Phobia or fear....

I am almost positive I do have emet... I just fit the description so well... but I was wondering if maybe some of my other fears were phobias too. Well one in particular. I have a thing about weapons - espescially guns. I just cannot be around them. And when I talk about them, I either feel really scared and unsafe, or mad. My boyfriend will joke about weapons and guns, and I just get furious at him for taking the issue so lightly, as well as scared that he does. But I've always been scared of them. I remember being scared of being near cops when I was a kid because they carried guns, and I wouldn't (and still probably would not) go over to a friends house if I knew they or their parents owned guns, or went hunting. I remember making friends with this girl in jr high, but then learning she hunts and had a gun, and then deliberately distancing myself from her (so I wouldn't be in the situation of being invited over and having to make up excuses - I have my own moral objections to hunting anyway, but it was the fact that she/her familyowned a gun that really bothered me). Does this mean I have a phobia of guns and other weapons too, or that I'm just looking out for my well being? and, what's the difference between nerves and a fear. Are nerves the same? I get nervous when doing public speaking, but most of the time I love doing it anyway - it's a major adrenaline rush. So, basically I'm just wondering, where does one draw the line between nervousness, fears, and phobias?

People who develop full-blown phobias are always "anxious people" in the first place, so we fear a lot of stuff. Then vomiting somehow takes over as primary.


The mark of a phobia is avoidance. Do you avoid the stimulus at all costs? [Even phobias fall along a continuum of severity however.] Like I'm afraid of spiders but I don't do anything to avoid them like not going into the garden, etc. so it's not a phobia.

Oooh okay. I don't avoid v* at all cost, either though... well, if I'm sick I will myself not to v*... and I avoid people who are/have been sick... but I still put myself in situations where someone may be sick. I don't avoid kids or crowds or anything... I guess it's a phobia, but not as severe as it could be.

Ive wondered this too.


So basically a phobia = avoiding the cause of the phobia at all costs.


fear = definate dislike/fear of the thing but you don't avoid it really, or don't go to the extremes that you would with a phobia.


That makes sense!

Fears can also turn into phobias, and mild phobias can turn into severe ones with continued avoidance. The more you avoid the stimulus, the worse the fear/phobia gets. The problem with this thinking (which lots of cognitive therapists will tell you) is that if your phobia is too severe, all attempts to NOT avoid will be overwhelming and re-traumatize you. So you would need a structured treatment program of very very gradual exposure once you get to that point.