Fears vs. Phobias

[rialvestro]

If you don't know the difference between the two, a phobia is a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it. Fears which are not phobias by this definition would all be rational.

To distinguish between rational and irrational for the purpose of this topic we are only going to refer to the rational as a "fear" and the irrational as a phobia. We will be talking about many different fears and phobias and weather or not they are properly classified or even if there is a proper classification.

Now for a great many years I didn't really believe that I had any phobias as all the phobias I supposidy had were rational to me. I thought until about 2 years ago that phobias did not really exsist. However after a spicific event that I'd rather not talk about and has nothing to do with this debate so don't ask, but after this event I found out that I had developed claustrophobia.

If you don't know, claustrophobia is an abnormal fear of being in enclosed or narrow places. So for the first time ever I have a fear with no rational thinking behind it and I can understand what a phobia is.

That being said just because something is classified as a phobia doesn't really mean that it is irrational. I also have arachnophobia, the pathological fear or loathing of spiders. However this is not actully irrational because some spiders, aside from hurting alot, when they bite can also make you sick or kill you as they are poisonous.

To this my argument is that in order for a fear of spiders to truely be a phobia you would have to be scared by spiders who aren't even real. Someone who really has arachnophobia would be afraid of a picture of a spider just as much as the real thing. Someone with a fear of spiders and not a phobia would only be scared by a real spider and be perfectly OK with looking at pictures. As such, I do not actully have arachnophobia as I have no problems with pictures of spiders.

So who is it that decides what fears are rational or not? How do spicific fears get classified as phobias when there very well could be rational reasons for the fear to exsist?

[mashuga31]

I have arachnophobia by your definition. The pictures creep me out, and the real thing scares the turds out of me. Surprisingly if I have my buddies around I have no problem with spiders.

What is fear of necrosis? i have that. Not fear of gettig it but like fear of touching it or whatnot.

My claustrophobia is perfectly rational. Imagine trying to go through a small tube (like the ones uder the streets in my town.) Imagine getting stuck and being unable to move, screaming for help and it never comes. Then it rains and you drown in the rain and you can't get out. Even if someone found you when it was raining you'd still die because there is no way of pulling you out if your too far in. You could be stuck in a spot like that for days while they tear up the road to try and rescue you. Imagine being trapped in there, starving for several days when finally your agony is ended by being accidentally crush by rubbl;e when the tractor tries to clear an area to pull you out. Imagine that.

[rialvestro]

Apr 14, 2010 23:58:37 GMT -5 @mashuga31 said:

My claustrophobia is perfectly rational. Imagine trying to go through a small tube (like the ones uder the streets in my town.) Imagine getting stuck and being unable to move, screaming for help and it never comes. Then it rains and you drown in the rain and you can't get out. Even if someone found you when it was raining you'd still die because there is no way of pulling you out if your too far in. You could be stuck in a spot like that for days while they tear up the road to try and rescue you. Imagine being trapped in there, starving for several days when finally your agony is ended by being accidentally crush by rubbl;e when the tractor tries to clear an area to pull you out. Imagine that.

That doesn't really make the fear rational unless there's a chance of that actully happening to you in which case yes it would be rational.

If you get freaked out when someone sits at the end of the booth at a resturant because you can't get out with them sitting them, that's irrational. A rational thinking people would just ask them to get up and they would most sertainly get up to let you out. I however now have to avoid getting stuck in that situation in the first place because I get so scared I'm no longer able to think rationally after it's allready happened.

You mentioned small tubes under you city. I'm guessing you have some kind of job that requires you to go down into thoughs tubes? If you never have to be in them, then it's not rational to be afraid of them.

[Deleted]

zombophobia
if that exists I definitely have it.
I fucking hate zombies

[LegacyOfPaper]

I've always thought that the fear of being buried alive is perfectly rational and that everyone has it one way or another. Unless they're turned on by it or something. If you're into being buried and think it's kinky, hey, knock yourself out. With a shovel. And ask someone to bury you with it.

I have a phobia of failure. Terribly rational, since I do a lot. And it causes me physical pain when I do. So I declare it justified to be afraid of being inflicted with physical pain but failing.

[rialvestro]

Apr 15, 2010 21:09:59 GMT -5 LegacyOfPaper said:

I've always thought that the fear of being buried alive is perfectly rational

I'm not sure that is rational really. I mean sure like 200 years ago it would of been but these days it's common practice to check if a person is breathing, if they have a pulse, and/or a heart beat before declairing them dead.

I think there was a time when if you simply slept in longer than you normally do someone would bury you. There use to be rigs where they'd have a rope tied around the person's wrist or something that lead to a bell abouve ground and the care takers of the cemetery would have to wander around listening for these bells and dig up anyone who was still alive.

But like I said before this kinda thing doesn't happen anymore. When was the last time you saw a grave with a bell on it?

[T3CHN0B4BBL3]

Well, I was taught in my Psychology class that a fear is a general dislike of something and that a phobia is a fear that disrupts the daily functions of life. So take your arachnophobia example. Someone may not like spiders but it wouldn't disrupt their life. Someone with a phobia of spiders wouldn't be able to function or would just do everything in their control to avoid spiders.

So by this definition, the "irrational" fears you had wouldn't actually be a phobia.