What Is Phobics Awareness?

Updated

Phobics Awareness is a free online community and guide site for people living with phobias, panic, and anxiety, as well as for their loved ones. According to the site, its website, forum, guides, and chat room are all free to use, and it describes itself as an active, caring community that brings together people from around the world. If you are looking for peer support and shared coping strategies rather than clinical treatment, this is the kind of resource it is designed to be.

What the site offers

Phobics Awareness describes three main ways to engage:

  • Forums — a place to discuss "all aspects of anxiety disorders." The site notes it recently updated its website and forum, and that the old forum could not be migrated, so it is stored in a forum archive containing over 30,000 posts. Existing login details remain the same, and the site directs members to the new forums to continue conversations.
  • Guides — written material on phobias and anxiety.
  • Chat room — live conversation with people from around the world, which the site describes as friendly, warm, and welcoming.

The site frames its purpose as "support through the exchange of ideas, information and coping skills."

Who it is for

The site says it is a source of personal support for anyone affected by:

  • Panic attacks and Panic Disorder
  • Agoraphobia
  • Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
  • Anxiety
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Social Phobia
  • Other anxiety disorders and conditions

It also explicitly welcomes people who are not themselves struggling with anxiety but are a loved one or family member of someone who is. The site notes that phobias, anxiety, depression, and panic attacks can be chronic and damaging not only to the individual but to the people around them.

What it is not

The available site material describes Phobics Awareness as a community and guide resource built on peer exchange. It does not present itself as a medical provider, and nothing in the site description indicates diagnosis, therapy, or crisis services. If you need clinical care or are in crisis, a peer community is a complement to professional help, not a substitute for it.

How to decide whether to use it

If you want… Phobics Awareness fits if…
Peer support and shared experience You want to talk with others dealing with similar conditions
Written background on phobias and anxiety You want guides alongside community discussion
Live conversation You are comfortable with a chat room format
A community that includes family members You are supporting someone else and want to understand what they face
Clinical treatment You should look to a qualified professional instead

One practical note from the site itself: because the old forum was archived rather than migrated, older discussions are readable in the archive but new conversation happens on the new forums. If you had an account before the update, your login details still work.