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Other Phobias

Pediophobia – The Fear of Dolls

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Excessive Fear of Dolls Not Child’s Play

Ever walked into a room then bolted right back out because you saw a doll? Before you visit your grandmother, does she hide her doll collection because of your fear of dolls? Do you freeze in front of toy stores and imagine all the dolls tearing free of their packaging and marching towards you?

For you, dolls aren’t fun—they’re horrifying. How could they be anything less after watching Annabelle or Chucky in Child’s Play?

If merely reading those infamous dolls’ names sends shivers snaking up your spine, you may have an excessive fear of dolls. Do you ever worry that a crazed doll is right behind you? Do evil-doll nightmares plague you when you crawl into bed? If so, then you might have pediophobia, or a phobia of dolls.

What Is Pediophobia?

Pediophobia means the fear of dolls. It is categorized as a ‘specific phobia.’ It fits under automatonophobia, which is the fear of humanoid figures. This phobia includes people who are afraid of all dolls and stuffed toys or those who only fear only a specific doll type. It also includes individuals who are fearful of realist objects like puppets, wax figures, and animatronics. While inanimate dolls don’t represent a threat, most pediophobes are terrified of dolls that talk or move. Old-fashioned china dolls are also triggers of this phobia because of their likeness to humans.

Pediophobia is an anxiety disorder that, if not treated, continues on from childhood into adulthood.

What Causes Pediophobia?

Fear often stems from real threats, but it can also originate from perceived dangers. If the sight of a doll gives you goosebumps, then you aren’t alone. Think of the several popular movies and television series, or shows that feature children’s toys. Most of these toys are portrayed as vessels for evil spirits. No wonder so many of us shudder at the sight of dolls.

But what if you’ve never watched these horror flicks and still have a fear of dolls? Studies have shown that most fears are learned behaviors. That means that the phobic has had no terrifying encounter with the object or situation that triggers fear. Perhaps you developed pediophobia, because someone in your family had an extreme reaction to dolls.

Ventriloquist dolls, or dummies, as they’re called, are another source of fear for many. Some individuals suffer from a fear of this style of doll because of their bulging eyes and more human-like appearance. This phobia may not develop due to any past trauma or experiences—it’s just appearance and likeness that feeds the fear.

What Are Pediophobia Symptoms?

For people with a phobia of dolls, seeing or thinking about dolls may cause the following symptoms:

Physical Symptoms

  • Chest pain
  • Sweating
  • Breathing difficulty
  • Elevated heart rate
  • Nausea
  • Dry mouth
  • Feeling choked
  • Screaming or crying
  • Trembling or shivering

Psychological Symptoms

  • Panic attacks
  • Scary dreams involving dolls
  • Mental distress causing aggression or violence

What Self-help Methods Can You Use?

Are you wondering how to overcome the fear of dolls? If your fear is not extreme, you may be able to contain it with proven self-help methods. The next time you freeze in front of a toy store, for instance, tell yourself you are not in danger and that the dolls inside are just toys. Visualize walking past the store and then take one step at a time until you’ve passed the shop.

Eventually, you’ll replace the mind-numbing fear and panic with a less severe reaction like dismay, unease, or a slight dread.

Here are a few more steps that you can take to help with the fear you feel should you encounter a doll:

Social Support

Having someone to talk to always helps. Your friend can even hold your hand while you walk past a toy store, for example. That could help you manage your fear.

Mindfulness

While you cannot always determine when certain emotions will overwhelm you, practicing mindfulness can help you manage them.

Stress Management Techniques

Proven methods or techniques such as deep breathing, muscle relaxation, and visualization can also aid in your ability to handle a stressful encounter.

Put Your Health First

Eating well, resting enough, and regular exercise has benefits beyond endowing us with lean or muscled bodies. These are crucial for a healthy mind, as well.

What Professional Help Can You Get?

Phobias are known to debilitate people if they are not dealt with. Avoidance is a band-aid approach. It is not a solution. Even if dolls do not appear in your daily life and you stop going to malls with toy stores, you may find yourself obsessively thinking and worrying about dolls and how to avoid them. When fear interferes with your life to such an extent, it’s time to get pediophobia treatment.

Phobias and excessive fear are treatable. The following therapies have shown high success rates for all kinds of phobias, including pediophobia.

Psychotherapy

Talking to a psychologist or psychiatrist and discussing your phobia can help you identify what caused it and how it reached such an intense, crippling stage. Over time, counseling will help restore your sense of control over your feelings, reactions, and behavior.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) techniques have worked wonders with people who have phobias. Trained therapists work side-by-side with patients to help them confront their fears. One of the best ways to change behaviors towards objects that trigger fear is to replace negative thoughts with positive ones. You’ll also learn relaxation techniques, and with some practice, you’ll use them with greater success each time your anxiety flares.

Systematic Desensitization

In this form of therapy, patients are gradually exposed to objects they fear, in this case, dolls. Such exposure in a safe environment will help raise your tolerance levels and give you opportunities to practice your new skills.

If your phobia is severe, your therapist may suggest medications in parallel with your therapy. Once your fear reaches a more manageable level, you can begin to work through it and regain control of your life.

Family Therapies

In this form of therapy, counseling is provided for the family members of the patient. Very light exercises and therapies that can be implemented at home are taught to parents, along with tips on dealing with a child’s fears.

Virtual Therapies

This therapy method involves using virtual reality techniques to facilitate interaction between a patient and dolls. This is considered the most modern way of treating phobias.

What Else Can You Do to Handle Pediophobia?

Are you still wondering how to overcome pediophobia? When you challenge your fears, the stress you feel while handling it the next time will decrease. This is why it’s advisable to face your fear rather than hide from it.

Be curious about your fears. Try to examine what scares you and why. By looking at fear as a thing to explore instead of as trauma, you might change your perception of it, and your reaction to it.

Adopt meditation as a daily routine. Sit calmly with your eyes closed, and try to sense your surroundings. This will also help you control your mind when your fear is triggered.

Similar Phobia: Pupaphobia-The Fear of Puppets

Bottom Line

Pediophobia is not merely a general creepy feeling when you encounter a doll. It’s a persistent, excessive, and significantly distressing fear of dolls phobia. But you can be free of it. You can regain control of your life. Just reach out for readily available help, and you’ll have taken your first step toward recovery.

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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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