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The Fear of Short People
Body Phobias

Achondroplasiaphobia – The Fear of Short People

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Fear of Short People: Achondroplasiaphobia

Does dreaming about the dwarfs in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs cause you to wake up in a cold sweat?

What feeling do you get when seeing little people? Is it fear, anxiety, disgust, or a mixture of all three?

Do you move in the opposite direction at the first sight of short people? Well, don’t worry, you’re not alone.

You may be wondering if achondroplasiaphobia is a common phobia. The truth is, it’s as common and prevalent as any other phobia. Fear of little people can be debilitating, but there are ways you can overcome it.

First, let’s try to understand why you fear short people. What is it about them you are afraid of? What triggered this fear? Once you know what’s causing your fear, it will become easier to overcome it.

 

Achondroplasiaphobia Is a Legitimate Fear

There are many names for the fear of short people, or achondroplasiaphobia, such as lollypopguildophobia and nanosophobia. It can start as a mere discomfort at the sight of dwarfs and go on to become a full-blown anxiety disorder. People experiencing midget phobia refuse to visit shopping malls, circuses, fairs, casinos, and any place where they might encounter a small person.

Many are not even aware that a phobia of midgets exists, and so they believe that those with achondroplasiaphobia are simply rude to short people. Lindsay Lohan is one actor who is known to fear dwarfs.

The technical term for fear of short people, achondroplasiaphobia, comes from the medical term “achondroplasia,” a disorder of the skeletal system. This disorder causes stunted growth, which leads to dwarfism.

What Causes Achondroplasiaphobia?

Stereotypical Notions

Many times, achondroplasiaphobia stems from the stereotypical movies and books which depict dwarfs in unconventional ways. Let’s take Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for instance.

Although the seven dwarfs are kind and loving, books and movies portray them to be living in forests isolated from society. Such depictions can mislead people and establish incorrect notions about those who are shorter than average.

Traumatic Childhood Experiences

Fear of little people can also occur because of traumatic experiences during one’s childhood. For example, children might have had encounters with dwarfs who mistreated them.

Superstitious Beliefs

Many who have a fear of small people believe that dwarfs are aliens from different planets. This belief comes from the concept of referring to martians as “little green dwarfs.”

Mental Health Disorders

The phobia of dwarfs is also associated with other mental health disorders, such as anxiety and ADHD.

Perceptions

In the eyes of many, dwarfs appear abnormal due to their disproportionately large faces, short stature, and hunched backs.

Achondroplasiaphobia Symptoms

Achondroplasiaphobics may experience the following physical symptoms:

  • Dry mouth
  • Fast and irregular breathing
  • Disturbed sleep due to nightmares about dwarfs
  • Increased sweating
  • Hysterical screaming
  • Wanting to flee at the sight of dwarfs
  • Physical discomfort at even the slightest mention of dwarfs

Achondroplasiaphobics may also experience the following mental and emotional symptoms:

  • Repeated anxiety attacks
  • Intense, crippling fear
  • A sense of guilt from being accused of being rude to dwarfs

What Can You Do to Help Yourself Overcome Achondroplasiaphobia?

Educate Yourself

The first step to overcoming this fear is to educate yourself about short people. Dwarfism is a medical condition with genetic predispositions. Height does not determine character. Not all dwarfs are evil, in the same way that not all men of average stature are good.

Talk to A Friend

Talk to someone you trust. Having them listen to your fears will help alleviate them. If you aren’t able to talk, write down your emotions on a piece of paper.

Lifestyle Changes

In case you experience repeated panic attacks, a few lifestyle changes may help. These changes include regular exercise, a balanced diet, smoking cessation, and cutting down on alcohol consumption. There are many breathing exercises and relaxation techniques you can follow as well to help you cope better with your anxiety.

Support Groups

Putting yourself out there and attending support groups is beneficial. Support groups will help you feel that you’re not the only one living with this phobia. You can also join online support groups if you don’t want to leave your home.

Self-Help Resources

Use the various self-help resources available on the internet. Different authors have written numerous books on how to cope with phobias. Also, some organizations conduct courses for specific phobias; you can look them up, too.

Seek Help From Professionals

If self-help is not enough to ease your anxiety about short people, the next step is to seek help from a mental health professional. Trying to cope with this phobia alone can be difficult. It is so much easier if you receive help from a certified therapist.

Professional Help to Overcome Your Achondroplasiaphobia

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the professional tools therapists use for achondroplasiaphobia treatment. CBT gradually changes the way you think about a situation. You’ll take short steps to overcome your fear. Your therapist will help you identify patterns, correlate your thoughts with your behavior, and gradually help you change the way you think. They’ll also provide you with exercises that will aid in the process.

Exposure Therapy

As the term suggests, exposure therapy is all about gradually exposing you to situations that you fear. Don’t worry, the therapy will take place in a safe and controlled environment. For instance, you may be asked to read about dwarfs, look at pictures of dwarfs, sit near a dwarf, and gradually, when you’re comfortable, you’ll be able to talk with one.

Through exposure therapy, you’ll begin to have more control over your fear. This method of treatment can also be carried out using virtual tools. However, this is still at its testing phase.

Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy involves putting patients in a state of hypnosis or deep relaxation. This allows the therapist to understand your subconscious thoughts, memories, and fears. All of these will later be dealt with individually. Be sure to seek out state-licensed and accredited therapists.

Eye Movement, Desensitization, and Reprocessing

This method of therapy is used for those whose fear is related to a traumatic incident in the past. Your therapist may ask you to visualize a fearful circumstance while you use eye movements to calm your responses. This aids in desensitizing traumatic memories. Gradually, you’ll be given real-life exposure to help you overcome your fear.

Should You Avoid Your Fear?

Avoiding your fears will only make them worse. The best thing to do is to seek help as soon as possible. In the meantime, if a situation becomes overwhelming, think of the present rather than the steps you need to take in the future. The following are a few things you can do when you’re feeling overwhelmed.

Take Some Time Out

Take steps to calm yourself in the midst of a fearful situation. Physical exercise and breathing techniques will help you do this.

Visualize Your Happy Place

Close your eyes and imagine being in a place where you feel safe, happy, and calm. You can imagine cuddling with your puppy or hugging your best friend. Let your positive emotions come to the surface.

Look at the Evidence

It helps to challenge your fears by collecting evidence. How many dwarfs do you know who are dangerous? By thinking logically, you’ll be able to fight your fears.

Trust Yourself and the Process

Understand that you are not alone. With the right help, overcoming your fear will not be as scary as it seems. Trust yourself, your therapist, and the process. It’s time you put your fear of short people to rest.

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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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