What is a "phobia"?

What is a "phobia"?

Charles Sophy (Private Practice in Adult, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry) gives expert video advice on: How prevalent are anxieties and phobias in children?; What is the professional treatment for a child with phobias and anxieties?; What can I do to prevent my child from developing an anxiety? and more...

A phobia is a fear-based manifestation of the fear. So, it may be a phobia of spiders, heights or crossing the street, but it is anxiety-based manifestations of fear. There are certain criteria that you have to meet to have a phobia. Fear and anxiety get to a certain level that then spills into the phobic range. And the phobic range is diagnosed through criteria, again by the American Psychiatric Association, and then the format that that fear will take will either be bridges, spiders or anything else.