WOMM? Phobias!

Hello! 

I have made the decision that I will have a category on my blog called "WOMM", which translates to - "What's On My Mind". I often get VERY strong feelings/opinions and feel like expressing them and since this is my only blog I will do it here.It will basically just be me rambling on and making very good points to explain myself. I will still be posting mainly beauty related things, WOMM will just come up randomly sometimes!

So I want to talk about phobias vs fears and how annoying it is when they get confused! 

There are way too many times where people disregard phobias or label them as "stupid", "not THAT bad", etc. Phobias are NOT A JOKE. There is a huge difference between being afraid of something and having a phobia. 

Comparing the two definitions, there are a few points to be made. Fear, "an unpleasant emotion" can be controlled and isn't "extreme" such as a phobia. (Though it can feel that way) Another thing is that phobias CAN sometimes be irrational. There are SO many phobias that it's ridiculous, some are irrational and some make a lot of sense, for example:

Irrational Phobias:
Bald people- Peladophobia.
Chins- Geniophobia.
Feathers or being tickled by feathers- Pteronophobia.
Garlic- Alliumphobia.
Handwriting- Graphophobia.
Moon- Selenophobia.
Mother-in-law- Pentheraphobia.

Rational Phobias:

Place: locked in an enclosed place- Cleithrophobia, Cleisiophobia, or Clithrophobia.

Rape- Virginitiphobia.

Smothered, being or choking- Pnigophobia or Pnigerophobia.

Stage fright- Topophobia.

List of Phobias found here

And here is where I'm a hypocrite. NO ONE can determine whether your phobia is "rational" or "irrational". There are an infinite number of reasons someone could develop ANY phobia and despite their phobia being or sounding "irrational", it does not discredit how it makes them feel. Phobias are real emotions that are uncontrollable. 

Phobias differ from fears because if someone has a phobia of something, there is a high chance they can't control their emotions and they can't control their actions, while being afraid of something the possibility of being brave and conquering it is likely. 

Here is why I feel pretty strongly on the subject. I have Arachnophobia, the phobia of spiders. I WAY TOO OFTEN get told that I can face a spider or "get over it" but I honestly can't. I always get compared to people and get told that, "everyone's afraid of spiders". I know spiders are a common fear, but when I see a spider I can't control myself. I panic, I shake, I cry, I scream, I can't go near it or kill it. I have nightmares about spiders. I think about spiders attacking me or being near me often. The thought of them makes me shiver. I cannot control this phobia and to be totally honest I do not care if everyone is afraid of them. Not everyone reacts or feels the way I do. I CAN'T get over it. It doesn't matter what size the spider is, I can't face them. 

I also have a lot of fears. I'm afraid of elevators, confined spaces, being trapped, drowning, ghosts (though ghosts is up there with spiders), falling/heights, balloons popping, and basically anything life threatening. I usually only feel these if I'm in the situation of them occurring, and that's one huge difference between my fears and my phobia. 

Phobias are not to be discredited or made fun of. They can be irrational to you but the feelings someone is having are real. Do what you can to help them instead of criticize them.