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A phobia is an excessive and irrational fear reaction. If you have a phobia, you may experience a deep sense of dread or panic when you encounter the source of your fear. The fear can be of a certain place, situation, or object. Unlike general anxiety disorders, a phobia is generally connected to something specific.
A specific phobia is, by nature, triggered by a specific object or condition. Unlike generalized anxiety disorder, people with specific phobia are not consumed by pervasive worry and fear. However, a phobia can have a very real impact on a person’s daily functioning and quality of life.
Common Emotional Effects of Phobias
Here are five examples of the emotional effects some people experience as a result of their phobia.
Life-Limiting and Severe Anxiety
One of the main criteria for diagnosing a phobia is that it is life-limiting in nature. Depending on what your phobia is, you might find it a real struggle to run errands, go out with friends, or even make it work every day. In other words, a specific phobia can significantly impair your education, your career, and your overall quality of life.
How Exactly Do You Diagnose a Phobia?
Embarrassment
Phobias can create awkward and embarrassing situations. For example, how do you explain to your best friend that you can never visit her home because she owns a dog? How do you turn down a trip to the Bahamas with a new love because you can’t bring yourself to get on a plane?
Social phobia can be especially hard to manage because the underlying fear is of humiliation. Having a phobic reaction can make you feel embarrassed, which often only reinforces the persistent fear.
Limitations associated with phobias can make you experience social isolation. You may wonder why you are not like everybody else. This can affect your relationships with family and friends, which could contribute to you becoming reclusive and depressed.
Feeling Out of Control
Perhaps one of the worst emotional components of a phobia is the out-of-control feeling. You may understand that your phobia is irrational and/or excessive, but no matter how hard you try, you cannot get it under control.
You are not alone if you spend time thinking about what your life would be like if you could simply live daily without the dread of coming into contact with that specific object or condition.
Helplessness
Helplessness may appear when you realize that your phobia has affected several or even all aspects of your life, like your job, social life, and general happiness. You may feel that there is nothing you can do to heal. You may assume that you will always have your phobia. You may wish things were different, but feel that they never will be.