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Ombrophobia – Fear of Rain Phobia
Animal Phobias

Ombrophobia – Fear of Rain Phobia

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Ombrophobia – Fear of Rain Phobia

Do you hyperventilate at the sight of rain clouds? Does the sound of rain send you into panic mode?

Are you scared of being caught outside during a heavy downpour? Do you refuse to step outside the house during the rainy season?

It’s normal to seek shelter when rain approaches. However, if you experience unexplainable terror when the sky turns gloomy, you may have a phobia of rain.

The fear of rain is so common that it has a specific term. The fear of rain is called ombrophobia. There’s a reason why ghost tales are often set during a rainy night.

Although irrational, the fear of rain is real. You’re not alone if you experience this type of anxiety. With the right therapy, you can learn to overcome it.

Everything You Need to Know about Ombrophobia

Ombrophobia refers to an extreme fear of rain. It is derived from the Greek word ombros, which stands for “a storm of rain,” and phobos, which means “fear”.

What is ombrophobia related to? Other weather-specific phobias include:

Sure, seeking shelter is normal during a rainy day. And exercising caution is to be expected if you live in a country that experiences typhoons or hurricanes. However, people with ombrophobia have extreme reactions to even the mere threat of rain.

What do you call a person who is scared of rain? An ombrophobe is a person who can’t stand the rain.

What Causes Ombrophobia?

Ask yourself, Why do I get scared when it rains? The origins of rain anxiety can vary from person to person. People diagnosed with anxiety disorders can easily develop the fear of rain.

Age-Related Fears

Children are more prone to having a phobia of rain and thunder but tend to grow out of it over time. Storms are naturally scary for children. Children believe that storms are harmful and dangerous. This fear gradually fades as one grows up, and reality sinks in.
However, some people don’t get over it. Adults can also develop this phobia later on in life.

Firsthand Experience

Some people get this phobia after being stuck in a flooded house or car. The images from the incident constantly flash through their minds. No matter how much they try to forget the awful ordeal, they can’t. Past traumatic experiences trigger most phobias. Rain anxiety is no different.

News and Stories

You may have watched the news as a category 5 hurricane wiped out a city. Perhaps you read an article about how floodwaters inundated homes within minutes. Or maybe a friend shared their own traumatic experience with rain.

You could also dread the effects of heavy rain. A sudden deluge can cause property damage and loss of life. When it floods during a storm, people might drown. Entire communities are displaced because of landslides. Utilities like electricity and the internet can also fail during a storm.

Symptoms of Ombrophobia

Children and adults alike show specific symptoms which indicate their fear of rain. If you have ombrophobia, you may have some of these symptoms:

Physical Symptoms

  • Numbness
  • Increased heart rate
  • Sweating
  • Shaking and trembling when it starts to rain
  • Dizziness
  • Nausea

Mental/Emotional Symptoms

  • Monitoring weather patterns
  • Uncontrolled and excessive thoughts on rain
  • Refusing to go out
  • Panic attacks
  • Severe anxiety

Ombrophobia Symptoms in Children

  • Uncontrollable crying and screaming when it starts to rain
  • Clinging onto adults for protection
  • Shaking and trembling
  • Refusing to sleep alone
  • Asking questions like when it is going to rain next
  • Refusing to go out to play
  • Hiding under beds or locking themselves up in a closet

Treatment Options for Ombrophobia

Are you searching for recommendations for ombrophobia treatment? Both self-help and professional therapy is available for your fear of rain. Specific treatment is also available for children struggling with ombrophobia.

Self-Help Methods for Adults

Self-help methods of treatment are all about what you can do to help yourself. Adults with a phobia of rain can explore different self-help treatment options. The end goal is to recover from an abnormal fear beyond your control.

First, you need to unlearn certain beliefs and behavioral patterns, because your fear of rain is deeply rooted in your mind.

Try focusing on recovery. Let it register in your mind that your rain anxiety is irrational and should not interfere with everyday life.

Relaxation techniques like controlled breathing also work to alleviate the fear. Learn how to breathe in and out in measured breaths whenever you feel the dreadful fear grip you.

Thoughts of rain or rain itself could trigger the rain anxiety. Meditate by focusing on the good side of the rain. Allow your mind to focus on what the rain does for crops, humans, and life. Gradually, you’ll overcome your rain anxiety.

How to Treat Ombrophobia in Kids

Children with rain anxiety tend to overgrow it with time. Parents can talk with their children about their fears and help them understand that the fears are irrational. If you find that your child is still struggling with a fear of rain, seek help from a pediatric mental health professional.

Seeking Professional Treatment

Seek help from a professional if self-help tips fail to work. Therapy is a sure-fire way to treat most phobias, and the fear of rain is no different.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Acceptance and commitment therapy, or simply ACT, is based on the principle of acceptance and mindfulness strategies. ACT begins to take shape when a sufferer accepts that they are going through an abnormal fear and works to change it.

This therapy works best if you are willing to change your behavioral pattern. A professional will walk you through each stage safely to see that you recover.

Group Therapy

Group therapy involves sharing thoughts and experiences with others. It is comforting to meet and interact with people going through the same challenges as you. Others with ombrophobia can share what they’ve done to overcome their fear. They can also discuss treatment options they’ve attempted and which ones were successful.

The truth is, speaking to someone who understands your fear is a vital aspect of therapy. With it, you can take major steps toward recovery.

Exposure Therapy

Exposure therapy involves gradual exposure to the very thing causing your fear. A professional can tell the severity of your anxiety and will work around that to safely expose you to rain.

If you’re the type that runs to hide in a closet when it starts to rain, the first step is to avoid hiding. After you can comfortably put hiding behind you, go outside when it’s raining, even if it means watching the rain from a distance. Gradual steps will take you to full recovery.

How to Cope with Ombrophobia

Rain is unpredictable. Despite the advances in weather prediction, people are still caught unaware by storms. On the other hand, rain is also essential for sustaining human life. We can’t live without water, so you must address this fear.

Coping with a phobia isn’t easy. It calls for hard work and persistence, but it will be worth it. Look into how to overcome a fear of rain and see which treatment options might work for you.

In Conclusion

Fear stems from a specific trigger. Learn what triggers your fear. That’s the only way to establish how to overcome it.

Don’t allow a fear of rain to interfere with your everyday life. While there’s not much you can do to control the rain, you can control your response to this natural phenomenon. Eventually, you might even catch yourself singing in the rain.

Stories Submitted by Our Readers

Fear of Rain

Hi, I’m a middle-aged woman from Europe. My fear of rain developed from my fear of leaks. When I was a child, we had a leak that terrified me. I still played in the rain and was not afraid. The fear became stronger when I was a teenager. Our hot water tank was upstairs, and it blew, sending water down into my bedroom and the ceiling. I was home alone, and this fear brought on a huge panic attack. I did still enjoy the rain and hearing it pitter-patter.

As an adult, I was still doing okay with the rain, only worried about leaks. We moved into a new home after struggles and heartbreak for years. This is when the fear began. Our new home had a roof leak that we did not know about until a downpour. This, I guess, was a trigger. I had a meltdown. I began no longer loving my new home and constantly checked the weather for fear of rain coming our way. Even out shopping, if I heard rain hit the roof, I would have a full-blown panic attack.

I have not looked into getting help, but after learning there are others that have this fear, maybe I can get up the nerve (as long as it’s not raining).

Holly

SUBMIT YOUR STORY

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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