Fearful Ruminations, Episode 2

I always figured that the term “phobia” was simply a convenient threshold for discussing fears. Certainly that is the way just about everyone I know uses the term; it evokes the images and anxieties get stuck in our craw, so to speak. That which frightens us more than it ought.  Yet, it turns out that phobias are actually conditions listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.