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Body Phobias

Ankylophobia – Fear of Joint Immobility

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Decoding the Fear of Joint Immobility

Does the fear of injuring your joints keep you from going out for a run? Or do you find it nauseating to look or think about injuries to the joints and bones?

The meaning of ankylophobia is a fear of ankylosis, which is the stiffening of the joints. If you’ve been avoiding every thought, discussion, or any form of exposure to risk of joint injury, then you may be suffering from ankylophobia.

No matter how crippling the situation might be, overcoming the fear of joint immobility is possible.

How does one begin?

Start by learning about its causes, symptoms, and possible treatments.

 

Ankylophobia Causes

Ankylophobia is typically rooted in a traumatizing event in the past. The triggering event may not have anything to do with an injury. It can include an experience where the patient witnessed someone else’s joint injury in person, in a film, or news report.

The phobia may also have no definitive cause.

While rare, some people may never recognize their ankylophobia due to a lack of awareness or exposure to triggers. However, not knowing about it and avoidance can worsen its symptoms.

People who are at a higher risk of developing this phobia might also:

  • Get upset easily
  • Have adrenal insufficiency
  • Have a tendency towards fear and anxiety
  • Have a genetic predisposition to mental illness
  • Have been exposed to certain environmental factors

 

What You Need to Know about Ankylophobia

The definition of ankylophobia classifies it as a simple anxiety disorder but the condition can also develop into a complex phobia.

A person who fears the immobility of joints without it impacting their daily life can have a simple phobia. It becomes complex when the fear starts affecting their daily life and activities.

Note that being disgusted by joint injuries does not necessarily mean you have a phobia. A phobia may result in panic attacks that have a rapid onset and are largely based on irrational thoughts that cause fear. These responses also last for more than six months.

 

Symptoms of Ankylophobia

Ankylophobia might top the irrational fears list but its symptoms are similar to other types of phobias.

Symptoms can vary based on the type of stimulus and other environmental factors. Most will range from mild to severe and may include a combination of the manifestations listed below.

Physical Symptoms

  • Headaches
  • Dizziness
  • Dry mouth
  • Difficulty breathing
  • Excessive sweating
  • Trembling
  • Nausea
  • Pain or tightness in the chest
  • Disorientation
  • Numbness or pins and needles
  • Hot or cold flashes
  • Increase in blood pressure
  • Tachycardia
  • A need to go to the toilet

Psychological Symptoms

  • Extreme anxiety
  • Fear of death or dying
  • Feelings of dread
  • Irritability, anger, or mood swings
  • Fear of losing control
  • Confusion or difficulty concentrating
  • Fear of harm or illness
  • Feeling sad or hopeless
  • Feeling disconnected
  • Feelings of guilt, shame, or self-blame
  • Withdrawing from society
  • Depression

 

Treatment

How to Deal with Ankylophobia

Fears such as the fear of immobility of the joints do not commonly obstruct one’s daily lifestyle. Coming across triggers is also avoidable for most people. This may push patients to simply avoid facing the fear itself as a means of dealing with it.

But this isn’t a healthy way to handle the problem. In the long run, it puts you at risk of developing a more intense reaction to the fear stimulus.

While no singular solution can end the fear of joint immobility, there are treatments you can use in combination with each other to better manage the fear.

 

 

Professional Treatment

Professional treatments can help you deal with the root cause of your phobia instead of simply avoiding it.

Some of the most common treatments professionals use to treat ankylophobia are cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), talking therapy, and antidepressant medications.

CBT is a form of therapy that focuses on thoughts and their influence on behavior. It is the most commonly used technique in the treatment of anxiety disorders.

A CBT treatment plan is similar to talking therapies. It may involve working with a mental health counselor across multiple sessions to understand the negative thought patterns behind the phobia.

CBT is impactful in treating phobias, anxiety disorders, and even depression. It is useful regardless of the severity of your phobia.

While prescription medications are common in the treatment of anxiety disorders, they may be used in combination with other measures.

Self-Help

Taking care of oneself is as important as professional treatments. Some of the common self-help strategies prioritize personal health to put a person’s mind and body in the right condition for healing.

Self-help strategies that work best with CBT therapies include meditation, exercise, and dietary changes.

All of these can work wonders at reducing stress and keeping it at bay in daily life. The calmer you are, the less cortisol (a stress hormone) flows through your bloodstream, ultimately keeping you from shifting into panic mode.

Regular aerobic exercise also increases the production of feel-good chemicals in the brain. Becoming physically fit can help if you’re feeling overwhelmed whenever you encounter a trigger.

Meditation can prove useful if you’re finding it challenging to regulate your emotions and thoughts.

Lastly, diet plays a major role in supporting your body through the changes. The first step you must take is to incorporate more healthy food into your diet. The second step is to cut down on caffeine, artificial sugars, processed foods, etc.

 

Learning How to Cope with Ankylophobia

It is easier to cope with a fear of immobility of the joints than it is to cope with some of the more common phobias, especially if your environment doesn’t expose you to triggers.

Regardless, once you do come across a trigger, it may become hard to ignore the phobia or postpone treatment.

If you want to commit to the treatment process, you’ll need to learn some coping mechanisms along the way. While self-help and professional counseling do most of the work, you should also consider getting support from family and friends.

A solid support system can help you stay on the right track and even encourage you to move past obstacles in your journey to recovery.

 

Learning about Ankylophobia Is the First Step to Healing

If you’re reading this, then you’ve overcome the most difficult obstacle in your journey to wellness: learning about ankylophobia and deciding to face it head-on.

With the right support, professional direction, and determination, overcoming ankylophobia is possible. Your fear can be managed and eradicated with time, patience, and consistent effort.

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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