Fears and Phobias

This speech is co-authored as well! Again, I am not going to say which version is mine.
Gender crossovers might be found in the text.

Essay 01

Who here will admit to have phobia? I can see quite a few people. Almost all of has something that we are afraid of in our life. Good morning dear lecturer and my dear colleagues let me take you through the world of phobias.
 Now I want all of you to imagine a giant hairy spider crawling on your arm. It’s not doing any harm but it is just sitting there; for some of you, this is your worst nightmare. If you are one of those people you may have arachnophobia. Not familiar with the word? It is the extreme fear of spiders. If we define the word ‘phobia’, it is to have an extreme and irrational fear of something to a point where it is disabling and is considered a mental disorder.
The most common phobias are acrophobia, the fear of heights and glossophobia , the fear of public speaking. Most of the times people who say they have a phobia do not have a phobia, they are just afraid of that thing. Some psychologists believe that no one is born with a phobia, that it is learnt over time. You get scared about something, re-play it in your mind over and over again, making the fear worse until it becomes a phobia. For an example if a person fell down to a well in his childhood, that traumatic experience will make him an acrophobic and aquaphobic; fear of water over time.
I already have mentioned you four phobias. Well that is just a tip of an iceberg. You name anything; there is probably a phobia for it. I can tell you two types of phobias that most of you in this room will have. Nomophobia; the fear of losing your phone signal and anoptaphobia; the fear of staying single. There exist even stranger phobias than this. Bearophobia; the fear of gravity. That is really strange. I fear no gravity than there is some gravity. Then archibutyrophobia which is the fear of peanut butter sticking at the roof of your mouth. You may feel all these really funny but for the people who suffer from these phobias, those fears are real for them. These phobias affect hundreds of people around the world.
Talking about strange fears, the person who comes to my mind is my mother. She has a fear of birds, specially chickens and that also do have a name; alektrophobia . I know that it is really weird. I wonder what things in a bird can cause this phobia, whether it is their feathers or whether it is the fluttering of their wings. Also I have a friend who is extremely afraid of butterflies. Surely a butterfly cannot do you any harm. Out of all the other dangerous animals in the world why is she afraid of this innocent butterfly? Well that is the nature of these phobias. For some it may be very funny to fear a butterfly but for her it is not. You may wonder whether I have a phobia. Well I do have a phobia. I have a fear of speaking to people and also an acute phobia of public speaking. Almost 75% of the world population suffer from fear of public speaking; glossophobia. I know some of you here know this feeling very much like I do. Sweating on your forehead, with your knees shaking, your heart is beating so fast and some of you may even feel nausea.
 The world is a scary place, it's true. We are most of the times surrounded by things that frighten us. However, we seek out things that terrify us anyway… horror films, roller coasters, and all sorts of dangerous sports and other stuff. Why do we do it? I can't really tell you. But I think that it may be to remind ourselves we are alive. And if you ask me, fear is one of the liveliest emotions out there. Today being on this room in front of you I have embraced my fear of public speaking. I would like to invite all of you to step out of your phobias and embrace your fears.

Essay 02

Who here will admit to have phobia? I can see quite a few people. Almost all of has something that we are afraid of in our life. Good morning dear lecturer and my dear colleagues let me take you through the world of phobias.
First of all, let me tell you what qualifies me to speak on this topic. There was this little girl I know a lot about; somewhere back in 2005 she had to make a speech in front of the school assembly about the typical topic given back then “My country (put some topic here!)”. She wrote a beautiful speech for about a week, remembered all the lines by heart and boasted to her parents about how she is gonna make a speech in front of the whole school. Even her sisters were proud to applaud their big sister’s presence in front of everyone.
The big day came and she went to school in a bright white frock ready to make her speech. The assembly started and the usual agenda went on and then she was invited to the front. She went there, greeted the gathering and started the speech. But the words were stuck in her throat. She couldn’t make a single sound. My throat was dry and my knees felt weak. The whole audience was staring at me. I was scared. I felt humiliated. I wanted to cover my face and run away.
Seems like I’ve turned from third person to first person within the speech without even noticing it. I got carried away with the memory and forgot to keep the cover. Yeah it was me. I do suffer from the fear of public speaking—glossophobia– the world’s most commonplace phobia. I am one among the 75% of the world population who suffers from this problem. Enough about me, let us go to the topic.
Now I want all of you to imagine a giant hairy spider crawling on your arm. It’s not doing any harm but it is just sitting there; for some of you, this is your worst nightmare. If you are one of those people you may have arachnophobia. “Arachno” is for spiders. And “phobia” is to have an extreme and irrational fear of something to a point where it is disabling and is considered a mental disorder.
Next is the fear of heights and glossophobia. Let me show you a photo of another small girl. This time it is not me. Once she decided to ride a roller coaster even though she had glossophobia. Her fear is clearly visible on the photo (point at the projector).
You name anything; add “phobia” suffix and then there is probably a phobia on the medical books by that name. I can tell you two types of phobias that most of you in this room will have. Nomophobia-- the fear of losing your phone signal; and anoptaphobia-- the fear of staying single. There exist even stranger phobias than this. Bearophobia; the fear of gravity. They fear that they will be stuck Then archibutyrophobia which is the fear of peanut butter sticking at the roof of your mouth. You may feel all these really funny but for the people who suffer from these phobias, those fears are real for them. These phobias affect hundreds of people around the world.
Some psychologists believe that no one is born with a phobia, that it is learnt over time. You get scared about something, re-play it in your mind over and over again, making the fear worse until it becomes a phobia. That means we create our own fears. So why don’t we conqueror them as well? I assure you that it is exciting! That is why most of us watch horror movies, ride roller coasters, go bungee jumping and in my case I am making this speech! I hope u didn’t notice the sweat on my forehead or notice the fact my face is redder than usual. Today being on this room in front of you I have won my 11 year long battle against my fear of public speaking. I hope I made my 10 year old self proud in doing this. I would like to invite all of you to step out of your phobias and embrace your fears.