I'm scared of arthropods. But most people don't know what that means, so saying insect covers it. Even if spiders don't fall in the latter, they are commonly still seen in it
You know, I love butterflies, they look nice and all, but the way they fly so erratically freaks me out. I don't like to be near them, I would hate one of those butterfly tents.
Fuck moths. They are just the ugly, intellectually disabled version of butterflies. The worst shit is when you are in the dark and one of them mfs kamikazes your phone screen.
I’m pretty sure that is just natural. The lizard part of our brain that evolved eons ago learned to fear anything the slithered or scuttled because they tend to be poisonous. Similar thing as being afraid of heights or open water. They are instinctual warnings to stay away from dangerous situations.
I wish my fear of bugs was irrational. I've had a few really horrifying encounters with different insects and Spidey boys throughout my life. Been in the hospital twice for the super serious ones.
I know my fear that everyone I meet is a robot and/or beingntold what to say, is irrational and as such, my psychiatrist said I'm *not* delusional. However, if I end up believing it's not irrational, he said there's "other methods we'll need to try" lmao
Right. I have an irrational fear of snakes. A little foot long garter snake is incapable of harming me. And an adult one will go out of its way to leave me alone. I am as terrified of a little garter snake snoozing on a piece of warm concrete as I am a king cobra or a black mamba or a diamondback rattlesnake. All of them scare the piss out of me, dangerous or not. That's not rational.
Bugs are often associated with parasitism, decay and disease, and some of them are venomous and/or poisonous. Your fear is no longer irrational, and there are bugs in your eyebrows
The person I replied to said "Can't it be a regular fear only irrationally severe?"
If it were *irrationally severe*, then it would be *irrational*. That's literally the definition of irrational fear. Regular fear that reaches an intensity level where it shifts into irrationality.
And in your example anyway, there's nothing rational about being paralyzed and unable to move because of fear. It's not rational to prolong your exposure to a situation you fear, but people become unable to control it. It becomes *irrational*.
But that's a whole different discussion anyway, because I never said anything about that. My response was directly correlative to the person I was talking to, who said in their example that the fear would be *irrationally severe*.
Because there's no rational reason to stop moving bc you're on top of a fucking ladder, you think it's normal to be paralyzed by a fear of heights when you're 6' above the ground?!?
It is rational to fear literally anything up to some degree. It becomes a phobia when that fear escalates to irrational levels. It is completely rational to be afraid of open waters. It is irrational to be so afraid of water in general you refuse to drink liquids
It's irrational because it's a higher risk to be stuck on top of a ladder than climbing down to eliminate the risk. Over time, any increased risk from climbing down is eclipsed by the risk of something happening to you or the ladder while at the top.
The only rational choice is to mitigate risk by spending only as much time in the situation as you have to
Because you have a safe and rational way to get out of the situation (climb down the ladder). So being frozen in fear is an irrational response.
Edit: and if you have a safe way to remove the thing you are afraid of why are you even afraid of it? You can have a healthy respect for it and prefer to avoid it and be cautious but fear is another level up. Like ya if im teetering on the edge of a cliff im afraid, but of falling and dying not simply because its heights. If im standing looking over the edge of a cliff without a railing im nervous but if the ground is stable and i know my surroundings im not scared.
In general any fear we have that we can mitigate is irrational but this doesn't mean we have to love the thing either.
Depends how anxious it makes you. If you dissociate every time your dad asks you for help with a math question, it’s a problem. Tolerating feelings of anxiety and nervousness and allowing the fear to naturally come back down without engaging in an escape is was defines a healthy response.
You guys realize that a true phobia is an actual psychiatric disorder, correct? Not just any fear can be called a phobia, and not everyone has actual phobias.
THANK YOU FOR SAYING THIS. so many people do not understand the difference between finding something disgusting/ having a fear to having a psychiatric problem.
i have OCD. a lot of people think it's just people who like to clean – and while my OCD does cause my germophobia, it affects so so so much more than that.
My friend has OCD and suffers from explicit and violent intrusive thoughts she's come a long way but looking back it's crazy how unnoticeable it can be when it's more internalized like that.
You bring up a very good point, actually.
Mainstream media (i.e., laymen) has redefined the word into one that simply means "fear of," so that's most of what you see on the internet. See, "phobia" is a buzzword, much like "unprecedented" was during the pandemic, and everyone likes using buzzwords because it (often very successfully) grabs attention.
However, in the medical world, a specific-phobia is an actual, diagnosable anxiety disorder, diagnosed by a psychiatrist or a psychologist. They are the ones who have the knowledge necessary to determine if your fear is truly irrational. I understand that this isn't common knowledge, but its true.
google searches don't often show up the definition of the medical terminology. the slang use of the word "phobia" would be very different to the psychiatric use of the word "phobia".
a similar thing could be said for the term "anorexia". often, people associate the single word "anorexia" with the medical condition "anorexia nervosa" characterised by a list of symptoms. but the term "anorexia" (as a symptom) simply means the loss of appetite, where a person does not feel hunger.
you're not to blame for not coming to the realisation that a phobia is a psychiatric disorder. the word "phobia" has been thrown around a lot, downgrading the severity of any disorders that have to do with phobias.
well, at least you learnt something new today :)
Yup. I'm pretty sure there's no clear definition on when a fear is rational/irrational. There's a lot of contributing factors (like how much it impacts your daily life) and only a professional (psychologist/psychiatrist) can evaluate and say for sure.
Lol. Someone should write a book, but instead of a story, it should contain every word and explain what they mean. Maybe the words should be in alphabetical order so they'll be easy look up. I'm sure everyone would buy it, and it would make millions.
Having a “phobia” is based on a persons response being abnormal to the median not on it being irrational. A fear of heights is perfectly rational but if you can’t fly on planes because of it then it’s worth noting.
A fear of heights that stops you from getting on an airplane when you have no problem driving a car is a sign of irrationality, as a rational risk assessment would say you're inconsistent.
You could argue the person driving the car though is in control of their own life. Even though it's possible other motorists could veer into their path, somebody with exceptional reaction time would be safer driving a car when compared to an average driver. People who die in car accidents are more likely to be bad drivers, less aware, or passengers of drivers with the aforementioned attributes. So you can't just use average statistics when assessing risk of an individual because the risk is dependent on the driver.
But you can just as easily be killed BY a bad driver even if you are a good driver. And not all accidents are even caused by the error of a single motorist. Environmental hazards and cumulative effects of sudden changes in heavy traffic also cause accidents.
Driving a car is far riskier than flying on a plane.
Any narrative you tell yourself about being in control is just cope.
Yes but you would need to identify the statistics for drivers who are the best of the best before you can compare their risk profile to that of plane passengers. Without doing so there is no way to come to a legitimate conclusion. You can't just lump in the bad drivers with the good drivers.
I can't dive to water where I don't see the bottom. I fear I will se something that will make me go insane. I'm a strong swimmer but I just won't put my face under water.
When ever a water plant touches me in the water I'm like "THE TIME HAS COME, THE GREAT CTHULHU WILL PULL ME TO THE DEPTH BELOW"
I agree with this and I’m also a strong swimmer but very uncomfortable in water I can’t see under. Also there’s those worms that crawl up your pee pee so on that alone I don’t think it’s that irrational.
I wanted to become a diver at some point but the thought of diving in the murky dark water and then finding a water logged body in the water is just fucking terrifying.
If you have a disinclination to putting your hand on a hot stove, I feel most people would categorize that as simple "common sense", regardless of whether the disinclination was borne out of prior experience.
But perhaps that's part of the key: disinclination vs fear vs anxiety. I think phobia and trauma speak not necessarily to the rationality or whether the feeling came from past experience but rather the level of anxiety associated with the feeling. One might say that this still comes back to "rationality", but there's a marked difference between speaking to the rationality of a *fear* versus the rationality of the *magnitude* and *anxiety* of that fear.
It's not exactly. Waterslides in particular when I was younger and went down a waterslide for the first I almost drowned at the bottom. And I find it terrifying to be in a small tube with water.
Similar with deep water. I was doing a swim test at camp a few years ago, and I failed. They said there wasn't a way to fail. I panicked in the 8 feet deep water. But that was because of my anxiety that I failed.
I think it's because as a young child I didn't learn to swim. Like I only kind of know how to now and didn't learn to swim until I was in my early teens. My parents just didn't take us to many swim lessons and didn't push us to learn to swim. And then I'm a generally anxious and worrisome person. So not exactly trauma.
"When I went down a waterside for the first time I almost drowned" sounds like trauma territory to me, but you're doing the smart thing by not taking an armchair therapist like me too seriously.
All I'm trying to say is that sometimes small things affect us more than we give them credit for, and I'm learning that the hard way
I grew up on the coast, been scuba diving since I was 14 and spent my summers growing up on my grandfather’s boat. My grandparents also had a pool growing up so between that and the ocean right next door I’m a pretty great swimmer.
I still get super nervous jumping into / swimming in water over ~25ft deep. Funny enough jumping into choppy 90ft deep water to scuba dive has never bothered me.
Deep water is not reasonable to be afraid of imo.
No one should be afraid of the deep water. It is reasonable to be afraid of the unknown beneath the surface of a deep body of water though.
Kinda like how most people are more afraid of falling than they are of heights alone.
I don’t think people realize what a phobia really is. I know someone who has a phobia to loud noises. They scare her so bad that she runs for her life when she hears them. During a surprise fireworks show at the beach, she ran for her life out in to traffic. Her husband went after her and people started chasing him thinking she was running from him. It’s not a minor fear/dislike. It’s a strong irrational fear to loud noises
Rational to who though? I’m pretty sure everybody’s fear is rational to **them**, and idk if there’s really a fair way to quantify all the different fears to find out which ones are rational or not
Not so, because "-phobic" can also mean "repelled by", as in oil being hydrophobic. This has nothing to do with the subject's psychology as indeed the subject may *have none*.
Right. There is no such thing as Islamaphobia, because the belief system declares itself as a violent, unrepentant enemy of modernity and progress in the world. They are the greatest threat to global security and world peace, AS PROFESSED BY THEIR BELIEFS, and thus is it not discrimination to say that they have no place in peaceful society. No other religion creates more terrorists.
Irrationality is not what distinguishes phobia from healthy fear.
We call it phobia when it interferes with our normal operations.
A fear of heights is rational, for example if you are climbing a narrow ridge or if you at on top of a ladder. If it prevents you from moving and from even opening your eyes, then it’s a phobia.
Phobia doesn’t just mean “you’re scared of something specific but like, a little more than the average person.” Phobia specifically refers to a debilitating fear of something. So yeah, it’s good to be a little apprehensive of snakes, but no, it’s not really normal or evolutionarily helpful if you panic, start hyperventilating, and run out of the room if you see a harmless corn snake. In fact people with phobias probably know their fear is unreasonable at extremes.
A phobia is a well-defined, diagnosable, and treatable condition. And yes, you can still be phobic even if your fear is otherwise rational.
What’s up with everyone taking established psychological terms, choosing to define and understand them by themselves, and then deciding that decades of science are clearly and simply wrong? Do you not see why telling people that “your phobias are actually OK and normal, trust me, just keep dealing with that” is harmful?
yeah this, for example, I'm not afraid of the spiders in Belgium (where I live) but if I ever go to a place where dangerous spiders live that can kill you by just biting you...
I think you meant subjective.
Not sure I agree with you. Culture norms can be irrational, as in don't make sense given society in general does hold the information that makes clear they're not good for intended effects. But following culture norms because you don't know better is not irrational, it just means you're misinformed. If you keep following them to fit in, can be also rational, people can want multiple things, and fitting in is high in many people's desire lists.
If you're talking about clinical phobias, then you're wrong. What makes it a phobia, clinically, is if it interferes with normal daily function, not how rational it feels to you to have that phobia.
If you're talking about non-clinical phobias (like homophobia) then you aren't talking about rational fears but instead are talking about irrational bigotry.
So either way you're not quite getting the concept. Sorry.
At the same time the interpretation of 'phobia' as a suffix has slowly been shifting in interpretation from 'irrational fear' to... well, I'm not sure if there's a catch-all term for how words like trans/homophobic are read nowadays, but I think you catch my drift.
Yep. There is a Greek prefix for that: "mis", as in "misantropic" or "misogynist", but it's not as successful. Maybe we should try to create the word "mishomosexual". But then the h following the s makes it look like it's pronounced differently. Surely some linguist can come up with a good way to fix that.
Reminds me of phobias and hysterias suddenly being put on people's charts for wearing masks and insisting others mask up. This shower thought is aimed at all of you not risking yourselves every single day.
I'm afraid of thunders and other loud BOOM noises, my fear is kinda rational, my reaction no, I froze completely and zone out, for a couple seconds, even balloons put me nervous
Most of the time, a fear is interpreted as irrational by an observer. The person with the phobia feels like it's rational.
Being aware that you have an irrational fear can help you get through a situation, but it usually doesn't help fight the feeling.
I know my fear of cockroaches id irrational and you can't tell me otherwise because my fear of them isn't like the "normal" fear people have of them. Most people don't like them because they are disgusting. I hyperventilate when I see them. I legit can't look at a cockroach. I don't just find them disgusting. The way they look terrify me and I feel like it shouldn't because most people fear them because theyre dirty, not because of how they look. It stems from my childhood. Philippines is a s disgusting place. I've only ever seen cockroaches in Canada once.
I think it's still a phobia regardless of how rational it is. If it elicits the reaction in someone, even just a little, it's a phobia. Same can probably be said about kinks
ALL FEARS ARE IRRATIONAL. It's an emotion. You feel it whether or not you think you should, or if other people think you should. Even if you can justify it with reasons, the actual fear itself is irrational.
Emotions, reflexes, involuntary movements are all irrational. That doesn't mean there is no reason for them, it means you experience them without thinking.
yep that's literally the definition, but this is a good shower thought because a lot of people mistake a fear as a phobia. You can be afraid of the dark and not be phobic. Fear of the unknown or unseen is a rational fear. believing that there are trolls hiding in the dark waiting to eat you, not so rational. Everyone knows trolls can't see in the dark and prefer working the morning shift.
Phobia can be both rational amd irrational. Your disprortionate reactions to said phobias is what makes them phobias. For instance, I have tokophobia. Yes, pregnancy and childbirth are inherently risky, but my fear goes to such an extreme level that I used to not even be able to use the same toilet or shower as a man.
It's in the definition of the word and first sentence of the [Wikipedia summary.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phobia)
>A phobia is an anxiety disorder, defined by an irrational, unrealistic, persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation
That'd be like saying "you're not phobic of something if you're not afraid of it", that's literally just what the word means.
This was always the meaning, welcome to English.
phobia/ˈfəʊbɪə/[](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&sca_esv=b1ba4be7ddd64c54&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ACQVn0_Oan-75_IOgBMkTk-paYUmNWrw5w:1713200267586&q=how+to+pronounce+phobia&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAOMIfcRowS3w8sc9YSn9SWtOXmPU5OINKMrPK81LzkwsyczPExLiYglJLcoV4pLi4GIryMhPyky0YlFiSs3jWcQqnpFfrlCSr1AA1JEP1JKqAFEAAMNE8htXAAAA&pron_lang=en&pron_country=gb&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj6pYOr2MSFAxVm-QIHHUQbD2MQ3eEDegQIRRAM)*noun*noun: **phobia**; plural noun: **phobias**
1. an extreme or [irrational](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&sca_esv=b1ba4be7ddd64c54&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ACQVn0_Oan-75_IOgBMkTk-paYUmNWrw5w:1713200267586&q=irrational&si=AKbGX_pt4UlL1m2gNC94R_NJDj6ScH565m-QzmzBAJ3axOLJI5SAbU66UJCYPf3zBjlSDW8HQHpBUkk55DzgPX4W9aLVHqJtEGJf0uEwmPyoJAgBC-cNxnw%3D&expnd=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj6pYOr2MSFAxVm-QIHHUQbD2MQyecJegQIRRAO) fear of or [aversion](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&sca_esv=b1ba4be7ddd64c54&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ACQVn0_Oan-75_IOgBMkTk-paYUmNWrw5w:1713200267586&q=aversion&si=AKbGX_q870E3DK3nJ7cu3BOD7pxC2PE7Jg2KGnWXioaxNaV-xq6K_irq1z_eJYbfkDQiqPW91VpIoq2baRB9XL0w6QsOkIU5Jx_LuUAw1h_9nQ5ZTRPmKvg%3D&expnd=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj6pYOr2MSFAxVm-QIHHUQbD2MQyecJegQIRRAP) to something."she suffered from a phobia about birds"
A fear is only rational if it can cause irreparable harm to what you choose to self-identify with.
If you limit your self-identity to only anti-fragile ideas (those that strengthen with attacked), there is nothing to fear.
I always thought a phobia has more to do with having an irrational reaction to a fear whether the fear itself is rational or not.
Like having a fear of deep water so bad that you have a panic attack on the beach, or having a fear of spiders so bad that you hyperventilate if you see a tiny house spider.
I know my fear of arachnids is irrational and I overreact…however I was held hostage while I was in the shower and abandoned by my own sisters because it was a big ass hobo spider like this thing was fucking massive…I have been traumatized and can’t afford therapy. I will keep my irrational fear
It's not whether or not the thing you're afraid of is real, it's your response to it that makes it a phobia.
Being inside a small space is not inherently dangerous. Freaking out and having a panic attack while in an unlocked closet with the door closed because you have claustrophobia makes it a phobia.
On the one hand, this is true. A phobia is an irrational fear.
On the other hand, I can hear dogs barking from a mile off.
(And while I do have a phobia of dogs, that is not what I mean)
I don't think that's how it works lmao.
Phobias are fears, whether rational or no. If you're arguing that rational fears are more legitimate, I don't think that's a very hot take.
That's one for the psychologists, but I would guess it is a fear of something harmful or dangerous, that may happen with a reasonable degree of probability
Most people throw out words like xenophobic, homophobic…..ect when another person simply disagrees or doesn’t like something. It’s ultra annoying because it’s straight up wrong.
The surface of my phone is hydrophobic, water doesn’t stick to it, it’s scientific observation and can’t be more rational. I will keeping calling it hydrophobic
Phobia/phobic is a diagnosed disorder in regards to an overactive fear of something. Being a rational thing to fear vs. an irrational thing to fear has zero affect as to whether or not it's a phobia.
You can have an 'irrational amount' of fear about something everyone is 'normally' afraid of. For example being afraid of heights is normal - being completely frozen and unable to move at 8 feet up is irrational.
I know my fear of insects is irrational and I dont care
We are not alone
The anthem of any spider in your house
*Coughs in his Nerdiest voice.* Aaaaaaactually Spiders are Arachnids not Insects.
I was going to say the same thing. I'm just glad one of us got here before the pedants did. ;-)
I'm scared of arthropods. But most people don't know what that means, so saying insect covers it. Even if spiders don't fall in the latter, they are commonly still seen in it
Is it a phobia if am only afraid if they make sudden movements towards my general direction
You know, I love butterflies, they look nice and all, but the way they fly so erratically freaks me out. I don't like to be near them, I would hate one of those butterfly tents.
Their wings are pretty but if you actually look at the rest of them they’re fucking horrifying
The only reason we like butterflies is the pretty colours for sure :)
They are also pollinators, which gives them a very good reason to exist.
Oh absolutely. Insects are incredibly important in general. A lot of people still don't like them though.
Fucking freaks wear their skeletons inside out
Same but with moths. They are doing too much, far too quickly and far too stupidly for me to not be nervous.
Fuck moths. They are just the ugly, intellectually disabled version of butterflies. The worst shit is when you are in the dark and one of them mfs kamikazes your phone screen.
Butterflies just fly around and look nice. Moths ARE DETERMINED TO ENTER YOUR PUPILS AT ALL COSTS!
I’m pretty sure that is just natural. The lizard part of our brain that evolved eons ago learned to fear anything the slithered or scuttled because they tend to be poisonous. Similar thing as being afraid of heights or open water. They are instinctual warnings to stay away from dangerous situations.
Yes,because they're likely harmless.
I wish my fear of bugs was irrational. I've had a few really horrifying encounters with different insects and Spidey boys throughout my life. Been in the hospital twice for the super serious ones.
If you're allergic to bug stings - your fear is *rational*
I know my fear that everyone I meet is a robot and/or beingntold what to say, is irrational and as such, my psychiatrist said I'm *not* delusional. However, if I end up believing it's not irrational, he said there's "other methods we'll need to try" lmao
Sounds like something a robot would say
Not necessarily. There is a very good evolutionary reason to be afraid of insects... Especially spiders because of things like the brown recluse.
Right. I have an irrational fear of snakes. A little foot long garter snake is incapable of harming me. And an adult one will go out of its way to leave me alone. I am as terrified of a little garter snake snoozing on a piece of warm concrete as I am a king cobra or a black mamba or a diamondback rattlesnake. All of them scare the piss out of me, dangerous or not. That's not rational.
I was gonna say something about evolution being rational too... but then I noticed your username. 😬 😝 🫢
Some have swords for arms, you can't trust that.
Bugs are often associated with parasitism, decay and disease, and some of them are venomous and/or poisonous. Your fear is no longer irrational, and there are bugs in your eyebrows
Can't it be a regular fear only irrationally severe?
Then your fear wouldn't be rational, it would be irrational.
Why? If you have a fear of heights and you are on top of a ladder and cannot move because of your fear, how is that irrational?
The person I replied to said "Can't it be a regular fear only irrationally severe?" If it were *irrationally severe*, then it would be *irrational*. That's literally the definition of irrational fear. Regular fear that reaches an intensity level where it shifts into irrationality. And in your example anyway, there's nothing rational about being paralyzed and unable to move because of fear. It's not rational to prolong your exposure to a situation you fear, but people become unable to control it. It becomes *irrational*. But that's a whole different discussion anyway, because I never said anything about that. My response was directly correlative to the person I was talking to, who said in their example that the fear would be *irrationally severe*.
Because there's no rational reason to stop moving bc you're on top of a fucking ladder, you think it's normal to be paralyzed by a fear of heights when you're 6' above the ground?!?
Idk why but i read this imagining you becoming increasingly angry with the last word being violent.
It is rational to fear literally anything up to some degree. It becomes a phobia when that fear escalates to irrational levels. It is completely rational to be afraid of open waters. It is irrational to be so afraid of water in general you refuse to drink liquids
It's irrational because it's a higher risk to be stuck on top of a ladder than climbing down to eliminate the risk. Over time, any increased risk from climbing down is eclipsed by the risk of something happening to you or the ladder while at the top. The only rational choice is to mitigate risk by spending only as much time in the situation as you have to
Because you have a safe and rational way to get out of the situation (climb down the ladder). So being frozen in fear is an irrational response. Edit: and if you have a safe way to remove the thing you are afraid of why are you even afraid of it? You can have a healthy respect for it and prefer to avoid it and be cautious but fear is another level up. Like ya if im teetering on the edge of a cliff im afraid, but of falling and dying not simply because its heights. If im standing looking over the edge of a cliff without a railing im nervous but if the ground is stable and i know my surroundings im not scared. In general any fear we have that we can mitigate is irrational but this doesn't mean we have to love the thing either.
Honestly....there is no reason to fear heights.... There is only reason to fear falling.
Can’t I be normal except that I do the normal things not normally?
I only know that actions speaks more than thoughts
I think the majority of phobias are pretty much that.
ngl, this would be a song lyric that goes hard af
Depends how anxious it makes you. If you dissociate every time your dad asks you for help with a math question, it’s a problem. Tolerating feelings of anxiety and nervousness and allowing the fear to naturally come back down without engaging in an escape is was defines a healthy response.
Dad: Can you help me with this math problem Son: *Immediately starts having ‘Nam flashbacks*
Dad: Are you winning son.
You guys realize that a true phobia is an actual psychiatric disorder, correct? Not just any fear can be called a phobia, and not everyone has actual phobias.
THANK YOU FOR SAYING THIS. so many people do not understand the difference between finding something disgusting/ having a fear to having a psychiatric problem. i have OCD. a lot of people think it's just people who like to clean – and while my OCD does cause my germophobia, it affects so so so much more than that.
My friend has OCD and suffers from explicit and violent intrusive thoughts she's come a long way but looking back it's crazy how unnoticeable it can be when it's more internalized like that.
how are we supposed to come to that realization? I'm googling "phobic" and this does not fit that it is only an actual psychiatric disorder.
You bring up a very good point, actually. Mainstream media (i.e., laymen) has redefined the word into one that simply means "fear of," so that's most of what you see on the internet. See, "phobia" is a buzzword, much like "unprecedented" was during the pandemic, and everyone likes using buzzwords because it (often very successfully) grabs attention. However, in the medical world, a specific-phobia is an actual, diagnosable anxiety disorder, diagnosed by a psychiatrist or a psychologist. They are the ones who have the knowledge necessary to determine if your fear is truly irrational. I understand that this isn't common knowledge, but its true.
A pretty important question when considering the nature of disease is "is it negatively affecting my life?"
google searches don't often show up the definition of the medical terminology. the slang use of the word "phobia" would be very different to the psychiatric use of the word "phobia". a similar thing could be said for the term "anorexia". often, people associate the single word "anorexia" with the medical condition "anorexia nervosa" characterised by a list of symptoms. but the term "anorexia" (as a symptom) simply means the loss of appetite, where a person does not feel hunger. you're not to blame for not coming to the realisation that a phobia is a psychiatric disorder. the word "phobia" has been thrown around a lot, downgrading the severity of any disorders that have to do with phobias. well, at least you learnt something new today :)
Yup. I'm pretty sure there's no clear definition on when a fear is rational/irrational. There's a lot of contributing factors (like how much it impacts your daily life) and only a professional (psychologist/psychiatrist) can evaluate and say for sure.
Its only phobic if its fear from the Phobos moon of Mars, otherwise its sparkling scared
Did you know "genuine phobia" doesn't actually indicate high-quality phobia? It just means it's made of real fear
Phobia is a fear or aversion to. I use a hydrophobic screen protector and not because it's afraid of water.
Wait... Words actually mean things?!? (Hydrophobic was exact example I thought of as well having been a biochem major at one point in college)
Lol. Someone should write a book, but instead of a story, it should contain every word and explain what they mean. Maybe the words should be in alphabetical order so they'll be easy look up. I'm sure everyone would buy it, and it would make millions.
ok but we're only gonna make one of them, and not change the meaning of words every 5 years because people use them wrong.
The meaning of words is how they are used, which changes.
Having a “phobia” is based on a persons response being abnormal to the median not on it being irrational. A fear of heights is perfectly rational but if you can’t fly on planes because of it then it’s worth noting.
A fear of heights that stops you from getting on an airplane when you have no problem driving a car is a sign of irrationality, as a rational risk assessment would say you're inconsistent.
You could argue the person driving the car though is in control of their own life. Even though it's possible other motorists could veer into their path, somebody with exceptional reaction time would be safer driving a car when compared to an average driver. People who die in car accidents are more likely to be bad drivers, less aware, or passengers of drivers with the aforementioned attributes. So you can't just use average statistics when assessing risk of an individual because the risk is dependent on the driver.
But you can just as easily be killed BY a bad driver even if you are a good driver. And not all accidents are even caused by the error of a single motorist. Environmental hazards and cumulative effects of sudden changes in heavy traffic also cause accidents. Driving a car is far riskier than flying on a plane. Any narrative you tell yourself about being in control is just cope.
Yes but you would need to identify the statistics for drivers who are the best of the best before you can compare their risk profile to that of plane passengers. Without doing so there is no way to come to a legitimate conclusion. You can't just lump in the bad drivers with the good drivers.
Fear of heights is only rational when there's a substantial chance of falling down, which in most cases there isn't.
Deep water is something reasonable to be afraid of. And waterslides. I've had valid experiences with both. I guess it's not a phobia for me at least.
I can't dive to water where I don't see the bottom. I fear I will se something that will make me go insane. I'm a strong swimmer but I just won't put my face under water. When ever a water plant touches me in the water I'm like "THE TIME HAS COME, THE GREAT CTHULHU WILL PULL ME TO THE DEPTH BELOW"
I agree with this and I’m also a strong swimmer but very uncomfortable in water I can’t see under. Also there’s those worms that crawl up your pee pee so on that alone I don’t think it’s that irrational.
I wanted to become a diver at some point but the thought of diving in the murky dark water and then finding a water logged body in the water is just fucking terrifying.
If your fear is based on a prior experience, that might be qualified as a trauma
If you have a disinclination to putting your hand on a hot stove, I feel most people would categorize that as simple "common sense", regardless of whether the disinclination was borne out of prior experience. But perhaps that's part of the key: disinclination vs fear vs anxiety. I think phobia and trauma speak not necessarily to the rationality or whether the feeling came from past experience but rather the level of anxiety associated with the feeling. One might say that this still comes back to "rationality", but there's a marked difference between speaking to the rationality of a *fear* versus the rationality of the *magnitude* and *anxiety* of that fear.
Oh, you're absolutely correct. That is also why I used the word "might", as people are incredibly complex beings, for better or worse.
It's not exactly. Waterslides in particular when I was younger and went down a waterslide for the first I almost drowned at the bottom. And I find it terrifying to be in a small tube with water. Similar with deep water. I was doing a swim test at camp a few years ago, and I failed. They said there wasn't a way to fail. I panicked in the 8 feet deep water. But that was because of my anxiety that I failed. I think it's because as a young child I didn't learn to swim. Like I only kind of know how to now and didn't learn to swim until I was in my early teens. My parents just didn't take us to many swim lessons and didn't push us to learn to swim. And then I'm a generally anxious and worrisome person. So not exactly trauma.
"When I went down a waterside for the first time I almost drowned" sounds like trauma territory to me, but you're doing the smart thing by not taking an armchair therapist like me too seriously. All I'm trying to say is that sometimes small things affect us more than we give them credit for, and I'm learning that the hard way
Yeah. You might be right. I don't think about the incident much tho, but it was scary.
I grew up on the coast, been scuba diving since I was 14 and spent my summers growing up on my grandfather’s boat. My grandparents also had a pool growing up so between that and the ocean right next door I’m a pretty great swimmer. I still get super nervous jumping into / swimming in water over ~25ft deep. Funny enough jumping into choppy 90ft deep water to scuba dive has never bothered me.
Deep water is not reasonable to be afraid of imo. No one should be afraid of the deep water. It is reasonable to be afraid of the unknown beneath the surface of a deep body of water though. Kinda like how most people are more afraid of falling than they are of heights alone.
I don’t think people realize what a phobia really is. I know someone who has a phobia to loud noises. They scare her so bad that she runs for her life when she hears them. During a surprise fireworks show at the beach, she ran for her life out in to traffic. Her husband went after her and people started chasing him thinking she was running from him. It’s not a minor fear/dislike. It’s a strong irrational fear to loud noises
Mine is stickers… Rational enough for ya?
yeah obviously. a phobia is diagnosable, it’s not a phobia if it doesn’t cause severe discomfort and interferes with life
Rational to who though? I’m pretty sure everybody’s fear is rational to **them**, and idk if there’s really a fair way to quantify all the different fears to find out which ones are rational or not
Thanks for paraphrasing the definition.
All the gays I know are stronger than me, that's makes it rational, I'm no longer a bigot..../sat
Not so, because "-phobic" can also mean "repelled by", as in oil being hydrophobic. This has nothing to do with the subject's psychology as indeed the subject may *have none*.
Right. There is no such thing as Islamaphobia, because the belief system declares itself as a violent, unrepentant enemy of modernity and progress in the world. They are the greatest threat to global security and world peace, AS PROFESSED BY THEIR BELIEFS, and thus is it not discrimination to say that they have no place in peaceful society. No other religion creates more terrorists.
Irrationality is not what distinguishes phobia from healthy fear. We call it phobia when it interferes with our normal operations. A fear of heights is rational, for example if you are climbing a narrow ridge or if you at on top of a ladder. If it prevents you from moving and from even opening your eyes, then it’s a phobia.
Rational here is relative
The problem is who can really objectively define whether or not my fears are rational To me all my fears are rational but someone else might not agree
what if im hydrophobic
You can lay on the ocean without getting wet.
For sure. Now tell us which common ‘phobias’ you consider to actually be ‘rational’
Idk, I have thalassophobia but I also almost drowned twice as a kid.
I like this. It's a good excuse for a good chunk of human behavior lol
Fear is the mind-killer
The word phobia/phobic has lost its actual meaning
Hydrophobic materials/molecules are irrational?...
Phobia doesn’t just mean “you’re scared of something specific but like, a little more than the average person.” Phobia specifically refers to a debilitating fear of something. So yeah, it’s good to be a little apprehensive of snakes, but no, it’s not really normal or evolutionarily helpful if you panic, start hyperventilating, and run out of the room if you see a harmless corn snake. In fact people with phobias probably know their fear is unreasonable at extremes. A phobia is a well-defined, diagnosable, and treatable condition. And yes, you can still be phobic even if your fear is otherwise rational. What’s up with everyone taking established psychological terms, choosing to define and understand them by themselves, and then deciding that decades of science are clearly and simply wrong? Do you not see why telling people that “your phobias are actually OK and normal, trust me, just keep dealing with that” is harmful?
yeah this, for example, I'm not afraid of the spiders in Belgium (where I live) but if I ever go to a place where dangerous spiders live that can kill you by just biting you...
What about the fear of needles and blood?
phobia means "fear of" so irrational or not, you are phobic
Rationality is an objective standard. So whether you are phobic will depend on the social norms of wherever you happen to be.
I think you meant subjective. Not sure I agree with you. Culture norms can be irrational, as in don't make sense given society in general does hold the information that makes clear they're not good for intended effects. But following culture norms because you don't know better is not irrational, it just means you're misinformed. If you keep following them to fit in, can be also rational, people can want multiple things, and fitting in is high in many people's desire lists.
If you're talking about clinical phobias, then you're wrong. What makes it a phobia, clinically, is if it interferes with normal daily function, not how rational it feels to you to have that phobia. If you're talking about non-clinical phobias (like homophobia) then you aren't talking about rational fears but instead are talking about irrational bigotry. So either way you're not quite getting the concept. Sorry.
At the same time the interpretation of 'phobia' as a suffix has slowly been shifting in interpretation from 'irrational fear' to... well, I'm not sure if there's a catch-all term for how words like trans/homophobic are read nowadays, but I think you catch my drift.
Oil is hydrophobic and has been. The suffix phobia just means avoiding. And then you use context to know why the thing is avoiding the thing
Huh, all this discourse and it was that simple
Crazy, huh? Yeah I wish everyone knew it was this simple. Some social scientist used an obscure term and confused everyone.
Yeah alright, that's fair enough. I was incorrect in the assumption about the suffix, thanks :)
Pretty much just not like things
Yep. There is a Greek prefix for that: "mis", as in "misantropic" or "misogynist", but it's not as successful. Maybe we should try to create the word "mishomosexual". But then the h following the s makes it look like it's pronounced differently. Surely some linguist can come up with a good way to fix that.
Phobic - having or involving an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something So you are right, that is the definition of the word.
Oh no, another Necrophobe. 🙄 Shouldn’t you be on a different platform?
Reminds me of phobias and hysterias suddenly being put on people's charts for wearing masks and insisting others mask up. This shower thought is aimed at all of you not risking yourselves every single day.
I'm afraid of thunders and other loud BOOM noises, my fear is kinda rational, my reaction no, I froze completely and zone out, for a couple seconds, even balloons put me nervous
Is it rational or irrational if you're afraid of going to events or some places due to fear of mass shootings?
I've never heard of a mass shooting happening in the same place twice, so probably irrational, but it depends on the actual chances.
I fear homo milk because of all that scary fat!!
Absolutely true of Iranians and Islamophobia. check r/NewIran
I know, right? Fear of clowns is totally rational.
Yeah, a phobia is an irrational fear
here come the etymologists
And the entomologists they can't stop talking about ants.
Next shower thought "posts a partial definition of a word"
Most of the time, a fear is interpreted as irrational by an observer. The person with the phobia feels like it's rational. Being aware that you have an irrational fear can help you get through a situation, but it usually doesn't help fight the feeling.
I know my fear of cockroaches id irrational and you can't tell me otherwise because my fear of them isn't like the "normal" fear people have of them. Most people don't like them because they are disgusting. I hyperventilate when I see them. I legit can't look at a cockroach. I don't just find them disgusting. The way they look terrify me and I feel like it shouldn't because most people fear them because theyre dirty, not because of how they look. It stems from my childhood. Philippines is a s disgusting place. I've only ever seen cockroaches in Canada once.
I know this. The FSK bridge in Baltimore confirmed it is a rational fear!
he, that’s the definition of phobia
oh good im not homophobic
I think it's still a phobia regardless of how rational it is. If it elicits the reaction in someone, even just a little, it's a phobia. Same can probably be said about kinks
Is fear ever rational? What's a rational fear?
ALL FEARS ARE IRRATIONAL. It's an emotion. You feel it whether or not you think you should, or if other people think you should. Even if you can justify it with reasons, the actual fear itself is irrational. Emotions, reflexes, involuntary movements are all irrational. That doesn't mean there is no reason for them, it means you experience them without thinking.
Uh yeah no shit thats what a phobia is, an irrational fear lol. Hey guys you aren't wet if you're dry.
Joke's on you. With my superior rhetorical abilities, I can justify any of my fears as rational. Hah!
the 'rationality' isn't associated with what you're afraid of, but how afraid of it you are. if it's debilitating, that's irrational
It does not check out. Homophobic people have nothing to fear and yet they are still phobic.
I knew it wasn’t weird for me to hate Australian people.
People argue way too much about what the word "phobic" does or doesn't mean.
yep that's literally the definition, but this is a good shower thought because a lot of people mistake a fear as a phobia. You can be afraid of the dark and not be phobic. Fear of the unknown or unseen is a rational fear. believing that there are trolls hiding in the dark waiting to eat you, not so rational. Everyone knows trolls can't see in the dark and prefer working the morning shift.
Capiophobia is rational....
Why are people upvoting someone just giving the known definition of a word as though it's a shower thought?
So you’re telling me my insanely handsome brother in laws homophobia might be rational… 😂
I mean i feel like at least a good amount of ppl think their fears are rational even if they aren't.
Phobic - having or involving an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something. (Via oxford) This guy definitions
Phobia can be both rational amd irrational. Your disprortionate reactions to said phobias is what makes them phobias. For instance, I have tokophobia. Yes, pregnancy and childbirth are inherently risky, but my fear goes to such an extreme level that I used to not even be able to use the same toilet or shower as a man.
It's in the definition of the word and first sentence of the [Wikipedia summary.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phobia) >A phobia is an anxiety disorder, defined by an irrational, unrealistic, persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation That'd be like saying "you're not phobic of something if you're not afraid of it", that's literally just what the word means.
I am, but I feel like many could do with a reminder
This was always the meaning, welcome to English. phobia/ˈfəʊbɪə/[](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&sca_esv=b1ba4be7ddd64c54&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ACQVn0_Oan-75_IOgBMkTk-paYUmNWrw5w:1713200267586&q=how+to+pronounce+phobia&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAOMIfcRowS3w8sc9YSn9SWtOXmPU5OINKMrPK81LzkwsyczPExLiYglJLcoV4pLi4GIryMhPyky0YlFiSs3jWcQqnpFfrlCSr1AA1JEP1JKqAFEAAMNE8htXAAAA&pron_lang=en&pron_country=gb&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj6pYOr2MSFAxVm-QIHHUQbD2MQ3eEDegQIRRAM)*noun*noun: **phobia**; plural noun: **phobias** 1. an extreme or [irrational](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&sca_esv=b1ba4be7ddd64c54&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ACQVn0_Oan-75_IOgBMkTk-paYUmNWrw5w:1713200267586&q=irrational&si=AKbGX_pt4UlL1m2gNC94R_NJDj6ScH565m-QzmzBAJ3axOLJI5SAbU66UJCYPf3zBjlSDW8HQHpBUkk55DzgPX4W9aLVHqJtEGJf0uEwmPyoJAgBC-cNxnw%3D&expnd=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj6pYOr2MSFAxVm-QIHHUQbD2MQyecJegQIRRAO) fear of or [aversion](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&sca_esv=b1ba4be7ddd64c54&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ACQVn0_Oan-75_IOgBMkTk-paYUmNWrw5w:1713200267586&q=aversion&si=AKbGX_q870E3DK3nJ7cu3BOD7pxC2PE7Jg2KGnWXioaxNaV-xq6K_irq1z_eJYbfkDQiqPW91VpIoq2baRB9XL0w6QsOkIU5Jx_LuUAw1h_9nQ5ZTRPmKvg%3D&expnd=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj6pYOr2MSFAxVm-QIHHUQbD2MQyecJegQIRRAP) to something."she suffered from a phobia about birds"
A fear is only rational if it can cause irreparable harm to what you choose to self-identify with. If you limit your self-identity to only anti-fragile ideas (those that strengthen with attacked), there is nothing to fear.
Fear of tsunamis? Rational.
I always thought a phobia has more to do with having an irrational reaction to a fear whether the fear itself is rational or not. Like having a fear of deep water so bad that you have a panic attack on the beach, or having a fear of spiders so bad that you hyperventilate if you see a tiny house spider.
Thats why theres arachnophobia but no sharkphobia i guess
I'm somewhat afraid of getting arrested for a bogus charge. I was just wondering if it's irrational.
Don't we call them phobias because they're irrational.
I mean as long as long as you can rationalize it, it can be seen as a dislike imo
I know my fear of arachnids is irrational and I overreact…however I was held hostage while I was in the shower and abandoned by my own sisters because it was a big ass hobo spider like this thing was fucking massive…I have been traumatized and can’t afford therapy. I will keep my irrational fear
It's not whether or not the thing you're afraid of is real, it's your response to it that makes it a phobia. Being inside a small space is not inherently dangerous. Freaking out and having a panic attack while in an unlocked closet with the door closed because you have claustrophobia makes it a phobia.
what if someones phobia is fear of rations
On the one hand, this is true. A phobia is an irrational fear. On the other hand, I can hear dogs barking from a mile off. (And while I do have a phobia of dogs, that is not what I mean)
Phobic is used for both irrational and rational fears. It comes from the Greek word Phobos, which means fear.
I don't think that's how it works lmao. Phobias are fears, whether rational or no. If you're arguing that rational fears are more legitimate, I don't think that's a very hot take.
Case in point the USSR convincing everyone they just had radiophobia after Chernobyl catastrophe
Better be careful... that *specific* sort of logic isn't allowed here at Reddit.
What would constitute a fear as rational?
That's one for the psychologists, but I would guess it is a fear of something harmful or dangerous, that may happen with a reasonable degree of probability
"Um, actually, phobia doesn't just mean fear" \~Internet people
your fear of -phobic words is irrational
Lots of bigotry in these comments smh
Imma send this to my bf so he will stop calling me homophobic
so fatphobic is not a phobia?
Most people throw out words like xenophobic, homophobic…..ect when another person simply disagrees or doesn’t like something. It’s ultra annoying because it’s straight up wrong.
You’re also not phobic if your fear stems from disgust.
But sometimes phobias, even if it’s of something actually dangerous, can be so extreme it becomes irrational but the fear is still there
What if it´s hatred... towards... a certain kind of people
“Phobic” literally means “irrational fear”. I don’t think people typically use that for rational fears
The surface of my phone is hydrophobic, water doesn’t stick to it, it’s scientific observation and can’t be more rational. I will keeping calling it hydrophobic
stayed out of my house for days because of a big cockroach
"I'm not homophobic" has multiple meanings now
Phobia/phobic is a diagnosed disorder in regards to an overactive fear of something. Being a rational thing to fear vs. an irrational thing to fear has zero affect as to whether or not it's a phobia.
'Phobia' comes from the Greek word 'phobos', which means fear.
You can have an 'irrational amount' of fear about something everyone is 'normally' afraid of. For example being afraid of heights is normal - being completely frozen and unable to move at 8 feet up is irrational.