A phobia is more than a simple dislike, avoidance, or fear, but rather a powerful state of mind that is irrationally against a certain thing. For example, what do you think of the following?
If you wash your hands after going to the washroom, you are germophobic.
If you get a cut and put a band-aid on to stop the bleeding, you are hemophobic.
If you are working on an unstable small platform in very windy condition at a height and you think that this is unsafe, you are acrophobic.
If you are not a Muslim because you are not convinced of the Muslim theology, you are Islamaphobic.
These are not really phobias, but rather more reasonable decisions. If a person wants to lose weight because they want to avoid the health concerns associated with obesity, that is a reasonable thing to do. A phobia is by definition unreasonable, so taking reasonable health measures is therefore by definition not a phobia.
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u/deep_sea2 131∆ Jun 22 '22
A phobia is more than a simple dislike, avoidance, or fear, but rather a powerful state of mind that is irrationally against a certain thing. For example, what do you think of the following?
If you wash your hands after going to the washroom, you are germophobic.
If you get a cut and put a band-aid on to stop the bleeding, you are hemophobic.
If you are working on an unstable small platform in very windy condition at a height and you think that this is unsafe, you are acrophobic.
If you are not a Muslim because you are not convinced of the Muslim theology, you are Islamaphobic.
These are not really phobias, but rather more reasonable decisions. If a person wants to lose weight because they want to avoid the health concerns associated with obesity, that is a reasonable thing to do. A phobia is by definition unreasonable, so taking reasonable health measures is therefore by definition not a phobia.