation. Dictionary.com defines phobia as a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it. Finally, on the Oxford’s dictionary, the definition of phobia is an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something. However, I can see how people may mistake fears for phobias because of the ample amount of similarities they share, but phobias has key differences, in fact, one of the differences is illogical fear, and another is the exaggerated anxiety the person experience on a day to day basis.
In the definitions above for the word phobia, readers will notice the words illogical fear and irrational fear are used in the online dictionary sources. Illogical and irrational fear disting...

Show More
Related

  • The History, Causes and Effects, and Treatment of Phobias

    1319 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first area to explore is the history of Phobias. The word phobia was not used in medical literature until the late eighteenth century. Phobia comes from the Greek word phobos, which means "fear, terror, panic, and flight." In Greek mythology, Phobos was a Greek god who caused fear and panic in his enem...

    Read More

  • Pain and Panic: The Demons behind Biological Fear

    1229 Words  | 3 Pages

    "A variety of terms are used to describe fear. The Bible uses words like fear, afraid, terror, dread, anxious, tremble, shake, and quake over 850 times to portray this core human emotion. Healthcare professionals use terms like fear, anxiety, panic attack, and phobia to illuminate the spectrum of our fears." (2)

    Read More

  • Phobias Essay

    892 Words  | 2 Pages

    Phobias have been in existence for many years. As humans we fear things that are life threatening and unnatural. Someone who has an irrational fear of something is considered a phobia, which is an extreme illogical fear or dislike of something. Fear is a very common emotion which distinguishes from phobia regarding the severe distress someone with a phobia goes through. Fear is a rationalized and instinctive emotion that comes in response to a threatening situation. The reaction caused by fear can be managed. Phobias can hinder someone’s life. People who struggle with phobias constantly avoid the object of fear, and will do anything required not to see it. It’s hard to directly to clearly figure out the cause regarding

    Read More

  • Anxiety Disorders

    900 Words  | 2 Pages

    Phobias are considered a part of anxiety disorders, a phobia is an intense and irrational fear of a certain thing or situation. Some examples of phobias include fear of heights, insects, and even talking in front of a large crowd. The intensity of phobias differ from patient to patient but the severity of phobia...

    Read More

  • Phobias

    2220 Words  | 5 Pages

    There are three kinds of phobias: simple phobia, social phobia, and panic attacks. Simple phobias, also called specific phobias, are fears of a specific thing, such as spiders or being in a closed place. Most simple phobias develop during childhood and eventually disappear. Specific phobia is a marked fear of a specific object or situation. It is a category for any phobias other than agoraphobia and social phobia. The categories of specific phobias are 1. situational phobias such as: fear of elevators, airplanes, enclosed places, public transportation, tunnels, or bridges; 2. fear of the natural environment such as: storms, water, or heights; 3. animal phobias such as: fear of dogs, snakes, insects, or mice; 4. blood-injection-injury phobia such as: fear of seeing blood or an injury, or of receiving an injection. (Wood 520).

    Read More

  • Social Phobias Essay

    891 Words  | 2 Pages

    Simple phobias include irrational fears of things like animals such as dogs, cats, or the most common snakes. Specific phobias are centered around specific situations such as small spaces, claustrophobia, or heights, acrophobia. Social phobias are irrational fears of interactions with other people. For example, a person might have a social phobia of public speaking or fear of embarrassment. Another form of social phobia is agoraphobia which restraints a person from being in unfamiliar, open or closed spaces, typically resulting in panic attacks. These different types of phobias have two things in common; they are irrational, and they are treated in similar

    Read More

  • What Are Social Phobias?

    2194 Words  | 5 Pages

    One of the characteristics of a phobia is a feeling that is greater than the fear of a situation or object with an exaggeration of the danger associated with the said situation or even object. This persistent fear often leads to an anxiety disorder that leads an individual to develop mechanisms that ensure one avoids the object or situation that triggers the occurrence of the phobia. Phobias can have highly debilitating effects on an individual including the development of depression, isolation, substance abuse, and even suicide. Many people take phobia for granted however, it is clear that it has the potential to impair the quality of life for both the affected and the people around them. The fact that many of the phobias are manageable using

    Read More

  • Psychology and Geology

    952 Words  | 2 Pages

    Having a specific phobia towards the natural environment may sound unrealistic but it is indeed much more common than people believe. A natural environment phobia is fear of one or more of the following: heights, storms, or water. About 75% of people with this specific phobia averse more than one of the fears listed (DSM- APA). However, there is a difference between being fearful of something and it being a personal phobia of an individual. If it is a phobia it will last more than six months. Anything shorter than six months is then dismissed as a temporary fear. In children, this anxiety will be expressed by crying, temper tantrums, freezing or clinging on to their caregiver (DSM-APA). This can also be seen in sever phobias in adults but rarely does the adult have a temper tantrum, rather, a more developed emotional response is provoked. Typically, the amount of anxiety or fear that is actually observed during a phobic episode is entirely inordinate to the actual threat that a specific phobia may have (DSM-A...

    Read More

  • Fear: The Emotion of Darkness

    523 Words  | 2 Pages

    Smith, Melinda, M.A., Robert Segal, M.A., and Jeanne Segal, Ph.D. "Phobias & Fears." Phobias and Fears: Symptoms, Treatment, and Self-Help. N.p., Feb. 2014. Web. 26 May 2014.

    Read More

  • Informative Speech On Phobias

    958 Words  | 2 Pages

    Introduce Topic: A phobia as defined by medicalnewstoday.com, “is an irrational fear, a kind of anxiety disorder in which the sufferer has a relentless dread of a situation, living creature, place or thing.”

    Read More

  • Fear of Death

    1658 Words  | 4 Pages

    Death it is something we all must face at one point in our lives or another. It is either a death of a loved one, friend or co-worker. Sometimes it’s the devastation from a natural disaster. No matter what makes us face the idea of death it is how we handle this realization that truly matters. When Gilgamesh is faced with the horrendous loss of his dear friend and comrade Enkidu he begins to fear death. In Gilgamesh’s youth he is proud without fear of death, it is not until he watches his friend die that his own mortality becomes a fear.

    Read More

  • Thesis Of The Concept Of Fears: The Conception Of Phobias

    793 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... is fundamentally a whole; however, many of us have lost touch with significant elements of our selves. Through listening to the information of our dreams and active imagination, we can contact and reintegrate our different parts. The goal of life is individuation, the idea of coming to know, giving expression to, and reconciling the diverse elements of the psyche.

    Read More

  • Nomophobia

    1573 Words  | 4 Pages

    As time progresses, many changes develop in society. For instance, fashions change, tastes change, habits change, and norms change as well. One of the biggest changes that has taken place over the years is the increase in dependency on technology and cell phones. According to an article, dated from from 2000 to 2004, there has been a 50% increase in the use of cell phones, ranging from 40 million to 60 million (Shuvra Mahmud). That was ten years ago, so the changes now must have increased even more. Similar to the increase in cell phone usage, there has also been an increase in the belief and diagnosis of nomophobia, the fear of being without a person’s cell phone. Although some scholars have argued that nomophobia is merely a high engagement of cell phone usage, various studies suggests that nomophobia is an actual phobia and that company advertisements are a probable cause for it.

    Read More

  • Phobias: The Irrational Fear

    408 Words  | 1 Pages

    Phobias are irrational fear to a person, place or object and they are classified as an anxiety disorder. There is a term for every phobia imaginable. Phobias affect approximately nineteen million individuals, with the fears ranging from blood to women and every thing in between. The symptoms one experiences when suffering with a phobia include profuse sweating, headaches, extreme nausea and a variety of other physical symptoms.

    Read More

  • Essay About Fear

    1174 Words  | 3 Pages

    Fear can eat away at the conscience of people and even animals to completely change trains of thought and actions. Fear can be felt through any species, through different emotions, and can affect the behavior of the mind and body. It can create monsters of people and can drive ordinary individuals to the point of insanity. The dictionary definition does not simply describe the actual meaning of fear. Merriam-Webster's definition states fear as “an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger”. Fear comes from Old English when it was defined as “frightened” or “danger” which describes a piece of it. Fear is not being at ease with myself; fear is not having the confidence to act like myself and doing something

    Read More

More about Or Dispobias: Is It A Fear Or Phobia?

Open Document