What is the difference between a Fear / Phobia and Anxiety?
Both Phobias and Anxiety are terms used to describe types of fear responses. Phobias tend to be more specific and greater in intensity and anxieties tend to be more general and of less intensity. However, as anxiety increases it can turn into a panic attack that can be of similar intensity to that of a phobia.
Dictionary definitions:
Phobia: a lasting abnormal fear or severe dislike of something.
Anxiety: troubled and uneasy in mind, filled with worry.
As you can see both definitions can be interchanged with one another and often both describe the same state of fear that an individual is having.
Both fears and phobias have what I call the “what if factor”. What do I mean by that? It’s when a person spends much of the time worrying themselves with ‘what if this happened’ or ‘what if I do that’ or ‘what if that happened’.
One way of looking at the solution is to turn the ‘WHAT IF” into ‘WHAT EVER!!’
How do you Know if you have an Anxiety or a Phobia?
This is obvious. The symptoms to look for are:
- when just thinking about coming into contact with something you have a strong negative physical response.
- when you see something, you get a strong negative physical response. (unless it’s just an initial surprise like when say something or someone just appears out of the blue, shocks you and you, more often or not jump or say out loud “Oh”, or “Gosh” or “you/that gave me a fright”
If it is just a one-time event, then this is a normal part of life. However, if it becomes a regular response that happens over time then it is likely that it has become either an anxiety or phobia.
The Strong Negative Responses are what are called Flight/Fight responses. We believe either consciously or unconsciously that there is a threat and we want to either run away (flight) or get ready to tackle it (fight). Either way the body is pumped full of adrenaline and strong responses occur these can range from any to all of the symptoms that follow:
Feeling Dizzy, lightheaded and slightly unreal or in an altered state.
- Confusion
- Nausea and retching
- Sweating palms or other parts of body
- Unsettled stomach
- Uncomfortable and unsettling feelings in the chest.
- Unsettling Tingles in other parts of the body.
- Blurred Vision
- Crying and Hysteria
- Blank Mind
- Point Blank refusal to engage in situation with no rational reason.
- Breathlessness and Hyperventilation
- Physical Shaking
- Urge to run away
- Disco/jelly legs
- Pounding Heart
- Muscle Tension
- Dry Mouth
- Choking or feelings of being smothered
- Hot or Cold Flushes.
What coping mechanisms are used generally when dealing with a phobia or anxiety before help is sought help?
The most common coping mechanism that is used is avoidance. This can range from mild to major in scope.
Avoidance can make an individual to sit on the other side of the room from the thing that they fear, whilst others may not leave the house, so great is their concern of encountering the thing that they fear.
Some people cope by forcing themselves and spend years in great discomfort and distress (often friends and family know nothing of the problem). For many, an obsessive relationship with the thing they fear develops. There is the need to check things in a precise way, check for safety, check for escape routes, plan journeys to avoid the fearful thing and so on.
It is normal for the quality of the life of a person to really suffer and narrow to the point where they have no quality of life and this is the real reason why we want to remove these fears.
People can put up with more suffering than we can imagine, however it does not need to be this way. Many people spend years, (I have helped people who have suffered for many, many years with their fear) not realising that there are solutions at hand that take a few hours or less to totally remedy the situation, thus enabling them to turn the page and lead a happy fulfilling life.
people from taking the appropriate action to deal wit their fear.
