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Situational Phobias

Tachophobia – The Fear of Speed

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Putting a Limit on the Fear of Speed

Being nervous in a vehicle traveling at high speed is normal, but does your fear go beyond that?

Do you find it nearly impossible to be inside a fast-moving vehicle?

Are you paralyzed by the thought of going on a roller coaster or any other fast moving thrill ride at a theme park? Does the thought of a bicycle going downhill and picking up speed terrify you?

Does the mere thought of race cars zipping around a track lead to a panic attack?

If your answer to these questions is yes, or even maybe, you are may be suffering from tachophobia, the excessive fear of speed.

It can be difficult to deal with the terror of getting inside a car, train, or plane. Maybe the simple rumbling of vehicles passing by your house can make you feel anxious.

For those with a serious case of tachophobia even a brisk walk can make your heart pound more than any basic exercise should. This is an extreme example, but may be real for someone with tachophobia.

The irrational fear of moving fast or even seeing objects moving quickly can severely limit your lifestyle. It’s time to put in the self-reflection and the work needed to gradually overcome your fear.

What Is Tachophobia?

Tachophobia originates from the Greek words tachos, meaning “speed,” and phobos, meaning “deep dread.” It is an irrational and extreme fear of speed.  Tachophobia is a specific fear and is included under the umbrella of anxiety disorders in the DSM-V.

While extreme speed is scary for many people, tachophobics fear even walking or running fast. It can result in symptoms of anxiety such as a panic attack.

Sometimes even the mere thought of moving quickly may lead to strong feelings of anxiety and dread. You may find it almost impossible to be in a fast-moving car, a boat, a plane, or any form of transportation that moves faster than walking. You may also be triggered by seeing fast-moving objects.

Tachophobia makes day-to-day life difficult. You may have to live within walking distance of your home to avoid getting inside a moving vehicle. If there are no nearby restaurants or grocery stores, all of your necessities may need to be delivered.

Creating and maintaining relationships may also be difficult if you can’t go anywhere that isn’t within walking distance.

What Causes the Fear of Speed?

Tachophobia may result from a lack of sense of control where fast-moving objects seem chaotic or erratic. But this isn’t the only reason why people develop this phobia.

As yet, there are no confirmed causes of tachophobia. But here are some factors that may contribute to it:

Genetics

Some psychology experts say this phobia may be attributed to a person’s genetic makeup and childhood environment. Both factors play important roles in the development of the disorder.

People with a history of mental illness in their family may have a greater chance of developing tachophobia because of the genetic predisposition for anxiety and obsessive disorders.

Trauma

Apart from family history, a traumatic event may have occurred leading to the development of tachophobia.

Were you traumatized after losing a parent or loved one in a fatal car crash caused by speeding? Were you yourself in some type of crash, and now you can’t get back in a moving vehicle? These occurrences are more than enough to sow the seeds of irrational fear.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of research on such phobias as tachophobia. Determining how or why it develops can be difficult.

What Are Common Tachophobia Symptoms?

Like other phobias, those with tachophobia tend to experience anxiety when they encounter their fear or even think of it.

Phobias appear in different ways, but here are some common symptoms:

Mental/Emotional Symptoms

  • Avoiding places where they might see anything fast-moving (traffic, car racing, amusement parks)
  • Deteriorating relationships because of the inability to travel
  • Experiencing anxiety while merely thinking about moving quickly
  • Intrusive thoughts
  • Panic while watching movie or TV scenes that involve fast vehicles
  • Refusing to get into a car, bus, train, plane, or any other moving vehicle
  • Refusing to go anywhere that isn’t within walking distance

Physical Symptoms

  • Chest pain
  • Difficulty breathing
  • Increased heart rate
  • Muscle tension
  • Nausea
  • Numbness
  • Shaking
  • Sweating

Potential Tachophobia Treatments

While people with tachophobia may feel some brief relief when they avoid fast-moving objects, their condition may worsen in the long run if they continue believing that speed is something to be feared and avoided.

The treatment of any illness or disease begins by discovering the root cause if possible. After that, there are a number of self-help and professional treatment options available to help you overcome your fear of speed.

Self-Help Options

Meditation and Mindfulness

When you feel the fear of speed creeping in, consciously apply simple relaxation techniques like meditation and deep breathing. Practice mindfulness by investigating the root cause of your fear and reversing your negative associations with it.

Physical Activity

Simple exercise can reduce stress and anxiety. You can boost your endorphin levels and focus on something else in the meantime. Cardio and strength training can help you feel more centered and able to deal with your fears.

Professional Help for Tachophobia

Exposure Therapy

Exposure therapy involves being exposed to the source of fear to make the triggering factor ineffective over time. Work with an experienced therapist to ensure that this is the proper treatment for you and that you will not be exposed to too much too soon.

The ultimate goal is for you to cope with the exposure to speed until it leads to little to no irrational anxiety.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

DBT is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy meant for people struggling with emotion regulation. It centers on mindfulness and acceptance of experiences.

The treatment begins with understanding and acknowledging your irrational fear without judging your emotional response to certain situations. You will learn to observe your emotions and identify your triggers, which will help you develop mechanisms to alter the feelings that are not helpful.

With DBT, you can learn to act opposite to what your irrational fear urges you to do. Your emotion regulation skills will help you change your reaction to your triggers.

Medication

In extreme cases of tachophobia, patients may be administered anti-anxiety medication after consultation with a medical professional.

Medication can help reduce the intensity of physical symptoms. However, taking medication alone is not a treatment for phobia.

Coping with Tachophobia

If you are diagnosed with a phobia, seek treatment. Overcoming phobias can be difficult, but it’s not impossible.

Don’t be afraid or embarrassed about seeking help. The right treatment can help you learn to manage your fears and lead a productive and fulfilling life.

The Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) is a great resource for those seeking help. They offer helpful resources for locating a therapist, along with a range of talks on how to overcome specific phobias.

Final Thoughts
Phobias are a source of genuine distress for many individuals. Luckily, treatment is available. You just have to be willing to get to the root of your fears and seek the help you need.

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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