By Madison Dymond ’16

Everyone has fears. Most of us shudder at the thought of bugs crawling up our arms or feel our hearts racing before a big presentation, and we all have a survival instinct that makes us fear anything that may lead us to harm or even death. Few, however, are so afraid of something that it prevents them from living their lives.

The textbook, “Abnormal Psychology in a Changing World,” defines a phobia as “a fear of an object or situation that is disproportionate to the threat it poses.” Fear is merely “anxiety experienced in response to a particular threat.” A fear becomes a phobia when the response to the threat is not appropriate or what is deemed as rational.

Many people fail to acknowledge a difference between phobias and fears or downplay the magnitude of distress that phobias can cause. Specific phobias affect about nine percent of the general population; however, if asked, the majority of people would likely claim to have a phobia. Phobias are part of the anxiety disorders family, which includes disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They are actual diagnoses and can make life extremely difficult for individuals who have these phobias.

Phobias usually develop during childhood and are often caused by a traumatic experience or a mixture of social and biological factors. The causes of phobias may often be repressed memories, which makes it hard for people to pinpoint when their phobia started. This makes it harder to fix the problem, since it is extremely difficult to find a solution without knowing the cause.

Despite this obstacle, there is still plenty of help for those with phobias. Phobic disorders are most commonly treated with exposure therapy. This involves slowly exposing the patient to the threat until he/she is either desensitized from the threat or feels that he/she is able to properly defend him/herself against it.

Social anxiety (also called social phobia) is probably the most common phobic disorder among high school students. Many students decline invitations to social gatherings or avoid dating due to their unrelenting fear that they will say or do the wrong thing.

In the mildest cases, a phobia can make one feel anxious to enter a situation. In the most extreme cases, it can keep someone for leaving their house for decades. The use of the word “phobia” may be tossed around, and for the most part, this actually leads people to be more accepting of people with phobias, but the lack of knowledge about phobic disorders leads to assumptions.