Phobophobia

Phobophobia is a phobia defined as the fear of phobias themselves, sometimes summarized as a fear of fear. It involves intense anxiety together with an unrealistic and persistent fear of the somatic sensations that accompany a feared phobic reaction, and of the phobic episode itself. It can also be understood as a fear of developing a new phobia in the first place. The condition is closely related to other anxiety disorders and to panic attacks, and is frequently linked directly to other named phobias, such as agoraphobia, where the sufferer becomes anxious not only about the original trigger but about the prospect of experiencing a phobic or panic response to it. Because of this overlap, when a person is diagnosed with phobophobia, clinicians generally treat the condition as part of the broader family of anxiety disorders rather than as an isolated, freestanding phobia.