Fears and Phobias

Salutations and welcome to another session of WWBS or What Would Bangs Say?

Well, starlights, it's almost Halloween so I think it's the perfect time to cover a little thing called fears. We'll cover phobias too for something a little extra. So what is a fear? Well, it's a natural emotion that protects people from danger to be technical. Everyone is afraid of something and this includes cats. Let's not forget the term - "fraidy cat".

Speaking of, this is a little embarrassing to admit, but I was a bit of a fraidy cat when I first arrived to my new forever home with my human. It's understandable though, of course, I mean, it was a new place full of new smells and human was new to me at the time. I'd say my biggest fear was being abandoned again.

So what about human's fears? Well, it gets a little complicated because there's an overlap in fears, phobias, and even anxiety. Let's look at the differences first, shall we? We covered what normal fear is but what is a phobia? Well, the main thing that separates fears and phobias is how rational or irrational they are.

For example - Let's use one of my human's favorite creatures to explain - Spiders. If you are bitten by a spider that turns out to be very venomous, it would be normal to have fear of what might happen but fear becomes a phobia when you won't go near any spiders or even watch them on screen without having a panic attack. This is only one vague example, of course. We will be sharing a link to a source if you are interested in learning more about phobias.

I would like to cover the overlap with phobias and anxiety before covering human's fears though.

As it turns out - Phobias are a type of anxiety disorder. There happen to be three types of phobias. 1: Specific Phobias: Fears or Anxiety about a specific object or situation. 2: Social Phobia: (Now known as Social Anxiety Disorder) 3: Agoraphobia: Fear or Anxiety of being trapped, helpless, or out of comfort zone. As someone with ASD, you can probably guess which one my human has but I'll say it anyway. They have Social Phobia. I believe they are making great progress. Phew, that was a lot to cover and there's still so much more that can be said. We hope you will read the the link we share at the bottom of this page. It was used as our main source and has plenty more information about this topic. Hope you enjoyed today's topic and that you all have a wonderfully spooky Halloween! Shine bright, starlights! One more thing - We'd like to dedicate this topic to my late cousin Mister Midnight for Halloween. RIP mini panther.

Have a request for a future post? Let us know through comments or email to find out What Would Bangs Say? Contact us here: https://krisnbangs.com/contact Today's Source: https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/mental-health/phobias/fear-vs-phobia/