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fear of gods
Beliefs

Zeusophobia – The Fear of God

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Zeusophobia or the Excessive Fear of God or Gods

Did you know that zeusophobia is one of the few phobias that come from the name of a person? Zeus might be fictional, but the extreme fear he inspires is quite real.

Are you terrified by the existence of a god or gods? Do you live in fear of being punished for your sins?

Do you dread the thought of going to church? You may have zeusophobia, an extreme phobia of god or gods. Be assured that no matter how irrational this fear is, you can recover from it. Let’s take a closer look at its causes and the available treatments.

What Is Zeusophobia?

If you’ve ever wondered What phobia is the fear of God? then you’ve come to the right place. Zeusophobia is derived from the Greek name Zeus, the name of the king of Greek gods in Olympus. The word phobos means “fear.” Zeusophobia may manifest both as illogical fear and severe disgust.

Some people have an aversion to anything related to a divine power or religious affairs. Since they may find them offensive, they want nothing to do with them. Others live in terror of deities. They fear they may anger the gods because of their behavior. In many cultures, religions enforce law and order. These laws keep people from actions or ideas that the gods consider forbidden.

Take note that zeusophobia is not the same as ecclesiophobia, which is an extreme fear of the church. Another related condition is theophobia or God phobia, which is rarely talked about, but is widespread.

fear of gods

Zeusophobia Causes

Most social anxiety disorders or phobias are not triggered by a specific cause. The intense fear of God and religion is no different. Religions are different in what they believe and stand for. They do have one thing in common: a deity or pantheon is usually involved. Most religions have a god who punishes sinners with everlasting fire and forgives when sinners repent.

There is also a lot of belief surrounding eternity. Where do people go after death? Will people meet after this life and still know each other? Religion tries to explain what happens to people who have passed away. While this may comfort some, the idea can be quite frightening to contemplate for people with zeusophia.

Childhood Religious Instruction

Why have you developed god phobia? Look back at what you learned when you were young. Christians attend Sunday school classes while Catholics are taught catechism. These teachings sometimes emphasized the existence of heaven and hell. Heaven was purported as peaceful and full of love, angels, and God himself. Hell was presented as a place of torment and doom.

Each child who behaved right was commended and told that they would go to heaven. Everyone else whose behavior was unacceptable was reprimanded. These “sinners” were told to change unless they wanted to go to hell and burn forever. Could it be that you took these Sunday school lessons a little too seriously?

Traumatic Episodes

Have you ever lost a loved one? As a child, you may have been told that God took your family member away when they died. For a child, this doesn’t make sense nor seem fair. Most religions present God as a loving being who gives whatever his followers asked of him. It can be hard to digest that this same God took away a loved one. You may never have come to terms with it. You may have begun hating God, religion, and everything linked with these two. You have never “forgiven” God for taking away your loved one.

Committing a Sin or Crime

Maybe you committed an act that’s considered evil by your faith. You may have stolen from someone or cursed God. To this day, you live with guilt and self-condemnation. You feel like you were not forgiven for the sinful act and never will be. In addition, you fear being punished by the higher being.

Genetics

You could have inherited the fear from your parents or extended family. Perhaps there is a history of mental illness or anxiety disorders in your family. If you can establish there is such history in your family, work around that. If you have social anxiety disorders, you are more likely to develop zeusophobia. Do you also have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)? People who suffer from OCD are more likely to suffer from phobias, including zeusophobia.

Symptoms of Zeusophobia

Signs that show you could have a fear of gods phobia are divided into physical and mental/emotional. If you’ve seen any of these physical signs, you could have zeusophobia.

Physical Symptoms

  • Social withdrawal
  • Increased heart rate when interacting with others
  • Avoiding the topic on god and religions
  • Sweating profusely while in church
  • Avoiding going to church or religious meeting places
  • Easily angered

Mental/Emotional Symptoms

  • Uncontrolled anxiety whenever you think of God
  • Intense fear of god and religion
  • Feeling unworthy
  • Experiencing guilt, sadness, and shame
  • An intense feeling of hopelessness
  • Lack of concentration
  • Being obsessed with a sense that the world is coming to an end
  • Having mood swings
  • Anxiety when you are supposed to attend functions like weddings

Zeusophobia patients may also experience panic attacks from time to time. In the worst of cases, a patient may require hospitalization.

Self-Help Practices for Zeusophobia

While there are professional zeusophobia treatment methods you can explore, self-care tips are practical as well. Before talking to a therapist, research what you can do by yourself and for yourself.

Anxiety is emotional and can cause us to overreact to situations of fear. Fear stems from a specific trigger, and whatever triggered your fear is what you need to examine. Beliefs, ideas, and opinions are not necessarily facts.

Start by forgiving yourself. Many religions teach on God’s forgiving nature. Ask for forgiveness from God according to your religion’s practices and beliefs.

Talk to Someone You Trust

Whether it’s a family member or a friend, confide in someone. Say everything as it is without fear. This means you need to talk with someone who will listen without judgement. The goal is to be understood.

Seeking Professional Treatment

Professional treatment incorporates a mix of therapy and meditation.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT works to alter thought patterns and beliefs. A therapist will walk you through changing your patterns of thought and pre-existing ideas. It may take time, but progress is progress, no matter how little. Negative thinking patterns give rise to opposing responses. Positive thinking patterns result in positive responses.

Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness meditation is applied in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT.) In DBT, coping skills and treatment options are explored and shared. Mindfulness meditation is applied in a group setting by getting you out of your comfort zone. Meditation practices include relaxation techniques and positive reinforcement. Group members may focus on something as simple as drinking warm tea. While doing so, you may be asked to focus on the tea’s smell and taste.

How to Avoid It Altogether

Try as much as you can to work on your god phobia on your own. You alone understand what you really feel and go through. Remind yourself that beliefs, opinions, and ideas are not necessarily facts, no matter how popular and widespread. Fears affect your social life, well-being, and productivity. Realizing that a barrier has been placed in your life by an irrational fear will hopefully activate you into working to change.

Conclusion

Religion is not inherently bad. It continues to promote virtues and reject vices. The roles religious organizations play in our society cannot be overlooked. Such responsibilities include peacekeeping operations and calling out the government for unfair treatment. Simply put, religion and the idea of a higher being keep individuals and society rooted. While religion is good, too many anxious thoughts about it are unnecessary. Phobia of god-like figures is not the same as the usual fear of a god. Seek to explore the truth from religious books about how far your religion goes and how to live with it.

Stories Submitted by Our Readers

Fear of God

I was raised by my grandparents who are Catholic. I am not in any specific religion currently. Due to my training, I was very scared to have thoughts that might be considered sins. I thought God would punish me in some way for my bad thoughts.

I do not know for sure that God exists, but fear of the unknown is normal. However, my fear had me living in constant fear. I even decided to get baptized, so I would not go to hell or be punished in any fashion.

I believe that I am in charge of my life, but I have even talked with psychics to see if they can help me with a spell, so I can get the curse off me for my thoughts. I know that I should not be afraid, but I still fear what God will do as I do not believe in the Catholic way or for that matter any Christian way.

Brent

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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