Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsNormal Response to FearPhobic ResponseConsider the Source of Your FearGetting Help

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

Normal Response to Fear

Phobic Response

Consider the Source of Your Fear

Getting Help

Fear is a normal and healthy part of life. In fact, fear plays an important role in keeping us from entering harmful situations and helping us decide when to get out of situations that are not necessarily the best.

Under normal circumstances,fearcan be managed through reason and logic, even in situations that cause us to be fearful. It does not take over our lives or cause us to become irrational.

A phobia, however, twists the normal fear response into something that is persistent and difficult or even impossible to control without some kind of clinical intervention.So while a phobia does involve fear—of an object, situation, or concept—a fear typically does not rise to the level of a phobia. A mental health professional can help determine if your symptoms meet thecriteria for diagnosing a phobia.

If you have a diagnosable phobia of a specific object or situation, your response will be more extreme.Using the fear of flying example, if you are able to board the plane at all, you will sweat, shake, cry, or have other seriousphysiological responses. You will likely be miserable during the entire flight, as every bit of turbulence renews your panic.

If your phobia is more severe, you will simply be unable to board a flight at all. You will go far out of your way to avoid flying—even canceling vacations or business trips if there is no alternate form of transportation. You may be unable to even visit an airport to drop off or pick up a friend. You may even become anxious when planes fly overhead.

Extreme avoidance like that is one of the key signifiers of a phobia, where even the thought of encountering the object of your fear can cause debilitating anxiety.

Besides the severity of your fear, it is important to consider its source. If you have a simple fear, you will not spend much time thinking about that fear. It will only affect you when you are forced to confront it, such as actually boarding a plane.

If you have a phobia, though, you are likely to develop a fear of fear itself.You may begin to worry that something will happen to trigger your fear. You may start to change your daily routine in an effort to avoid any possible triggers.

If you know that you have an upcoming confrontation with the object of your fear, you will likely dwell on it, perhaps obsessively. You may have trouble sleeping or focusing on important tasks, particularly as the day of confrontation draws closer.

Phobias are highly individualized in symptoms and severity and cannot be self-diagnosed. The above are a few guidelines to help you decide whether toseek help, but it is important to realize that your symptoms may vary from those listed here.

It may not always feel like it, but it is possible to face and overcome your fears with the right treatment plan.

8 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

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Rudaz M, Ledermann T, Margraf J, Becker ES, Craske MG.The moderating role of avoidance behavior on anxiety over time: Is there a difference between social anxiety disorder and specific phobia?.PLoS ONE. 2017;12(7):e0180298. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0180298

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