21 replies to this topic

[octopuppy]

As you said, being scared of spiders will try to make you avoid them. So your brain, avoiding the fear building inside itself as it fears that fear, will surely avoid that fear and not be scared?!?!?!!?

Well, more to the point, being scared of spiders makes you try to avoid them. Fear makes you want to avoid something, but not necessarily able to do so.

[Shortdude3000]

Well, more to the point, being scared of spiders makes you try to avoid them. Fear makes you want to avoid something, but not necessarily able to do so.

You are right in some respect. Your brain will try and make you avoid spiders, but cannot physically prevent you from touching them, as they can be thrown at you and stuff. However, your brain has control of your fears and always has it with it, it is a different situation to spiders.

[octopuppy]

However, your brain has control of your fears and always has it with it

Seriously? How come people with phobias and panic attacks have difficulty finding the off switch?

[GLaDOS]

Let's try to boil it down. If you are afraid of something, When it happens or you go near whatever you are afraid of, you feel a feeling. You don't like this feeling, so you try to avoid it. If the only fear you have is phobphobia, then you have no fear to set off the chain reaction. If you have more fears, the moment they end, your phobphobia will end.

[Shortdude3000]

Let's try to boil it down. If you are afraid of something, When it happens or you go near whatever you are afraid of, you feel a feeling. You don't like this feeling, so you try to avoid it. If the only fear you have is phobphobia, then you have no fear to set off the chain reaction. If you have more fears, the moment they end, your phobphobia will end.

That's relating it to other phobias. But Phobophobia is a fear in itself and would hence cause fear upon you feeling the symptoms on it which would trigger as soon as you see or think of another fear. Using your theories, from the second another fear sparks it off, you will be in constant terror.

I think that it actually would cause constant fear of the fear itself.

[Chokfull]

I'd like to mention that the word "phobia" means "a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it."

Therefore, for you to have "phobiaphobia" you would be persistently scared of fear. This leads simply to persistent fear. It's irrational, of course, and fear is also my greatest fear, but that doesn't mean I have phobiaphobia.

[fabpig]

The important thing here is the "irrational" part. I don't think it's irrational to have a fear of something that can kill you......

Having said that, it's possible to prefix -phobia with any Greek prefix and make up a phobia. Doesn't mean eg. that phobophobia exists. You could even have phobophobophobia.

[Aaryan]

Phobias are weird that way.
For example, the fear of long words is
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.

[maurice]

But if you have a phobia of something, doesn't your brain prevent you from doing it, hence wiping it your own fear? :S

If that is the case then I am going to work on a fear of dying. Just because I fear something, that does not mean I can prevent it.

Let's go deeper and say well, we're talking about what's going on in the brain. OK. What about say bed-wetters? Certainly they fear wetting the bed, but yet it still happens and isn't there a psychological aspect to that?

Additionally there are things that I have feared and yet my brain didn't prevent me from doing it. Some people who have a fear of talking in front of an audience still do it and the fear persists.

[Chaits]

I'd like to mention that the word "phobia" means "a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it."

Therefore, for you to have "phobiaphobia" you would be persistently scared of fear. This leads simply to persistent fear.

Not necessarily. A phobia is triggered by the sight or thought etc of the focus of the fear. So an arachnophobic doesn't walk around thinking about their fear of spiders until something reminds them of it or there is some threat of a spider.

So phobophobia is like someone mentioned, it is similar to a panic attack; when something elicits a fear in a person, they are not only scared of the spider/heights/long words, but they are freaked out by the fear that they haven't managed to avoid.. So it spirals into a panic attack. Of course panic attacks do die down eventually due to the way a panic attack exhausts the body and mind.

The rest of the time they try to avoid the things that cause fear rather than avoiding fear itself..