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Chorophobia- The Fear of Dancing
Situational Phobias

Chorophobia – The Fear of Dancing

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The Fear of Dancing: Does Dancing Terrify You?

Are you afraid to dance? Does the very thought of dancing or seeing others dance scare you? Do you feel dizzy or faint at the thought of moving to music? Have you skipped going to events that may have this social activity on the roster?

If so, then you may suffer from chorophobia.

Dancing is most likely the oldest art form known to mankind. Civilizations, tribes, and nobility danced to show joy throughout history. Still today people “cut a rug” for fun and celebration. Even toddlers break into dance whenever they are joyful or excited.

However, this form of expression may cause panic or anxiety attacks in some.

You probably don’t understand what’s happening to you, and it’s even more difficult to explain this fear to others. But the truth is, it’s real and can be treated.

What Is Chorophobia?

Chorophobia is the fear of dancing and anything related to the thought of dancing. The fear of dancing phobia can sometimes get so severe that a person can undergo depression or panic attacks.

If you have this phobia, you probably don’t want anyone to know that you’re afraid of dancing. Most people don’t take this fear seriously, so explaining this condition can be challenging. You may also avoid watching TV or online videos to avoid catching a glimpse of anyone dancing.

Those who are afraid to dance often view the activity as life-threatening. They may avoid events or places where dancing is expected.

What causes chorophobia? The most common root of phobias is a traumatic experience in childhood. For example, you may be scared to dance because you experienced or witnessed an accident related to dancing.

This can lead to some feeling helpless and stressed. Individuals can also develop chorophobia because of environmental factors, genetics, or even brain chemistry.

Symptoms of Chorophobia

Unsure if you have this phobia? Check out this list of symptoms:

Mental/Emotional Symptoms

  • The fear of death
  • Feeling helpless
  • A sensation of guilt and shame
  • Losing control
  • Short temper
  • Self-harm and self-blame

Physical Symptoms

  • Chills
  • Migraines
  • Profuse sweating
  • Shivering
  • Inability to breathe properly
  • Feeling like someone’s choking you
  • Nausea
  • Fainting
  • Headaches and dizziness
  • Feeling confused
  • Dry mouth
  • Accelerated heartbeats

 

Self-Help: How to Not be Afraid of Dancing

There are several strategies for dealing with your fear of dancing but remember: all these methods require practice and determination.

Surround Yourself with People You Trust

You’re probably wondering what this has to do with overcoming your phobia. Based on the experience of past phobia sufferers, you shouldn’t work on your fears alone. People who love and support you can provide motivation during this process, and that’s important. Compliments and encouragement have a positive effect on the mind. This boost of confidence makes it easier to learn how not to be afraid of dancing.

You can also take part in discussion groups about phobias. It can take a load off your mind to realize that you’re not alone in your journey. Plus, you can share and get tips that work.

Educate Yourself

After deciding that you need to work on your fears, educate yourself on self-help methods. There are multiple websites and books that you can read about phobias. With this information, you can create a realistic plan of action for dealing with chorophobia.

Express Yourself

One of the easiest steps to curb your overthinking is to express yourself. If you are part of a self-help group, be open about your struggles. Are you hesitant about expressing yourself to people? Then write down your thoughts in a diary, private blog, or on your mobile phone. This will help release unwanted thoughts that clog your mind. Remember, overthinking can hinder your progress and reinforce your fears.

Exercise Regularly

This may seem surprising, but exercising helps calm the mind and release unwanted stress. One of the most beneficial forms of training is cardiovascular exercise, or cardio. This form of training is known to release anxiety and has been proven to release more happy chemicals, also known as endorphins.

Cardiovascular training is easy to do and requires little to no equipment. Examples include skipping rope, running, cycling, and swimming.

Take Your Time

Take baby steps when working towards slowly overcoming your phobia. For example, try watching videos of people dancing on the internet for 5-10 minutes a day. Once you start feeling comfortable, gradually increase this time limit. After, try and go to events where you know there’s going to be dancing. If you aren’t feeling comfortable, then take a break. You shouldn’t force yourself. This is a slow process.

 

Seek Professional Help

What if these self-help methods don’t make a dent in your fear of dancing? There’s nothing to be worried about.  Consult trained professionals who can help with chorophobia treatment. A psychiatrist or therapist will find out if you have this phobia. Once that’s determined, you may be offered several options to reduce the symptoms.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a form of therapy where an individual alters their thoughts to achieve the desired patterns. This strategy is effective and has a lasting effect on the individual’s behavior. Unlike other forms of therapy, CBT doesn’t focus on resolving past traumas or memories. Rather, it focuses more on the problems being faced in the present.

Mindfulness Therapy

MBSR, or mindfulness-based stress reduction, is a form of therapy used with those who suffer from severe anxiety, stress, depression, and low self-esteem. The therapist reduces interruptions caused by the things around you. Instead, you are taught to pay close attention to your thoughts and increase self-awareness. Being self-aware helps to lessen the effects of chorophobia.

Meditation

Here, the therapist helps the client to remove all negative and random thoughts from the mind. The individual is asked to meditate when they’re invaded with negative thoughts. The client is asked to concentrate on things that have no emotional baggage. For example, breathing. Concentrating on breathing patterns helps the individual to calm down and focus on their thoughts effectively.

Exposure Therapy

For some people, immersion or exposure therapy does the trick. The idea is to get used to dancing so that you no longer fear it. The process is gradual, from visualizing dancing to being asked to dance for a few minutes. What’s key is that this therapy is controlled by a professional who can see your reaction and adjust the treatment accordingly.

How to Avoid Chorophobia

To avoid a fear of dancing, your first step should be to accept that you have this phobia. Try to understand what’s causing your fear. Only then can you address the problem directly. Remain calm and work towards avoiding the fear. Be patient and take small steps to achieve your goal. Exercising, meditating, and expressing yourself can help you.

Remember to stay calm and try not to overthink it. Don’t allow the fear to reside in your head. Set your expectations low, as change won’t happen instantly.

Let’s Conclude

It can be exhilarating to dance during a party or special event. There’s also a special thrill to dancing on stage and bowing to thunderous applause. While they may seem out of reach when you have chorophobia, don’t give up hope.

Believe in yourself and have faith in the process. You can unleash your inner Fred Astaire in no time and start dancing your heart out. All you need is determination, guidance, and encouragement.

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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