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Animal Phobias

Batrachophobia – Fear of Amphibians

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Excessive Fear of Amphibians

Did you pretend to be sick when your science class was scheduled to dissect a frog? Do you refuse to explore certain sections of the zoo during family trips? Are you scared of going near ponds and other small bodies of water in case you might catch a glimpse of an amphibian?

Does the mere sight of toads make you sick to your stomach? Are you a fan of nature documentaries, but avoid watching videos that feature slimy creatures?

If all of these feel familiar, you might be experiencing batrachophobia, or the fear of amphibians.

But don’t fret. Batrachophobia is not as unusual as you think.

What Is Batrachopohobia?

Batrachophobia is the phobia of amphibians such as frogs, salamanders, toads, and newts. It could affect those of any age group, with symptoms varying for each person. More commonly known as fear of frogs or ranidaphobia, batrachophobia was first recorded in a 1953 dictionary of psychiatry.

Those with an extreme phobia of frogs experience severe discomfort or panic at the prospect of interacting with amphibians in any way. Even looking at an image or video clip may cause a reaction.

Phobias such as batrachophobia are often the result of trauma, coupled with genetics in some cases. Many who fear amphibians develop this fear because of incidents from their childhoods such as pranks involving amphibians. It could also be the result of a school experiment gone wrong. Brain chemistry also holds significance in the development of the phobia.

A fear of frogs may be considered irrational because of the harmless nature of frogs and toads. Often, those with batrachophobia develop secondary anxiety when their fear is mocked by others.

What Are the Symptoms of Batrachophobia?

The symptoms of batrachophobia vary from person to person. As each individual has a unique way of thinking and processing the world, this phobia can appear in different ways. However, some symptoms may be more common than others.

Fear is a physical response. Just the thought of being around amphibians is enough to trigger a fear reaction. The most common emotions surrounding these episodes are predominantly anger, guilt, and paranoia. Anxiety and fear levels can range from mild to severe and may include feelings of mild anxiety to panic attacks.

Most batrachophobia sufferers experience the following when they see a live amphibian or an image of one. Take note that they may not happen all at the same time.

Physical Symptoms

  • Heart palpitations
  • Nausea
  • Shortness of breath
  • Losing the ability to speak
  • Excessive sweating
  • Vertigo
  • Numbness or loss of sensation
  • Dizziness or vertigo

Mental/Emotional Symptoms

  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
  • Fear of fainting
  • Social isolation
  • Anticipatory anxiety
  • Panic attack

People with a fear of amphibians may have a difficult time communicating their discomfort, so it’s important to always be aware of others and pay attention to their symptoms.

Self-Help Methods to Cope with Batrachophobia

Others may not understand why you’re afraid of amphibians, but batrachophobia (or any phobia) can have a negative effect on your mental health. That’s why it’s important to learn how to overcome this fear.

Before seeking professional treatment, find ways to deal with your phobia at the personal level. It helps to recognize unhealthy practices and work to unlearn them. Have a friendly morning check-in with yourself and your feelings.

When it comes to phobias, the mind is in a constant state of panic. Breathing exercises and meditation help calm the senses and find rationality. Find a meditation class you like either online or in person. Or, you could close your eyes and focus on a song that soothes you. A self-help podcast also makes for a great listen.

Find a hobby that helps distract you. Be it painting, baking, or weightlifting, find something that occupies your mind and keeps irrational thoughts at bay. If you keep thinking about something that scares you, your brain is sure to internalize it and cause you more mental anguish.

A great number of self-help books are available both online and in stores. With these tips, you can take concrete steps to deal with your phobia in a healthy way.

But what if these self-help strategies are not enough to overcome your fear?

Getting Professional Help

Professional treatment for batrachophobia focuses on the root of the subject. For a more long-term or permanent fix, address your concerns with a certified healthcare professional. Remember, treatment may be a long process and involves several options to choose from.

Counseling and Group Therapy

Personal counseling and support groups for those who share the same phobia are viable treatment methods. Sharing your concerns with a trained professional will help you discover the cause of your phobia while you explore ways to manage symptoms. Communication and honesty are key to successful therapy sessions.

Virtual Reality Therapy or VRT

VRT is a modern high-tech treatment based on cognitive behavioral therapy. It can be used for children and adults alike. These virtual reality simulators let you face your fears while in the controlled setting of a doctor’s office.

It subjects you to various scenarios and helps alter your reaction during the sessions by creating situations unique to your phobia. VRT regulates these situations by making adjustments or repetitions until the trigger points are reached. Hence, you are quite literally facing your fears.

Hypnotherapy or Hypnoanalysis

This method of treatment involves diving into the subconscious through hypnosis. A trained professional speaks to your subconscious and tries to trace the ingrained trauma and resulting patterns of behavior.

A therapist then reroutes these thoughts and tries to attach happier, more comfortable feelings to them. In doing so, the narrative changes entirely, rewiring your thoughts concerning your phobia. This treatment method may take less time than others.

Prescription Medication

Medication may be used to control short-term symptoms. However, there may be side effects when using pharmaceuticals. Medications will not cure your phobia and should only be used along with other forms of therapy.

How to Overcome Batrachophobia

Whether you choose to seek professional help or power through it yourself, expect to spend time and energy. Even then, there’s no guarantee of total relief. However, with each step toward helping yourself, a part of your phobia is dealt with and stripped away. And before you know it, you’ve made it to the other side.

The most important thing to remember is that you have to keep going. Some tend to give up, because they feel they don’t have the willpower to get through it. Remember, you can do anything you set your mind to. And where there’s a will, there’s a way.

In Conclusion

Remember to go easy on yourself. Trust your instincts. There’s nobody who knows you better than yourself. Surround yourself with positivity and trust the process. Your phobia is nothing compared to how powerful your mind is. Before you know it, you’ll be able to stare at Kermit the Frog (or his real-life counterpart) with a straight face and absolutely no care in the world.

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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