Does it offend you that the word 'Phobia' is defined as an irrational or an unreasonable fear?

Irrational simply means…there is no rational reason for it. Do you feel you have a rational reason for being, not just leery of spiders, but terrified beyond reason?

My sister has a phobia about frogs.

My boss has a phobia about birds.

I take their fears seriously, even though I don’t understand it.

Since that is the definition, no.
It is what it is.
What is the problem with spiders, other than they do not have a face. Disgust, maybe.
Fear? Come on!
They control the insect population without carcinogenic chemicals.

I have this fear of wasps & it’s completely rational, you see the little yellow bastards are evil & unkind. They have spears up their arseholes & aren’t afraid to use them.

Here’s a question for you: If a spider expert were to present you with a spider and he assured you that it was a perfectly harmless species, would you still be afraid of it?

@thorninmud Yes, it’s not the pain of their bite I’m afraid of, I can’t be in the same room as one.

If they really can’t cause you any harm, then that fear is irrational. That doesn’t mean it isn’t real or serious; it’s just a fear that doesn’t correspond to any real danger.

So, @Ayesha, can you tell us exactly WHY you are so afraid? Probably not, ergo, it is irrational!

Glad you’re still here!

No, it does not offend me.
Phobias are irrational, for the people who don’t suffer from them.
As soon as the phobia-sufferer sees the irrationality of it, he/she is close to getting rid of it (with help from a phobia therapist).

@Dutchess_III That is a good question. I have no idea, seriously. I’m dead scared of them. I start tearing up if i accidentally come near one. Mystery to me.
Good to hear from you! Don’t make fun of me :)

Yes, it’s not the pain of their bite I’m afraid of, I can’t be in the same room as one.
That is what they mean when they say irrational

@Ayesha Don’t make fun of you???!!! Muhaaahahahahahah! Welcome to fluther!

@josie C’mon don’t beat me up too much! Sure, i get what you mean. But i would yes, still be offended if someone was to laugh at the phobia and call it unreasonable. I take spiders don’t bother you :) But probably understanding the seriousness the phobia sufferer holds could help the person out. Won’t that be better.

@Dutchess_III Haha yeah, still getting used to it i suppose.

Let’s not over look the fact that nearly everybody is offended these days.

@josie I agree. Now that is unreasonable!
Not what i do though.

A fear is one thing; a phobia is another. No, the word ‘phobia’ and its definition does not offend me. Of the two I have, both are irrational. They leave me sweating and hyperventilating when exposed to them, which is real, but they are still irrational. It doesn’t stop me from trying to overcome the phobias. My mind knows that they are silly. For some reason, it doesn’t stop the body for reacting the way it does.

Doesn’t bother me to be called irrational if I feel claustrophobic in a small space which I clearly would fit in. And, @Ayesha, nobody said anything about laughing about it, but the fear you feel about spiders is irrational, just as my fear of closed spaces is. That’s why they call it a phobia. There is treatment available if your or my phobias are getting in the way of something you or I would like to do. People who fear water may want get rid of their phobia if they want to learn to swim or go into the navy. I don’t intend to ride in a submarine, and I passed up the opportunity to go into a pyramid and to climb into the arm of the Statue of Liberty. I knew the irrational fear would have spoiled the adventure.

Oh, I would never laugh. My sister’s fear of frogs…I would so go out of my way to steer her clear of a frog if I knew there was one there and she didn’t. No laughing here. Just because something is irrational doesn’t mean it’s funny. Although…this one time we were at a family reunion staying at a motel. My son, who was about 8 at the time, had collected a couple of frogs from outside and stuck them in a coffee can, with the lid on, and they were next to the door. My sister stepped in to talk to us, and she was standing right next to that can!!! OMG! My son’s eyes got real big, I froze for a second…then froze the smile on my face, unobtrusively put my hand on the back of his neck and squeezed gently….he was just bursting with the secret! My squeeze got a little tighter as I smiled and made small talk and got her the hell out of there ASAP!! After she left I let go of my son’s neck and whirled on him…he just started dancing around the room, laughing and clapping his hands! I said, “It’s a good thing you didn’t SAY ANYTHING!!! You would have been in so much trouble!”
He fell on the bed laughing….and I finally had to grin. I never did tell my sister about that, I don’t think.

Spiders in general don’t bother me. sigh Since I met Cris W I even go out of my way to rescue them sometimes. However, if I see a leg the thickness of pencil led coming over the table I go into murder mode! (Don’t tell that to Cris…)

@Sunny2 That is a good answer, similar to what @rebbel said. But, not agreeing to your own phobia as being irrational and agreeing to the question asked, would that make me unreasonable? Or do i get a pass, it being a matter of opinion?

@Dutchess_III Hahah funny story! Feel a little bad for your sister though! And my my, what a trick your eight year old pulled off! Hats off to him!

@Ayesha The “irrational” part means, as I said, that the fear doesn’t correspond to a real danger. But people can have irrational fears due to a lack of good information about the danger something poses, right? People were afraid of people with AIDS for the longest time because they thought they could catch the disease through casual contact. Turns out that wasn’t true.

The “unreasonable” part means that even when the information is made available, the fear remains. No amount of reasoning with the person can convince them not to be afraid.

@thorninmud Great answer. Yes, that is true. Entirely. I haven’t had someone lay out that kind of perspective before. Thank you.

OK. Do YOU see your fear of spiders as irrational @Ayesha? Not to be confused with real. Your fear is very real, but is it irrational?

@Ayesha Oh..he didn’t mean to do it! He collected frogs and snakes everywhere. He’s 24 now, and when he moved out, one of the first things he did was to create a virtual zoo of semi-exotic reptiles, until he recently had to downsize to only 3 boa constrictors. It just happened that way…

It doesn’t bother me; I’m arachnophobic too. I admit it is irrational, at least in my case, in the sense that I’m fearing things that can’t actually hurt me (the ones that can’t bite, that is).

When people say it’s irrational, they’re not saying there’s anything wrong with you for having that fear, they’re just saying you don’t really have a logical reason to be afraid of spiders.

@Mariah Well said. Although, I fear, @Ayesha may be just plain NUTS!! : ] ~

No it doesn’t. And we might not all agree with this but it’s true “Most of us suffer from a form of phobia be it severe or not” [and we might not even realize it most of the times].

For instance I do not like heights that much. But I do mountain climbing easy and most times I have to overcome this fear. I don’t like to see the whole [road] when I use to sky but I enjoy doing it. etc etc

Most just tell me I’m weird because I fear some particular things and yet I still do them.

Many phobias are based around actually dangerous things, like heights with no railings or restraint to keep you from falling. Some people are completely immune to a fear of anything but the most odd things. I honestly just think it gives us more variety as people. Whenever someone tells me they have a phobia, I want to learn where they got their phobia from. I have a friend who is afraid of being in the room when you’re on the phone with someone he doesn’t know well. (I still haven’t found out the root of that one)

Of course, there are obviously fears out there that are completely irrational.
That being said, I leave you with this:
Anatidaephobia is the fear that somewhere in the world, there is a duck watching you.

I’m not offended, I’ve had problems with a phobia in the past and I know it actually is irrational. Most fears are, in fact, irrational; whether it’s a fear of rollercoasters, scary movies, spiders, etc. We know that none of these things are very likely to hurt us, so why are so many people afraid of them? It simply is irrational, so there’s nothing offensive about it.

I’m not offended, either. I don’t take it as if anyone is belittling my fears, just that my fears are ungrounded. I know that to be true, so it doesn’t bother me when it’s pointed out.

Nothing really offends me.

I was terrified of spiders for most of my life. I really didn’t know much about spiders, other than the fact that they scared the shit out of me. I grew up in Las Vegas and heard horror stories of people dying due to black widow bites. Then I met a jelly (former jelly) who has a passion for spiders. I learned quite a bit from him and I slowly became less afraid. I will not kill a spider now thanks to him, and I actually appreciate their beauty. I let them roam around my house or I scoop them up and put them outside. Most spiders will not harm you.

I did have an irrational fear, and I wouldn’t be offended if someone told me so.

I haven’t read all of the responses in the thread, but I haven’t seen any from anyone who is “laughing at you” for having the phobia. I’d guess that most of us have one or two of our own; I know that I do.

I don’t consider myself to be arachnophobic, because the sight of spiders and even knowing that they’re in my house doesn’t bother me much. I still get creeped out when one of them (a big one, anyway) crawls over me. That’s more because of the surprise, I think, though I wouldn’t much care to have even a “guaranteed harmless” large spider crawling over me. (I guess I could allow it if I trusted the expert… maybe.)

But a phobia is an irrational fear. If it’s not rational to be afraid of something, and yet you are, even to the point of incapacity or panic, then that is by definition “irrational” – a phobia.

If someone laughs at you for your phobia, then they have their own problems.

oh yea can be quite annoying when there’s a spider in the room.

I have an irrational fear of doing housework….c’mon! Stop laughing! You’re traumatizing me!

@Dutchess_III Hey now! I’m not nuts! Well i suppose this question doesn’t make me look that good :)
Lol! Housework? Well, you must be sick of it by now :)

@Ayesha I don’t think anyone is standing in judgment of you. A phobia is irrational by definition. Recognizing one’s own irrationality is simply owning up to reality. Phobias are very common. There’s no particular reason to worry about them unless they stop you from functioning. A phobia that keeps you from leaving the house, for instance, is very debilitating and needs treatment, unless you want to stay home all the time. Spiders? Eh.