Does having a lot of phobias mean you have anxiety?

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playgroundlover22695
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18 Jul 2020, 6:10 pm

I have a lot of phobias. Some of them are related to things that happened to me as a child and many are irrational. You see when I was a toddler, my mother put me on a toilet at the mall not knowing that it was automatic until I moved, the sensor went off, and I was sucked into the toilet bowl with one loud "WOOOSH!" Another time when I was 4, a bunch of yellow jackets came into my room when I was sleeping and stung me all over. To this day, I still have an irrational fear of toilets. I can't learn to swim because of it and I can go in most public places alone but I could never as a child. Sometimes though, if it's too scary and I can hold it, I will wait until I get home or near a less scary, more familiar bathroom. I also still have an intense fear of bugs. Not just yellow jackets, but pretty much every bug in the world. I'm deathly afraid of bees, hornets, yellow jackets, and wasps but, I'm also afraid of other bugs flying in my ear and wrecking havoc. Other fears I have include climbing heights in most places and prison (mostly because of the steel toilets). I am also a little afraid of accidentally being wrongly convicted of some major crime I did not commit after reading some stories and watching 2 full length documentaries with a lot of in depth details about people in the US that this happened to. I also might have some separation anxiety as I've been told on her but I don't know. I'm sure there are a lot more but for now that's my list. Would you say having these phobias is anxiety? Or is it a separate thing? I'm not sure just looking for opinions.



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18 Jul 2020, 9:54 pm

I'd say yes if they are causing you significant distress. Lot of people are afraid of spiders and will freak out but we don't say they have a phobia or that they have an anxiety disorder because their fear of spiders doesn't impact their life.


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Pieplup
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18 Jul 2020, 9:57 pm

I have social phobia. I have social anxiety


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Joe90
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19 Jul 2020, 6:59 am

My phobia of vomiting has a massive impact on my life. Because of it, I avoid alcohol, spinning rides, getting pregnant, eating out of date food, cruises, and even hospitals. I'm actually more afraid of catching norovirus than I am of catching COVID. It is a true phobia, to the point where it's kind of like a neurological disorder. People that don't have the phobia don't understand the intensity of it.


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livingwithautism
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19 Jul 2020, 10:06 am

Joe90 wrote:
My phobia of vomiting has a massive impact on my life. Because of it, I avoid alcohol, spinning rides, getting pregnant, eating out of date food, cruises, and even hospitals. I'm actually more afraid of catching norovirus than I am of catching COVID. It is a true phobia, to the point where it's kind of like a neurological disorder. People that don't have the phobia don't understand the intensity of it.


I have the same phobia. It’s called emetophobia. I’ve been brushed off that it’s “not that bad.” I also have agoraphobia.