The answer is no. One or two things about the fear you experience when you have a phobic response make that fear very particular to a phobia. Fear is a natural survival mechanism. In the ancient past, when humans lived in caves, the fear response kept us away from things that could harm us. If we didn't have it, you probably wouldn't be reading this book today, because the human race wouldn't exist. Imagine for a moment, that we didn't develop a fear response. You have just left your cave for a nice stroll around your Palaeolithic neighbourhood. On your way you notice a rather large and cuddly looking pussycat, fast asleep under a tree. You go up to it (remember, no fear) and start stroking it. The next thing you know: snap! You're a sabre-toothed tiger's hors d'oeuvre! Apply that to the rest of the human race and it wouldn't last for very long.
Put fear into the equation and things are different. You're having your little caveman stroll and see a bundle of fur curled up under a tree. From past experience, you know that similar bundles of fur tend to attack you. As this registers in your brain you begin to feel fear. The fear that you feel makes you become very wary, you back off and return to your cave. Many feelings of fear stem from a rational sense of survival; you fear what may physically harm you. You may also fear what others around you fear, or fear the unknown, or fear what may happen to others close to you. The fear you experience with a phobic response is an irrational fear. Basically, it is a fear of an outcome that statistically won't happen. For exam-ple, air travel continues to be far safer than any other form of transportation, so being afraid of dying in a plane crash is an irrational fear.
Likewise, phobias are born of fears of an improbable result you believe will happen when you encounter the object or situation. For example, it's highly unlikely that you will actually have a heart attack if a spider comes near you. You may be thinking "So what about a phobia of snakes? They can hurt you, so that must be a rational fear!". Yes and no (you probably knew we were going to say that). If you walk down the street and come face to face with a boa constrictor slithering along then yes, the fear you experience would be a rational fear. If you were flicking through a magazine and came across a picture of a snake and let out a shriek of fear, then that would be an irrational fear - a phobic fear. After all, the wretched thing won't leap out of the page at you, will it? Therefore there is no threat to your survival.
