Afraid to be Happy?

By Phillip A. Johansen

Each of us feels it from time to time: fear. Like anger or sadness, it is one of the basic human emotions, which are useful for survival. It is important and meaningful to our lives, as long as it is produced in a healthy amount. However, it becomes critical when fear becomes a disease.

But when are fears considered pathological and how do they arise in the first place? How can you overcome your fear permanently?

In this book, you will find those answers and many others that will give you the knowledge and the appropriate strategies to overcome your anxiety, face your fears and free yourself from them so that your life reaches the peace and happiness that you so desire.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Editorial Anuket
• Release date: Aug 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223692355

Book preview

Chapter 1

What are we afraid of?

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In our time, the word phobia is known to everyone. It is a pathology that manifests itself in the form of fear towards a specific object, an event, a being, etc. Everyone is afraid of something to some degree. In most cases, this is normal, because without simple fear, people would not have the self-preservation instinct. But if the feeling of anxiety does not allow you to live in peace, and makes you cling to the problem, we are talking about a pathology that needs treatment. There are many types of fear in psychiatry. They all appear for different reasons and are treated in different ways. Consider the following list of human phobias and their meaning.

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• Ablutophobia: Swimming

• Aviaphobia: taking a flight

• Agoraphobia: Large open spaces, squares

• Aquaphobia: Water

• Acrophobia: Fear of heights

• Alginophobia: Pain

• Amaxophobia: Fear of driving.

• Amnesiphobia: Memory loss

• Androphobia: Fear of men and intimacy with them.

• Ankylophobia: Fear arises at the thought of immobility.

• Anthophobia: Anxiety or panic when seeing flowers.

• Apeirophobia: the phobia of excessive fear of infinity

• Asthenophobia: Having weaknesses

• Athazagophobia: Forgetting things

• Autophobia: Spending time alone

• Automisophobia: To contamination

• Cacophobia: Irrational and sickly fear of ugliness.

• Cardiophobia: To cardiovascular diseases

• Cynophobia: towards dogs

• Kleptophobia: Towards thieves, suffer a robbery

• Coimetrofobia: Panic when seeing cemeteries

• Contraltophobia: (also called agoraphobia) is the fear or phobia of suffering sexual abuse.

• Cometophobia: Space objects and events.

• Cryophobia: cold

• Chorophobia: Fear of dancing.

• Entomophobia: the fear (or phobia) of insects

• Scotophobia: irrational and unhealthy fear of the dark

• Staurophobia: Irrational and sickly fear of crosses and crucifixes.

• Gnosiophobia: Towards new knowledge

• Gatophobia: Ailurophobia or Gallophobia is an abnormal and unjustified fear of cats.

• Glossophobia: Fear of speaking in public

• Godophobia: Fear of traveling

• Gravidophobia: Towards pregnancy and pregnant women

• Hedonophobia: Feeling good, feeling happy

• Hemophobia: seeing blood (severe panic attacks that can cause fainting)

• Herascophobia: To old age

• Herpetophobia: To snakes

• Heterophobia: Representatives of the opposite sex.

• Hydrargiophobia: items containing mercury

• Hylophobia: To wooded areas

• Hypegiaphobia: Being responsible for something

• Hypnophobia: To hypnosis

• Hypnophobia: Irrational and sickly fear of horses. Synonym: technophobia.

• Homophobia: From fear (to hatred) towards homosexuals

• Kairophobia: Towards the new (people, things, events, places)

• Koinophobia: Fear of living an ordinary life

• Kopophobia: Fear of fatigue

• Koumpounofobia: it is a strange phobia, but it exists. It is basically explained as the irrational and persistent fear of buttons.

• Papyrophobia: Fear of paper

• Paralipophobia: Doing something wrong

• Panophobia: Irrational and sickly fear of everything. Synonym: pantophobia.

• Parthenophobia: Irrational and sickly fear of virgins and/or very young women.

• Pyrophobia: toward the fire

• Proctophobia: state of apprehension or unhealthy or pathological fear of suffering from rectal conditions.

• Psychophobia: Towards people with mental illnesses

• Pteronophobia: Constant fear of being tickled with a feather.

• Cheirophobia: Injuries during hairdressing procedures.

• Chirophobia: To the hands

• Selaphobia: Irrational and unhealthy fear of flashes and lightning

• Silenophobia: Silence

• Sinophobia: Communism

• Serophobia: AIDS

• xenophobia spaces too narrow

• Thalassophobia: Towards the open sea.

• Thanatophobia: Towards the end of life

• Taphephobia: Being buried alive

• Taeniophobia: Infections with worms

• Thermophobia: Heat, high temperature

• Tomophobia: Wild terror before surgery

• Traumatophobia: Injuries, wounds, traumatic conditions

• Trypophobia: the fear or repulsion generated by looking at or being close to very close geometric figures, especially small holes, and very small rectangles.

• Tredecafobia: Towards the number 13

• Xerophobia: Towards dryness (dry weather)

• Zoophobia: irrational and constant fear of animals.

The above list enumerates and defines common phobias. But, in fact, there are many more, which are being determined scientifically or by the popular association between aversion and an object or situation, which once again demonstrates the prevalence of mental illness in our time.

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The most common fears

We already mentioned some phobias that a person can suffer from. Now we will consider the most common of them. In psychiatry, there are about 10 fears that psychotherapists' patients often face:

• Panic in front of closed spaces is called claustrophobia in psychiatry.

• Fear of seeing the dead or going to funerals, which is called necrophobia.

• Aerophobia is an intractable fear of air travel.

• Fear of dark places or rooms: Nyctophobia.

• Acrophobia is the fear of being on top. People with this pathology are afraid