There is a very daft program on at the moment about phobias.
A woman who doesn't like frogs is being cured so that she can stand in a pond.
I think this is a waste of time and money and people with phobias should just amend their lifestyles accordingly.
So she could just never stand in a pond.
Well I sortof agree. I am not keen on dead rats (or live ones, unless they are those snow white ones with clean pink tails which I can just about stand) but I don't have to confront them on a daily basis so I won't be bothering with the treatment even if it meant I could stand waist high in dead rats and enjoy every second.
But what if it's something you do encounter daily? Phobias can be pretty disabling - crippling even if it involves something you can't adjust your lifestyle around. But I really am not sure that therapy can cure them and I bet it costs a fortune and is not easily come by, especially for people whose phobias include arranging and undergoing therapy. 
I wonder if you could have a pathological fear of phobias.
A phobia can be very serious if it's something you can't easily avoid. Certainly a phobia for mountain goats is hardly a problem at all, but suppose for example your phobia was houseflies?
I have a phobia so this is something I know about. Most are somewhere between those two examples, but let's take houseflies since there is probably no place you can escape from them entirely.
With a phobia the actual trigger is usually meaningless. People say "oh why be afraid of...(insert phobia here) they can't hurt you" but of course you know that already - you're not stupid. it's not fear in the normal sense. It's best described as a short circuit in the brain that when triggered sets off the fight/flight response
There's much speculation on the cause, but it almost doesn't matter. If you are phobic you are stuck with a ridiculous and (as merry said) often crippling situation.
Picture what it's like. There you are minding your own business when a housefly lands on your arm. Something triggers inside your head and suddenly you leap up, panting and shaking for no apparent reason. That could be embarrassing or even dangerous if driving or holding the baby because there is nothing you can do to prevent the response. Bravery doesn't come into it at that point.
Another housefly and another panic. There's no end to it and no way to avoid them entirely.
Imagine the way your life would be limited. You dare not drive since one fly could cause you to crash the car. Public speaking? well not if there's any chance a fly might come near you. A walk in the park? only in winter I guess.
I didn't see the recent program, but there is one treatment that works after a fashion though not many would choose it.
I participated in an experiment many years ago for this purpose and the way it works is this:
You take the object of your phobia (flies would be difficult to arrange so let's say marbles for this example) You start with a picture of a marble and stare at it. The trigger goes off and you feel sick and shaky, Your vision dims and your blood pressure goes through the roof, but you force yourself to keep staring. Your body is pumping adrenaline etc through you and it can be dangerous. Medical tests for a weak heart are necessary first to be on the safe side.
Anyway if you can force yourself to keep staring long enough then your body runs out of whatever chemicals/hormones it's using to keep this up. The panic subsides (though not the psychological effect/disgust)
You stop then and next time try a real 'marble' and off it goes again. After a few days/weeks you may hold the marble in your hand. Each time triggering the response and enduring it until the panic subsides.
You will not be cured, but at the end of each session you get to experience holding the object of your fear and not panicking any more. What you are doing is training your mind to believe that it is possible to be near or touch this thing without getting sick. In time you can gain control over it and be able to repeat it without any physical reaction.
The downside is that to prevent it coming back you must continue these exercises forever and what I call the psychological effect never really goes away. Just the physical reaction to it.
That's even more daunting than I had imagined. I know someone who had a phobia of birds and worked in a similar way until she got to the point where she could hold a feather in her hand, but I had no idea that you have to go on with the exercises indefinitely. Is much known about how a phobia can begin, how the trigger becomes a trigger?
Well I suppose if the object of the phobia is something very familier like say 'teacups' then normal use would do instead of the exercises. But if you go a while without encountering it then it does return
As for the trigger I asked about that and was told that it was sometimes possible to pin down a traumatic event as the cause, but that it really didn't matter
Their position was that knowing why generally didn't help much. Perhaps examining a traumatic event at the time would prevent it having a permanent effect, but by the time most phobia sufferers ask for help they have been this way for decades so it's too late to treat the cause and you just have to deal with the symptoms.
As I understand it the trigger could sometimes be almost explainable like 'a car ran me over so I developed a fear of cars' but it could just as easily be 'a car ran me over just as I was looking at a blue flower and now I can't stand the color blue or the scent of lavender (or maybe the number 5 if that's how many petals it had)
Bloody hell. That's a bugger of a thing to have to deal with. I hope you don't mind if I send a 
.
Awww those are always welcome 
But there are an awful lot of phobia sufferers out there. Some worse than others.
Heights is an example of the irrational in all of us. It's been said before, but consider a two foot wide plank 6 inches off the ground. You could walk across it easily yes? So presumably if it was 40 stories up you could walk across just the same? 
Can anyone even contemplate that without a bit of a shudder?
Most people couldn't manage to cross even with a safety line so that does count as an irrational fear. It just looks more sensible on the face of it.
Good point. Certainly applies in my case!
but presumably there are a few people who are wired just that little bit differently .... (hope the picture shows up here, not sure if it will)
eta
funny, I can see it on IE but just not on my ususal firefox. Lunch on a skyscraper by Charles C. Ebbets, 1932.
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