Lately I've been delving into the world of Phobias a lot more, mostly because of Ofear and my own issues with Doctors.

A lot of the information that I've come across seems to suggest that many phobias start off as fears either rational or irrational in nature and grow into phobias because of our fear of facing them.

Do you think that we are responsible for our own phobias? Do you think if we were to face them continually that they would be phobias no more?

Please share your thoughts.

I think so. I think phobias came from something. Being scared is one thing but a full blown phobia I've always believed have stemmed from somewhere. (I am terrified of bees. I was stung twice as a child-both my fault, once climbing a tree and I grabbed a bee with the branch, and another time running barefoot stepped on one. they came out of no where so I think since I could not see it coming it some how became worse then just a bee sting.) I think if I (or someone else) out enough effort to try and work toward getting over the phobia we could but I think that often those things may remain a fear. However knowing the amount of time I would personally have to put into it I would rather just live in a world without bees-or just avoid them like the plague.

I do think being exposed to the phobia every day may push it too far to quickly on trying to heal and "get over it" for lack of better wording but I think something to push it nearly every day would help to lessen the fear over a long period of time.

Odly enough I'm allergic to bees. When I was young I was stung by a bee as I squashed it in my palms and had to be rushed to hospital as I couldn't breath or talk and lost consciousness, apparently I could have died.

I'm not even sure if I'm still allergic and although bees bother me sometimes, I'm not really afraid of them at all.

Now if I had gone the other way and avoided bees like the plague, would this have turned into a phobia, who knows for sure?

You have more of a reason to be afraid of them then I do! They can actually kill you! I just get a little sting. I completely understand how little it really hurts and how its foolish but it can still throw me right into a panic attack. Plus they go and name some kinds "killer bees" *shivers*

I don't know if I would use the word "responsible". I think phobias were a good defence mechanism once upon a time, they probably helped us stay alive. If we happened to stumble upon something that appeared to be dangerous, then depending on how grave the brain thought the danger to be, it protected itself by making us fear it. So I would say that, to a certain extent, it's beyond our control.
That's not to say that exposure doesn't help, it certainly does. You can teach the brain that the thing it's protecting us from isn't dangerous by slowly exposing yourself more and more.

I think exposure is more effective with some fears than others. Bees ...maybe not so much? I mean, bees can be dangerous. Maybe not deadly, but they can sting you. So if you try to expose yourself to your fear and happen to get stung, it will have the opposite effect and reinforce it. The same goes for social phobia. If you try to expose yourself to a social situation, get nervous, and make a fool of yourself, you'll reinforce the fear.
So exposure helps if done right, but it can be dangerous too.

I hear what you're saying Harold but do you think it's fear that kept us alive or perhaps a combination of reasoning, logic and carefulness?

I don't think Phobias help keep us alive honestly, I think they do the exact opposite as they suck the life right out of us.

I think harold means that in "cave man times" they possibly helped keep us alive-even though now its more of a problem then help. granted when it comes to phobias we all know reasoning, logic and carefullness means nothing because I am complete safe from a bee on tv and logically I know it can't touch/harm me but i get super tight in the chest and goosebumps. Its amazing how in situations like that we don't have a normal control over our brain.

^Yeah, I meant "cave-man times":P
I don't mean that it still helps us. As Slaka said, nowadays it's more of a nuisance(to put it lightly) than anything else. But, I believe it's there for a reason. It's a defence mechanism, and it's beyond our control. At least during the developing phase of the phobia.

Do phobias really develop slowly over time? The way I see it is that phobias either a) develop immediately after a very frightening event, or b) develop over time because of a collection of anxiety provoking events. I wouldn't say that we can be held responsible in either of those cases, as we don't really realise that a phobia is under development. In a) it happens very quickly, and in b) it takes so much time that we don't realise it.
You suggest that phobias develop from fears, but I don't think that's always the case. It doesn't have to be the case that we fear something, avoid it, and then develop the phobia because of the avoidance. I more so think that the phobia comes first, and the avoidance follows.

...I might very well be wrong. But that's how I see it.

I'm sure that like everything making generalizations is a shady prospect at best. I'm sure there are times when phobias are phobias to begin with and other times when phobias develop overtime. My original post was meant to discuss that later as that's much of what I've seen in my online travels of late.

I do feel though that the phobia is a result of something and not the catalyst for something. I don't believe that we are naturally born with phobias with the only exception being what is genetically hardwired into our systems.

The thinking is major factor is creation of phobias. If we have determined in mind about some
thing to be feared it happen. But the strong thinking and ignoring the fear is easiest way to
overcome it.