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Situational Phobias

Scoptophobia – Fear of Eye Contact

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Don’t Look Away from Scoptophobia

Are you afraid of people? Many of you might respond with an emphatic No!

Let’s phrase that another way: Do you fear making eye contact? If yes, then read on.

Perhaps you’ve felt nervous at the sight of another human passing you on the street, or kept your eyes on the ground while at the check-out counter of a grocery store. Do you struggle to make eye contact while in a group of friends? Do you feel tongue-tied and experience a dry mouth at the thought of another person looking at you?

Well, these are all tell-tale signs of the very common fear of eye contact, or scoptophobia, as psychologists call it.

While this fear may sound silly, it can make you feel sad and fearful. For people who suffer from scoptophobia, the fear of making eye contact is a very real, everyday reality.

Yet, every problem has a solution, and this too has one—in fact, many. You can find the solutions to scoptophobia, also known as scopophobia, once you identify its cause or causes.

What Causes Scoptophobia?

Like most social phobias, scoptophobia can be traced back to traumatic childhood events that might have badly shaken you without you even realizing it at the time. Some friends may have teased you or made fun of how you spoke or the way you looked. Or it could have been something far more serious, such as bullying, that may have left you shattered and broken. It could also have been an incident that wasn’t really all that serious.

Many of us develop a high level of self-consciousness during our growth phase, such as adolescence. Over time, we can develop scoptophobia. A lack of self-confidence or self-esteem can make you prone to developing the fear of eye contact.

Certain medical conditions, such as epilepsy, are also known to trigger the fear of making eye contact. Researchers talk about the field of vision and threat perception while analyzing scoptophobia. For you, this heightened anxiety and the accompanying fear of making eye contact can affect your social life.

What Does Scoptophobia Mean?

Phobia is a feeling that lies deeply buried in your mind that finds outward expression in multiple ways. It is triggered by the smallest of events or sights or even a harsh look from someone. The term scoptophobia comes from the word skopein, meaning ‘to look or to examine,’ and phobia, meaning ‘fear.’

Let’s face it. Not many of us are extroverts or great public speakers. Actually, you can be an introvert and can be quite successful in your life, provided you have other qualities that make up for your lack of social skills.

Yet, scoptophobia is a strange animal that, in extreme cases, can lead you to withdraw from social interactions completely. It can stop you from participating in everyday activities, such as doctor visits or using public transport.

Actually, the range of the psychological condition generally referred to as “fear of making eye contact” is much broader than you think.

In fact, it falls under the broad classification of complaints grouped as social anxiety disorders (SAD). More than just the fear of eye contact, this condition can lead to serious social perception issues that can affect your personal and professional life.

For example, failure to maintain eye contact is often considered a sign of untrustworthiness, whether you are on a date or attending an official meeting over Skype.

Is Scoptophobia Common?

Yes, it is. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, roughly 12 percent of the adult population have suffered from a social anxiety disorder, such as scoptophobia.

Symptoms of Scoptophobia

A heightened sense of anxiety is generally found to be the cause of scoptophobia, but your symptoms might be different from what your friend might experience.

Researchers have broadly classified the symptoms into two categories. First, physical symptoms, which are based on how your body reacts to a situation. And second, psychological symptoms, which indicate how your mind perceives the threat.

Physical Symptoms

  • Profuse sweating
  • Avoiding strangers or large groups
  • Blushing
  • Increased heartbeat
  • Sweating
  • Trembling
  • Dry mouth
  • Loss of concentration
  • Panic attacks

Psychological Symptoms

  • Fear of facing people
  • Anxiety
  • Threat perception
  • Fear of strangers
  • Troubling dreams

While these symptoms have generally been associated with people who suffer from scoptophobia, they could vary widely from person to person.

How Do You Deal with Scoptophobia?

Scoptophobia is often overlooked by psychologists and doesn’t get the attention generally reserved for other more severe fears. However, this does not diminish the seriousness of the condition. Most people suffer silently, but there are many treatment options available, ranging from self-help options to professional help.

Self-help: Helping Yourself

Before you seek professional help, you might explore how you can help yourself overcome scoptophobia. Of course, you stand to gain the most if you manage to overcome this condition.

For starters, work on your self-esteem. Believe in yourself. Practice positive, self-affirming thoughts. Reinforce to yourself that you are a strong, confident individual and the master of your own mind.

You could also try the following options:

  • Practice relaxation techniques, such as yoga, to calm your mind. It’s all in the mind, as you are very well aware. It will also help you divert your mind from negative thoughts that weigh you down.
  • Practice breathing techniques. Practice slow, deep breathing to get rid of anxiety.
  • Take good advice. This could be from anyone you trust, like your best friend or someone you get along with.
  • Go for a walk in the park. Not necessarily jogging, but a relaxed walk can really calm you down.
  • Close your eyes. Agreed, you have to look people in the eye. But this technique will help you shut out your external surroundings for a while, much like your noise-cancelling headphones do.
  • Read self-help books. Reading books written by people who have overcome their fear of eye contact can help you immensely.

Professional Help for the Fear of Eye Contact

If self-help methods aren’t successful, you could reach out to a psychologist or behavioral therapist to help manage your phobia. They can methodically help you through a variety of therapies.

One of the most popular psychological treatments for treating scoptophobia is self-system therapy (SST), a behavioral intervention method to boost your interpersonal skills. Cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure therapy are also two highly recommended lines of treatment.

Open Your Eyes. You Don’t Have to Live with Scoptophobia

Unlike other phobias, such as the fear of snakes, you have a much better chance of overcoming your fear of making eye contact. A mix of self-help techniques and some professional help can go a long way in improving your quality of life.

Even if you don’t overcome this fear completely, you can still greatly improve, which in turn will boost your self-esteem and confidence to a large extent.

Basically, being able to control your mind is key to overcoming scoptophobia. It is your mind, after all.

FearAZ.com is looking for personal stories of any 'fear of' or phobia. If you have an interesting story you'd like to share, we welcome your submission. If the story fits with our content and guidelines, we'll add it to our site.
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Your Fear Goes Up and Down

Are you someone who would rather climb the stairs than take the elevator? You call it squeezing in a workout after being sedentary the whole morning. Or perhaps you claim it's a faster route. These are both typical, normal, and acceptable reasons. But what if you need to be in the conference room on the eleventh floor in five minutes, and you're wearing your business suit and wingtips? Would you still prefer to take the stairs? If your answer is yes, then maybe it's time to take a closer look at your reasons for avoiding elevators. Elevators stir all sorts of emotions in passengers. From the discomfort of closeness to strangers to the sensations in our gut, elevators can be a source of the heebie-jeebies for many, but for some, they can also be a source of terror. Let's dig a little deeper into the latter, and see what this terror is all about and what can be done to manage it. To begin with, does being inside an elevator give you chills or the sweats? Or does it trigger an unpleasant memory? Perhaps you remember movies you've watched where something terrible happens inside an elevator. From Silence of the Lambs, The Shining, Final Destination 2, or the king of all elevator horror films, 2010’s Devil, the elevator becomes witness to something sinister and horrible. And you want nothing to do with any of it. You know that you're not claustrophobic. You can deal with heights just fine, too. And you know that you're not going to be trapped inside. All of these contribute to a fear of elevators—but they don't apply to you. Yet being inside one does something to you. It's hard to explain.

What is the Fear of Elevators Called?

What you have is a fear of elevators, which is called elevatophobia. It is most commonly triggered by an experience of getting stuck inside either due to a power outage or technical maintenance. Hearing about other people's experiences or watching a movie about similar circumstances can prompt a fear of elevators getting stuck with you inside. Usually, claustrophobics and agoraphobics may also develop elevatophobia because the triggers and objects of these fears are related. Claustrophobia is the fear of closed and cramped spaces, while agoraphobia is the fear of being trapped without any means of escape. Put the two together, and the elevator becomes the perfect combination of both phobias. The space is limited and closed, with only one means of entry and exit. You can add another point of access if you consider climbing the cables like they do in the movies, but that certainly isn't ideal.

Symptoms of Elevatophobia

If for some reason an elevator stops due to an outage or some technical difficulty, passengers with elevatophobia may go into full panic mode. Even if the maintenance team advises that it will just be a matter of minutes, by then, the person's mind has become irrational with the fear of the elevator falling, being stuck for hours, or other unpleasant thoughts. You would expect a person to exhibit the following physical symptoms: Additionally, you would be filled with that overwhelming anxiety where you feel that you have zero control over the situation. You start fearing the unknown and are filled with negative thoughts about death and imminent doom. You become irrational and unresponsive.

Possible Complications of Elevatophobia

When the panic sets in, the possibility of emergencies related to pre-existing conditions may make themselves known. This might include serious health crises like heart attacks or asthma attacks. When this happens, fear becomes a medical emergency. Elevator rides do not last long; it's just a matter of minutes or even less. But the fact that a person can escalate from panic to a near fatal medical situation classifies the fear of elevators as a 'hard phobia.'

Trying Some Self-Help Methods

Your fear of elevators can likely interfere with your social and work life and relationships. Not everyone understands that elevatophobia, like most phobias, can be crippling. But don't be disheartened. Depending on the level of your fear and level of control, you can gradually face and manage your phobia. Here are some recommendations you can try:
  1. Make a List of Everything that Entails Riding in an Elevator This is a systematic approach to getting over your anxiety. By following a step-by-step process, you can identify where the fear kicks in at its strongest. You can write a list of steps like pressing the topmost button and waiting to arrive on that floor, watching as the door closes and opens, being alone inside the elevator, or having delays with the doors opening. Now try doing the opposite. For example, face away from the door or occupy yourself with your phone so that you are distracted.
  2. Create Your Fear Ladder Although the name says fear of elevators, it is not the whole process that scares you. There are just phases and parts of the elevator riding experience that cause you to panic. So go back to the list you initially created and label the fear level you feel. You can do it numerically, too, like ten being 'really scary,' six, 'manageable scary,' and one, 'not scary at all.' You can put the corresponding fear levels so you can focus more time and effort into activities that are more scary to you.
  3. Face Your Fear By now, you have identified what scares you the most. You can try repetitive action to minimize your fear and increase your sense of ‘normalcy’. Remember that the longer you expose yourself to your fear, the better you get at handling your emotions. If you are feeling overwhelmed, stop. Pushing yourself too fast and too soon can backfire. Modify your pace and go slower instead.
  4. Talk About Your Fear People by nature, unfortunately, are not quick to offer understanding and support. You need to tell them what's wrong before they can empathize. Talk to someone who you trust and ask for their support, especially in the initial phase of overcoming your fear. If you are too afraid to ride the elevator alone, you can ask them to go with you, and before you realize it, you are on your floor, and there was no indication of panic.
  5. Learn To Be Patient Be patient with yourself and your predicament. This is, after all, your fight against fear. It might take hundreds of elevator ride practices before the fear gets under control. Even then, there might be some hesitations and episodes of nervousness. These are acceptable and expected, so cut yourself some slack and congratulate yourself for every progress.

Seeking Professional Help

Along with self-help, you can always enlist a medical professional's aid to support you with your elevatophobia. Talking to someone who has experience with similar cases can be comforting, because you know that you are not alone, and this situation can get better. Talk to your doctor about the severity of your fears and the symptoms that you experience. Explain how you deal with it in an attempt to control it. An exam and a health history are made to ensure that there are no unrelated or underlying problems that your symptoms might mask. Usually, phobias like this are approached with a combination of psychotherapy and medication. Your doctor will talk about these options with you, and it's entirely up to you, with your doctor's recommendation, what you want to pursue. For psychotherapy, the most common type is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which aims to help you find different ways of behaving, thinking, and reacting when about to step inside an elevator or when already inside it. With medications, there are beta blockers and benzodiazepines, but note that these can have side effects. Whatever these side effects are, you should promptly share it with your doctor.

Simple Tips to Overcome Elevatophobia

Elevators are not perfect, but their likelihood to malfunction, fall, or get stuck is very low. If you are not fully confident with this information, you can help overcome your elevatophobia by learning common elevator safety tips and basic elevator operations. These should help curb your mild fear until you become more self-assured. In addition to that, here are some of the things that you can do to gradually overcome your fear of elevators—both in getting on and riding one.

Conclusion

Yes, elevatophobia can be a challenge in today's world, but don't allow the elevator to win. Don't let it stop you from taking a job on the top floor or attending a social gathering on the rooftop. Sure, you can take the stairs if you insist and arrive winded and sweaty, with the party about to wrap up. But is this the quality of life you seek? Elevators are designed to make life easier. There are guaranteed ways to help you overcome elevatophobia. Take the first step and seek help. Soon, you’ll see yourself breezing through the floors with those arduous stair climbs little more than a memory.
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