When the Fear Is Real

My diagnosis helped me pinpoint my phobia — and overcome it

Photo by Ashley Bean on Unsplash

When I was a kid, I remember channel surfing and stumbling upon a news special about phobias. The man on my screen was sticking his hands in a garbage can, sweating and hysterically crying as if he were dipping his fingers in a barrel of battery acid. A reporter explained that the man had a phobia of germs, and with the help of…