What you don’t know can scare you

Fear – we know about it and we know we have it. John Watson, the founding father of Behaviorism, believed that as infants, we fear only two things: loud noise and loss of support. But as adults, we learn more and, consequently, fear more.

Watson believed that fears are simply a result of conditioning, a moment in your life when something (or someone) scared you and left a permanent emotional impact. Along with his student, Rosalie Rayner, Watson set out to conduct an experiment on an 11-month-old boy named Albert.

Initially, this young boy had little fear of rats, but seven conditioning trials later, he would cry at the mere sight of them. The boy also responded negatively to anything else that would remind him of rats. From other small animals to even a man’s beard, all became Albert’s stimuli to fear. Perhaps we can learn to fear just about anything, even fear itself. And the moment we do, our fears can take hold of our lives and worsen over time. This is when fear transforms into a phobia.

Phobia is a heightened sense of fear. Psychologists assert that fear is usually based on irrational grounds. It does not always make sense, but it causes a great amount of anxiety nonetheless. How it came to be, we may never remember. But how it affects our lives, we know all too well.

Psychologists and psychiatrists agree that phobias can be classified into three general categories. The first is social phobia. This does not refer to a mere case of shyness. Rather, it is a fear of groups of people, individuals or specific situations. Most common cases of social phobia involve a fear of speaking in public or being under scrutiny. I think a lot of us have this phobia, sometimes also called stage fright.

Then, there’s specific phobia, a fear caused by a particular object, creature or condition. Animals are a common source of phobia, especially snakes, spiders and rats. But then, there are also those things we encounter on any given day – elevators, water and needles. Just the mere sight of all these can trigger an anxiety attack in some people.

There’s also agoraphobia, which refers to one’s fear of leaving home or any place where a person feels most secure. It is the only one said to be treated as a medical condition on a regular basis. Moving afflicted people away from their comfort zone often causes panic attacks.

The truth is, there are more kinds of phobia than one could ever imagine. Here’s an intimidating list of some not-too-common phobias; take a deep breath now: anthrophobia or fear of flowers (why would anybody be afraid of flowers?); dendrophobia or fear of trees; ichthyophobia or fear of fish; acousticophobia or fear of noise; alliumphobia or fear of garlic (but a lot of people love garlic, especially when it comes with peanuts); amathophobia or fear of dust; amaxophobia or fear of riding a car; ambulophobia or fear of walking; asymmetriphobia or fear of anything asymmetrical; bibliophobia or fear of books; chronomentrophobia or fear of clocks (especially when you hear it strike at midnight?); cibophobia or fear of food (except if you’re anorexic or on a perpetual diet, would you cringe at the sight of food?); chorophobia or fear of dancing; chrometophobia or fear of money (having too much or none of it causes anxiety); consecotaleophobia or fear of chopsticks; cyberphobia or fear of computers (or working on them); decidophobia or fear of making decisions; didaskaleinophobia or fear of going to school (didn’t we all have this at some point in our lives?); dipsophobia or fear of drinking; domatophobia or fear of houses and being inside one; ergophobia or fear of work; eisoptrophobia or fear of mirrors or of seeing oneself in a mirror; graphophobia or fear of writing; telephonophobia or fear of telephones (I wonder if there’s such a thing as fear of cell phones, too); aphenphosmphobia or fear of being touched; arachibutyrophobia or fear of having peanut butter stuck to the roof of the mouth; automysophobia or fear of being dirty; clinophobia or fear of going to bed; kyphophobia or fear of stooping; optophobia or fear of opening one’s eyes; rhytiphobia or fear of getting wrinkles (a lot of women must have this, which is why there are a lot of plastic surgeons around); ataxophobia or fear of disorder or untidiness; mnemophobia or fear of memories; ouranophobia/uranophobia or fear of heaven; philophobia or fear of falling in love/being in love (yes, Romeo, there is such a thing); anuptaphobia or fear of staying single; soceraphobia or fear of parents-in-law; panophobia/pantophobia or fear of everything; and phobophobia or fear of phobias.

Fear not! Face your fears like you would any challenge in life. Recognizing them is the first step. Being able to anticipate them is next. Learning to fight the fear comes after. And then, there comes freedom, hopefully, at long last.

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E-mail the author at ice_wave_42@yahoo.com.