Jumping from a fear to a phobia

I just ran across an article by Gary Waldon at CEOworld Magazine on August 19, 2020

titled 4 Key ways to get over your fears. His first key is titled Houston we have a problem, or do we? Gary asks:

“How much of a negative impact is your phobia having? My fear of sharks wouldn’t be much of a problem if I didn’t like the ocean. However, I love to surf and my fear was preventing me from indulging one of my true passions so I became motivated to face my phobia. If, as an example, you have a fear of public speaking, but aren’t required to address an audience in your everyday working life, your phobia likely won’t impact your career. Therefore, because the likelihood of you being in a situation where you have to face your fear is low, you will probably not be that motivated to address it and nor would you need to. Assess how much of a problem your phobia is on your life.”

He merrily jumps from a fear over to a phobia. But those are two very different concepts to psychologists and psychiatrists. As shown above via a Venn diagram, a phobia additionally is interfering, persistent, and intense. By definition a phobia always is a problem which interferes with your life. I blogged about this topic on December 8, 2019 in a post titled Toastmasters press releases confuse a fear of public speaking with a phobia.

The cartoon was adapted from one on a Career Change Jump at Wikimedia Commons.