What is the Definition of Phobia?

What is the definition of phobia? A phobia is an irrational fear of an object or situation. Fears are common. Many people have some level of fear about certain situations as one might experience while walking in a dark alley or getting ready to take a final exam.

Phobias are different from normal fear or anxiety. It is the level of fear and the presence of a true threat that is part of what is the definition of phobia that separates a phobia from a common, normal fear. To say that a phobia is an extreme fear is not enough to define phobia. A person being chased by a tiger is likely to have an extreme fear of that tiger, but that does not mean that person has a tiger phobia.

Therefore, a phobia definition must include that there is no real danger or that the fear caused by the phobia far exceeds a normal response to the possible danger. A person can have a phobia of an object that has the potential to cause harm like a phobia of snakes, but the person’s fear is so extreme that it is not justified by the real threat.

For example, someone with a phobia of elevators may have extreme anxiety when confronted with having to use an elevator. They may cry, scream, and panic if they feel forced to use the elevator. Is there a real danger of an elevator plummeting and killing those onboard? Perhaps there is the tiniest, miniscule chance that something like that could happen. But in the mind of the person with the phobia, if they get on that elevator, they will die.

Some people will experience a phobia reaction even if they are not in direct contact of the object triggering the phobia. A person with a phobia of kittens may panic even if the kitten is secured in a cage. There are cases in which the person with a phobia will be fearful of inanimate representations of the object that they fear such as a photograph, toy, or video clip of the feared object.
What causes phobias? A traumatic event, especially occurring at a young age, can be one of the causes of phobias. For example, many people who survived a trip in a ferry that sank developed a phobia of water, called hydrophobia.

Other causes of phobias can be described as learned behavior. A young child who gets stung by a bee may develop a fear of bees. There are some cases when a child was rewarded for a fear, such as a child or parent who is afraid of thunderstorms making the periods during thunderstorms special to the child by huddling close and spending time together even though the general mood of the interaction was fear. The child feels close to the parent and the fear becomes psychologically rewarding.