Why do so many people have phobias?

im scared to death of black widows cuz when i was younger i was moving cinderblocks with my dad and i picked one up and a black widow ran across my hand...i didnt get bit thank god, but that scared the ever lovin' outta me. to this day i will kill every black widow i see in our garage. i have a spine tingling feeling there are some underneath our garage stairs but im too scared to look.
tarantulas & other spiders i find creepy but im not scared to death of them.
oh & bees & wasps scare the bejeezus outta me too. ive been stung quite a few times as a child.
just the mere sight of ants will send me into the shower to scrub away the itchiness i get when i see them. [shudders]
heights, being alone, being hurt again & being abandoned are my other fears.
i dont know where the fear of heights came from.
my fear of being alone and my abandonment fear came from my childhood & my fear of being hurt came from a rapist & my last 3 ex's.
yes, it took 3 abusive relationships for me to get my head on straight and say "no more!"
wow! i need counseling...lol.

Being scared of something is totally different than having a phobia of something. A phobia is a mental thing you can't just think about and say "Oh that's silly" and get over it. Being scared of something, even terrified by something, you can think through it.

I can't stand scorpions, because i've been stung SO many times, and once I went to squish one, and the babies scattered EVERYWHERE, and it really creeped me out. But I don't have a PHOBIA about them. I just find them creepy and icky and my skin crawls and I'll jump when one appears, even if it's a few feet away and I KNOW it's not going to "get me".

A true phobia will take over your mind, and just saying "oh you should have a strong mind and get over it" isn't going to work. I do have phobias, and I understand that they are ridiculous, and I work VERY hard to overcome them, but it's just not a regular fear. It's a unreasoning terror that is tied to whatever object the phobia is about. Yes, you can overcome them, there's several techniques that have decent success rates. But to just dismiss a true phobia as just being silly is really not correct.

Most people who don't like snakes or lizards, or fear them, DON'T have a phobia. They have been taught to hate snakes, either by example of seeing parents and others hating and fearing snakes, or by personal experiance of being scared by a snake, or the general instinct to dislike snakes, or the media of snakes being bad and evil and dangerous. That is not a phobia. That's a fear. Big difference.

Being scared a burgular will break in and murder you is a fear. It can be a trigger to an anxiety attack even, if you think for some reason it's happening or will happen. I'm paranoid, and will doublecheck doors, or go check the house just because I MIGHT have heard something, or it's too quiet. Doesn't mean I have a phobia about it, just that I personally am a paranoid person, which I am.

oh ok then i wouldnt consider my fears phobias.

I have seen a person with a phobia of roaches...they were consumed by it..making lifestyle changes.....If you have ever seen the movie "Bugs" with Ashley Judd....very creepy....

Yes, it's important to distinguish between phobias and fears.

<RANT>
I have a blood phobia. The blood/injury/injection phobia is somewhat unique because it has a proven genetic predisposition. Most phobias seem to be linked solely to environmental factors and childhood experiences.

In any case, about having a phobia and the difference between that and just a fear. It is possible to be very afraid of something and not be phobic. It is my experience that 99% of people who say "I have a phobia of spiders" do not really have a phobia; they just REALLY don't like spiders.

In order to actually be diagnosed with a phobia, the object of your fear must induce a panic attack. Again, that doesnt mean you scream and run away. Panic attacks are much less fun; sweating, dizziness, nasea, tunnel vision, blacking out/fainting and the feeling and belief you are going to die are all common occurances during a panic attack.

So that's right; when I see blood, I think I'm going to die.

Now obviously, to address the point of "just getting over it", I KNOW how irrational my fear is. I'm not an idiot. I know that no one was hurt in the movie Hostil and I know that it's not going to hurt me. I know, when I have a panic attack, that I'm not going to die. No amount of rationalization can stop a phobia. We know how rediculous they are! It takes a lot of training, practice, and determination to overcome them.

So if all these people claiming they have phobias are just "really afraid" of things... They don't know what phobia means.

</RANT>

I think people have phobias because they are told what is scary and what isnt at a young age, they are taught what they should and shouldnt b afraid of, which usually causes irrational fears of different things.

Yeah everybody is afraid of something. Only Movie heros are immune to that. Like rambo, boy I'd hate to see what scares him.


I am afraid of bugs, any bugs, even large crickets, even moths and butterflies. :rofl:

I can't explain it very well I just am.

Fear: refuses to touch a snake.
Phobia: Refuses to be on the same floor of a house as a snake. <lol>

It's hard to say what causes a phobia in some cases. I have a couple myself--spiders, and bees/wasps. I have worked over the years to overcome my spider phobia, but I will still have a full-blown panic reaction if I find one crawling on me. I can peer at one in a web or on a wall all day long.
I actually like spiders, I think they're neat creatures, but that doesn't change my reaction.

Bees/wasps will also send me into a panic if they fly too close to me. I've desensitized myself by watching them on flowers and things, but I'm more frightened of them still than I am of spiders.
Again, I admire them, and I have no problem watching them from a safe vantage point, but I panic if they're too near.

I have a phobia of hypodermic needles, and I wonder if all of the above are related. lol (Since having two children, I've been desensitized to that as well, but I still hyperventilate half the time).

Did anyone teach me to be afraid of any of these things? No, on the contrary my father did his best to alleviate my fears, but there is no rational foundation for a phobia. The trigger for a phobia can be any experience in early childhood that causes intense fear and involves the object of the phobia--even if that object didn't even cause the fear. For some reason, the brain just reinforces it and takes it to a whole new level. Phobias aren't taught--ordinary fears are taught.

I've seen a phobic person's reaction to their phobia and its not funny or amusing. Our office manager had a rodent phobia and we worked in a Steel frame building surrounded by corn fields. Once she found a mouse dropping on her desk and had a panic attack and was hyperventilating. We wanted to take her to the hospital but she refused. It scared the living day lights out of me!! Another time (before I worked there) a designer put a fake mouse in her desk as a joke and when she saw it she collapsed! Got to her feet and ran out the door screaming. Got in her car a drove home! She called the owner and needless to say the designer was suspended for the rest of the week. Someone that was just afraid of mice would have jumped, maybe screamed but probably would have laughed it off as a joke.

Now paranoia...that is a pain in the butt! I totally have a burglar paranoia and a zombie paranoia. I've seriously warned my friends NOT to mess with me and dress like a zombie or burglar to try to scare me. I would be afraid that I might clobber them with something. But I can overcome it by thinking rationally.

I agree that phobias and fears are very different. Personally, I'm terrified of mounted (dead) animals some people and restarunt owns seem to like to hang on their walls. I mean, I have a fear of bugs, but won't have a heart attack or pass out over one of them if they touch me like I would with a mounted deer head or something. I don't know that it's something you're told to "fear" as a kid either though. My dad has always had mounted animals in his house ever since I was little. I used to not be afraid of them, then I was, wasn't, and now I am. Don't know how someone can flip flop like that, but it happened to me...

Interesting question though. I know there are people you can go to to help you get over a (full blown) phobia, not just a fear, and people have done it before...