isaythat-blog1

[isaythat-blog1]

Common misconceptions about phobias.

As a phobic I've had the misfortune of encountering situations where I have gotten little to no understanding. It seems difficult for non-phobics to truly realize the struggle we face. And I do believe it is very common that people with different phobias or fears are not too often taken seriously.

In my experience, people without phobias tend to think that simply telling you that the thing you're being exposed to isn't dangerous or harmful, is enough for you to completely let go of your fears and just go on like everyone else.

I just can't help but wonder; has that ever worked in the history of doing that? Why is this such a wide spread behaviour? Could it be that it sticks with us humans since that is something we tell kids when we want to prevent them from developing fears? So in that case we treat our fellow humans as children, whose fears aren't justified since we don't view them that way.

And telling a phobic that something isn't dangerous doesn't help them. Obviously we already know that. A phobia is exactly that; an exaggerated fear of something that isn't necessarily dangerous. We are well aware that it isn't going to harm us, however that might not be the whole story. In some cases just touching the source of the fears is way above our comfort zone. Even just imagining touching it, can result in us getting very anxious and discomforted.

To make an example: picture yourself riding an elevator. Once the doors have closed you notice a spider in one of the top corners of the elevator. One without phobia would probably just think "oh, look a spider”. However, a person with arachnophobia would probably be mortified. The biggest fear then and there would realistically be to be touched by the spider; "what if it climbs down and crawls towards me" or "what if it gets in my hair".

The best way I can compare this is to a dead body or a pile of feces. Not many people would want to be touched by any of the two. Once again, we know a spider isn't at all as threatening but this is about the discomfort. A phobic in this scenario could experience the same kind of disgust that you would feel if you were looking at a dead body (so imagine the fear if it were crawling towards you!).

#fear #phobia #arachnophobia #fear of spiders #logic #stupid #people #peopleplease #getittogether #lifewithphobias #life as a phobic #psychology #mental heath support #we are all different #we all matter #think twice #dont judge people #dont judge pls #think before you speak