Phobophobia

Phobophobia is a persistent fear of experiencing fear or developing a phobia. Anticipating anxiety can itself become a source of distress and avoidance.

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Fear conditioning: A learning process in which a previously neutral cue comes to trigger a fear response after association with danger. Anxiety sensations can become feared cues through repeated associations with distress.
Fear: An emotional response to a perceived immediate threat, involving bodily changes and readiness to act. Phobophobia targets the experience of this response rather than one external object.
Panic disorder: An anxiety disorder involving recurrent unexpected panic attacks and persistent concern or behavioral change related to them. Its diagnostic focus is recurrent panic attacks, not necessarily fear of fear as a standalone concern.
Cognitive behavioral therapy: A psychotherapy that targets links among thoughts, emotions, and behavior through structured strategies. It can address catastrophic interpretations of anxiety and patterns of avoidance.
Interoceptive conditioning: Learning in which internal bodily sensations become associated with threat and later trigger anxiety. It explains how heartbeat, dizziness, or breathlessness can come to signal feared anxiety.
Anxiety: A state of apprehension about possible future threat, often involving tension and vigilance. Anticipation of future fear or phobia is a central feature of this concern.
Agoraphobia: An anxiety disorder involving fear of situations where escape or help may be difficult if panic-like symptoms occur. It centers on feared situations and escape, unlike phobophobia's fear of fear itself.
Exposure therapy: A behavioral treatment that gradually and repeatedly confronts feared cues without escape or avoidance. Exposure can help reduce fear of anxiety sensations and feared situations.
Anxiety sensitivity: A tendency to interpret anxiety-related sensations as dangerous or harmful. Concern about what fear sensations mean can intensify fear of fear itself.
Specific phobia: An anxiety disorder marked by persistent, excessive fear of a particular object or situation. Fear of developing a specific phobia is one possible focus of phobophobia.