I would argue that every phobia is simply a fear of feeling afraid. A phobic reaction has nothing to do with the trigger itself. It is a fear of the feeling that you get when that trigger is there.

Imagined words and images are not a threat to you regardless of that they are saying. If they feel like a threat then you are mistaking those thoughts for reality – you are experiencing an imagined idea as more real than the reality of the current moment. This is a detrimental form of self-hypnosis.