“There would be no one to frighten you if you refused to be afraid.”
-Mohandas K. Gandhi
One of the topics discussed in a nursing psychiatry class is about phobia. A phobia is an anxiety disorder characterized by obsessive, irrational, and intense fear of a specific object, an activity, or a physical situation.
The irrational fear usually results from early painful or unpleasant experiences during childhood involving a particular object or situation especially.
I asked my students to list down their phobia and these were what they mentioned : fear of height (Acrophobia), insects (Acrophobia) such as coach roach and spider (Arachnophobia) , snake, fear of darkness (Achluophobia) and being alone (Autophobia) , fear of death (Thanatophobia) and dying were the most commonly mentioned phobia. Two students said they fear dogs (Cynophobia) due to a previous dog bite. A student said he is afraid of clowns (Coulrophobia) because of the color of their faces.
Based on my experience with my patients I have dealt with for the last 15 years, the needle (Aichmophobia, fear of needles) and syringe used for intramuscular injection is a common source of fear. The mere sight of the injection created anxiety especially among male patients. In a private hospital for children where I attended training, nurses were discouraged in wearing an all-white uniform because this gave rise to fear of nurses or doctors among pediatric patients.
Read this article about fear among children.
My fears? I fear snakes since I was a child, but lately I fear heights and closed spaces (Claustrophobia). I believe that as one gets older, you become fearful of a lot of things.
