What is a phobia?
Phobias are persistent and intense fears of a particular:
object
person (like a doctor or clown)
situation
activity
If you have a phobia, you may experience severe anxiety and panic attacks when you’re:
exposed to the object or situation you’re fearful of
thinking about the thing you’re afraid of
anticipating an encounter with the item you’re scared of
If there’s a single spider sighting in the house, my wife is affraid to go to bed alone for the entire week. I’ve suggested therapy, but she’s read somehwere that therapy involves showing you pictures of spiders until you’re not affraid anymore and the thought of that scares her already.