“The
only thing we have to fear is fear itself–nameless, unreasoning,
unjustified terror ... ”–
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Halloween
brings up scary images of ghosts, skeletons, monsters,
and haunted houses. Spooky as they are, however, these
things often aren’t as frightening as some of the
everyday phobias that terrify people throughout their
lives.
“Phobia”
means an unreasonable, irrational, or exaggerated
fear that occurs when no real danger exists. A person
who has a phobia is petrified by what is just an ordinary
object or basically harmless situation. One of the
best‑known phobias is claustrophobia, the fear
of small enclosed places (such as elevators).
Almost
everyone has gone through a period in which they have
a fear of lightning, thunder, being alone, or in the
dark. Most childhood fears are eventually outgrown,
whereas phobias generally continue into adulthood.
Phobias can result from a specific incident that happened
at an early age. Others are passed from a phobic parent
to a child who develops a similar fear. People who
are naturally nervous are more susceptible to phobias.
The
scientific names of phobias are taken from the Greek
language:
Acrophobia
‑ heights
Aerophobia
‑ flying
Ailurophobia
‑ cats
Apiphobia
‑ bees
Arachnophobia
‑ spiders
Autophobia
‑ being alone
Brontophobia
‑ thunder
Cyberphobia
‑ computers
Cynophobia
‑ dogs
Hemaphobia
‑ blood
Hippophobia
‑ horses
Hydrophobia
‑ water
Keraunophobia
‑ lightning
Mathemaphobia
‑ math
Microphobia
‑ germs
Nychtophobia
‑ darkness
Ophidiophobia
‑ snakes
Panophobia
‑ everything
Phobophobia
‑ fear itself
Socialphobia
‑ people, crowds, social gatherings
Telephonophobia
‑ telephones
Zoophobia
‑ animals
While
some of the above phobias may seem silly, they can
cause severe anxiety for anyone who suffers from that
phobia. Phobic persons will go to extreme lengths
to avoid the thing that causes them distress, even
though directly confronting the fear may be the best
way to get over it. The following books will help
put your fears in perspective.
“The
Pop‑Up Book of Phobias,” by Gary Greenberg.
Each page is designed to make you experience for yourself
how it feels to have the depicted phobias.
“What
Was I Scared Of?” by Dr. Seuss. ‑ The colors
and classic Seussian illustrations set the spooky
mood, and the silly rhyming text makes this a good
book to read aloud.
“Go
Away, Big Green Monster!” by Ed Emberley. Boldly colored
die‑cut pages reveal increasingly scary features
of a big green monster –until the monster is fully
unmasked. “You don't scare me!” reads the caption.
Keep turning the pages and, one by one, the scary
features disappear–and so does the monster.
It’s
Fun to Do
Make
a scary spider web card – You will need blue construction
paper, a white crayon, black crayon or marker, and
a metallic gel pen if you have one. Fold a piece of
blue construction paper in half to make a card. Using
the white crayon, draw a spider web on the front.
(Start by making a large asterisk * in the center
of the page and then draw lines to fill in the strands
of the web.) On the inside, make a white dotted line
coming down from the top of the page. Draw a black
spider hanging at the end of the line. With the metallic
gel pen, put two tiny dots for eyes on the spider.
Write “Boo!” or another message underneath
