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The Fear of Atomic Explosions
Environmental Phobias

Atomosophobia – The Fear of Atomic Explosions

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Decoding Atomosophobia: The Fear of Atomic Explosions

Did you ever get nauseous as a child when there was a mention of an explosion on TV? Do you remember the first time you saw a documentary on atomic explosions and how the sight of one made you feel?  Does your heart race each time there is news of an explosion somewhere in the world?

If you’re starting to panic as you read this, then you might have a fear of atomic explosions, or atomosophobia.

It may seem like an unusual fear, but atomosophobia is very real. And it’s one of the more irrational fears on the list of phobias, dating back generations to the late 40’s. Atomosophobia is a serious and specific fear under the broad category of fear of explosions, also known as ekrixiphobia.

Where ekrixiphobia is a fear of explosions, atomosophobia is a fear of atomic explosions. This fear of atomic explosions can overlap or broaden to include ekrixiphobia. A person suffering from atomosophobia, if untreated, may start to fear any type of explosion.

Let’s take a closer look at atomosophobia causes, so we can understand this fear more in depth.

The Fear of Atomic Explosions

Common Atomosophobia Causes

Atomosophobia causes could be broadly classified under two categories: personal and biological.

Personal experiences
You or someone you know could have had a traumatic experience with an explosion. This may have created a fear in your mind about the event itself, which later became focused on explosions caused by atomic bombs.

Biological issues
An excess or low level of hormones in the body can throw your response mechanism out of order. This could affect your perception of the atomic explosion as an immediate threat.

Genetics
If your genetics make you prone to anxiety, then a triggering event could lead to the development of irrational fears. This isn’t so much about the subject of your fear, but rather the fear itself. Whatever triggers your fear response becomes the root cause and subject of your fear. Unfortunately, there is no logical explanation as to what triggers a person or why.

Everything You Need to Know about Atomosophobia

Did you know that the most common trigger for people suffering from atomosophobia was finding out about the 1945 incident of atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

Atomosophobia is a rare type of phobia and difficult to recognize. While many people may fear atomic explosions, the fear is varying in level, and hence could go unnoticed. It’s also possible that two individuals experience two different types of atomosophobia. Types of atomosophobia could be different in terms of the trigger, cause, symptom, or effect.

In extreme cases, the person experiences a heightened sense of fear that leads them to decide to move as far away from civilization as possible. They find a remote location to settle in where atomic explosions are most unlikely to occur or someplace too far for radiation to spread.

Symptoms of Atomosophobia

Atomosophobia symptoms do not just show up when an explosion happens. They may also show up when the person is watching something about an explosion, hears a sound resembling an explosion, or even when the person is thinking about an explosion.

Here are the common symptoms when experiencing triggers:

Physical Symptoms

  • Elevated blood pressure
  • Hot flashes or chills
  • Shortness of breath
  • Dizziness, fainting, or losing consciousness
  • Trembling, shaking, or tremors
  • Sweating
  • Heart palpitations
  • Upset stomach
  • Dry mouth
  • Loss of speech (temporary)
  • Ringing in the ears

Mental/Emotional Symptoms

  • Fear of losing control
  • Fear of radiation
  • Fear of death
  • Anxious or nervous
  • Fear of atomic war
  • Obsessive thoughts you can’t shut out

How Do You Deal with Atomosophobia?

Treatment for atomosophobia can be difficult to begin. The fear can be hard to recognize because atomic explosions are rare and any mention or discussion of them can be ignored or avoided.

But in serious conditions, the person is unable to deal with the fear and may want to run far away from crowded cities. If the fear is mild, it’s rather harmless. But for those who suffer the severe extent of it, it could change their lives.

When dealing with atomosophobia, you may feel that you are no longer in control of your life. The fear may cause you to make life-altering decisions. The best solution is to first diagnose and then seek treatment for atomosophobia.

Along with professional help, self-help methods for atomosophobia exist as well.

Self Help: What Can You Do to Help Yourself?

Mindfulness Exercises

Mindfulness exercises involve you bringing your attention back to the present. This can be practiced regularly or whenever you notice yourself reacting to a trigger. It helps you to reign in your thoughts and look at the situation with a clear mind.

Breathing Exercises

Practicing breathing techniques daily gives you a default technique that can be internalized. The purpose is to prepare you for any unexpected situation that puts stress on your body. Breathing regulates oxygen flow to the body thus telling your brain to relax.

Self-Talk

Talking to yourself helps rationalize unhelpful thoughts that may come to mind. If you can explain your behavior, then you should also question whether an action or situation is sensible? Is it necessary? Am I overreacting? Can I do something to get out of this situation that will change what I am feeling? What am I feeling?

You can prepare these questions and answer them regularly. This will help you in two ways: you learn to teach yourself a method to cope with atomosophobia and you shift your attention from the problem to yourself, and then from your fear to your logic.

Diet

Your diet could be the biggest culprit behind your anxiety issues. Not just the phobia but anxiety in general. This is why reducing the quantity of alcohol, drugs, coffee and unprocessed food is recommended. This may tell you whether your food could be behind your fear.

Acceptance

Essentially, the fear of an atomic explosion is beyond your control, but the way you respond to it is not. So, let go of the fear by finding something else to focus on.

While these are effective, we don’t suggest you rely only on self-help for treating atomosophobia. Professional help may be necessary to ensure the fear doesn’t return or grow more severe.

Professional Help for Atomosophobia: Options Available

Sometimes atomosophobia calls for professional help. Here are a few options you can explore:

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT is a process of changing your perception of atomic explosions. A licensed therapist will first try to determine the root cause of your fear by asking a series of questions. This helps them form a diagnosis and prepare a treatment plan.

Once diagnosed, your therapist will encourage you open up more about your triggers. These discussions help you move toward a more rationalized mindset where your fear is concerned.

Desensitization

Desensitization helps change your view of the threat and also your fear response. It requires patients to be exposed to their triggers in a safe, controlled environment. Stimuli such as photos or videos may be used.

Medications

Medications may be an effective solution if the problem is biological, such as genetic disorders or imbalanced hormones.

Learning to Cope with Atomosophobia

Now that you’ve learned more about atomosophobia, do you think you have the fear of atomic explosions? Or do you know someone who might? Whatever the case, you now know what to do about it.

And if you’re getting nervous thinking that all this reading might cause you to develop a fear, don’t worry. Despite all the scary statistics, an extreme case of atomosophobia which causes you to run to the woods is rare, and yet, easily treatable.

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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