Inquiry on My Personal Fears and Phobias (with regards to both in general)

 

While they are similar, I believe there are differences between one’s fears in life or in general and what phobias they might have. Understandably, there is a bit of grey area when it comes to really defining and separating a fear from a phobia and vice-versa, as they tend to blur meaning into each other. To me, a fear isn’t quite up to the extent of being terrified or, for some people, deathly afraid of certain things. For instance, one could have any doubts or unsolved feelings about certain present and future experiences or ordeals while their phobias may be accentuated versions of their fears or ideas that are to some extent, separate from a general fear. 

Personally, I have certain fears both general and ones that could be considered phobias. One of these fears is the shaking doubts that come from the “what-if statement”. Sometimes I think to myself, what if said matters go unexpectedly wrong or what if I can’t do this or that. These ideas aren’t ones that’ll really leave a mark on me or instill any sort of  real paranoia, however they’re still valid points of worry that every individual has gone through at least once on any basis. A more minute version of this fear is also genuine worry for the future, both mine and in general as with everything around us shifting and changing, new change brings across fear within people.  Fears such as the ones I've mentioned aren’t necessarily up to the full extent of what others may consider true fear. There are other experiences I have gone through that were fears back then but aren’t necessarily in the present. These could include certain experiences or one-time fears. Such are those when trying something new and you can’t shake the feeling of butterflies and nervousness overall. For me, these included things like joining karate and taekwondo for the first time or riding a towering rollercoaster where nervousness was instigated by a fear of meeting new people for the first time or of heights, respectively. Additionally, if left a lasting impact, both of these things could be phobias depending on each person. It goes to show, discerning and defining one’s fears really serves as a broad spectrum and differs in the experiences that have shaped an understanding of fear. 

On the other hand, my phobias are somewhat different from any fear I would commonly have, day-to-day. I would define a phobia more as a result of any certain experience which led me to develop a more long-term, concrete fear. As complex as it sounds, a phobia can be really simple in all actuality. For me, one key phobia I’ve had since as far as I can remember is a mild fear of heights. This is mainly shaped by factors growing up, such as riding roller coasters and getting that same feeling of a sharp drop in the pit of my stomach over and over again. Furthermore, I genuinely like to avoid tall heights as looming buildings and structures often seem to be portrayed and connotated with daunting and instigating fear. Sometimes, I don't really know how to explain this fear either, it just ignites within me, leaving me feeling unsafe way too high above ground. Moreover, I’ve always had a phobia of being home alone for example, not because I fear nobody is with me, but because of the fear that someone could unknowingly be there when I expect it to just be me, alone, in the house. These phobias stem from paranoia and delve into more complicated nature and sometimes, one can find phobias within phobias. 

In a sense, I do want to overcome most of my fears associated with taking risks, probably the fears I mentioned first, such as fears of trying new things, meeting new people, etc. I feel as though it’s much easier to overcome these certain fears over others, and in particular, many phobias seem more difficult to. Nevertheless, this differs from person to person as certain phobias do get overcome while others will always stick with and become part of a person. Overall, as with any other human characteristic, fears shape essentially one’s self as they are unique and the experiences one has endured in relation are true to their identity.