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Old Feb 16, 2012, 10:53 PM
Phoboxyl Phoboxyl is offline
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Member Since: Aug 2011
Location: United States
Posts: 187
Hey there, that is called mysophobia(germophobia) in fact. In my judgement, a phobia is an unusual anxiety which is pervasive, persistent, and causes you to avoid situations that most people are able to engage in.

It is pervasive because it happens every time the situation occurs, it is persistent because it does not go away and reliably continues once it first begins, and it causes you avoidance because the fear is so great that a reasonable person would not be expected to endure it.

So, if you begin to panic, you experience dread, intense depression and powerful anxiety, or other phobic types of reactions when thinking about the fear or engaging it, then it is definitely a phobia and needs to be treated.

The only way to treat a simple phobia (as this sort is called), is to face it. Exposure will eventually reduce the anxiety until it completely disappears. You should read up on this or discuss it with your Psych.

Good luck!
Hugs from:
LiteraryLark
Thanks for this!
LiteraryLark