Phobophobia - Wikipedia
Phobophobia is a phobia defined as the fear of phobias, or the fear of fear, including intense anxiety and unrealistic and persistent fear of the somatic sensations and the feared phobia ensuing. Phobophobia can also be defined as the fear of phobias or fear of developing a phobia. Phobophobia is related to anxiety disorders and panic attacks directly linked to other types of phobias, such as agoraphobia.[1] When a patient has developed phobophobia, their condition must be diagnosed and treated as part of anxiety disorders.[2]
Phobophobia: is the fear of fear itself, but more specifically, of the internal sensations associated with that phobia and anxiety, which binds it closely to other anxiety disorders, especially with generalized anxiety disorders (free floating fears) and panic attacks. It is a condition in which anxiety disorders are maintained in an extended way, which combined with the psychological fear generated by phobophobia of encountering the feared phobia would ultimately lead to the intensifying of the effects of the feared phobia that the patient might have developed, such as agoraphobia, and specially with it,[1] and making them susceptible to having an extreme fear of panicking.[1] Phobophobia comes in between the stress the patient might be experiencing and the phobia that the patient has developed as well as the effects on their life, or in other words, it is a bridge between anxiety/panic the patient might be experiencing and the type of phobia they fear, creating an intense and extreme predisposition to the feared phobia. Nevertheless, phobophobia is not necessarily developed as part of other phobias, but can be an important factor for maintaining them.[1]
Phobophobia differentiates itself from other kinds of phobias by the fact that there is no environmental stimulus per se, but rather internal dreadful sensations similar to psychological symptoms of panic attacks.[1] The psychological state of the mind creates an anxious response that has itself a conditioned stimuli leading to further anxiety,[1] resulting in a vicious cycle. Phobophobia is a fear experienced before actually experiencing the fear of the feared phobias its somatic sensations that precede it, which is preceded by generalized anxiety disorders and can generate panic attacks. Like all the phobias, the patients avoids the feared phobia in order to avoid the fear of it.
