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Body Phobias

Albuminurophobia — Fear of Kidney Disease

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Diagnosing the Fear of Kidney Disease

Do you worry you may develop kidney disease? Does talk of a relative or friend with kidney disease leave you trembling and breaking into a sweat?

You just might have albuminurophobia.

So what is albuminurophobia? It’s the fear of kidney disease.

It’s one of those uncommon, irrational fears that, although rare, can cause severe distress and anxiety in people who have it.

People have plenty of questions run through their minds when they first discover this phobia. What causes the fear? How you can identify if you have it? What are the symptoms, the origins of the fear, and so on?

The good news is, like all phobias, albuminurophobia is treatable. Being aware that you have the fear and exploring the available treatment options can help you lead a normal life.

What Is Albuminurophobia?

The fear of developing kidney disease is called albuminurophobia. Anyone who goes through this phobia has the underlying fear and anxiety of developing any condition that may affect the kidneys.

Sure, the development of the disease can send them into a frenzy of terror. But just thinking about having kidney disease is enough to send chills down their spine.

The term albuminurophobia is the combination of two words—albuminuria, the presence of albumin protein in the urine that may indicate kidney problems, and phobia, meaning a profound aversion to an object.

Albuminurophobia Causes

There can be many reasons that lead to the origins of albuminurophobia. Usually, people who have had family members go through some mental illnesses or anxiety disorders are at a greater risk of developing a phobia.

Certain environmental factors or an emotionally painful or traumatic experience in the past, like a failed kidney operation, or the development of health issues due to a weak kidney, can also lead to albuminurophobia.

Sometimes, even witnessing a loved one experience kidney disorder or kidney disease can cause a person to develop a phobia of it, too.

Living with Albuminurophobia

Living with a phobia like albuminurophobia can have a negative impact on your life.

Even without actually being in the presence of the source of your fear, you may feel dread and fear just thinking about it. Visuals of anything related to the object of your fear may trigger a fearful response.

Performing everyday routine activities may seem out of reach. Lack of concentration, focus, and motivation can prevent you from completing even the smallest tasks. Your physical and mental well-being become affected.

Symptoms of Albuminurophobia

Most symptoms associated with albuminurophobia are similar to symptoms seen with any other phobia. Some of the psychological and physical symptoms are as follows:

Psychological Symptoms

  • Losing control over your body
  • Severe anxiety and panic
  • Self-blame and self-guilt
  • Mood swings accompanied by irritation and annoyance
  • Withdrawing and detaching from others
  • Feelings of hopelessness

Physical Symptoms

  • Sweating
  • Palpitations
  • Loss of breath
  • Cold tremors
  • Feeling dizzy
  • Choking sensation
  • Fever and tremors
  • Headaches
  • Nausea
  • Tightness in the chest
  • Hyperventilation
  • High blood pressure

Dealing with Albuminurophobia

Dealing with albuminurophobia can be difficult, but it’s not impossible. Through routes of self-help, meditation, exercise, plenty of sleep, proper food, and mindfulness, you can efficiently deal with your worst fears.

What helps in dealing with fears is acknowledging them and accepting the fact that you have them. Don’t run away from facing your worries and fears. The sooner you face the source of anxiety and terror, the sooner you’ll begin to find some ease in dealing with it.

In the event you think your phobias have heightened and you’re unable to overcome them through simple measures and routine changes, don’t shy away from seeking professional help. Professional therapy employs the proper treatment at the right time to help you overcome your fears faster.

Albuminurophobia Treatment

Although no specific treatments have been devised for albuminurophobia, there are certain general treatment methods available. Let’s take a look at them:

  1. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
    Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) helps to reduce stress and anxiety by focusing on stress-releasing techniques. The therapy helps combat stress, panic attacks, and other symptoms that result from a phobia.
  2. Exposure Therapy
    Exposure therapy helps desensitize the patient to their source of phobia—kidney disease in this case. The therapist gradually exposes the patient to certain concepts related to their fear eventually helping them overcome it.
  3. Natural Language Processing Techniques
    Natural language processing techniques are a safe and quick way to treat phobias. The therapist takes the patient through different stages of accessing their phobias in a safe and secure environment. They then help them gradually disassociate themselves from the fears.
  4. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
    Cognitive behavioral therapy helps in managing the way you think about your fears. When you face the source of your fear, it’s likely to trigger a negative response. This therapy helps you gain control over that negative emotional response.

How to Cope with Albuminurophobia

Albuminurophobia, just like any common phobia, can’t be overlooked. If you’re dealing with this phobia, there are a few coping measures you can adopt to live a more peaceful life.

  • Learn a few breathing relaxation techniques that you can employ anytime your anxiety gets the better of you.
  • Make a journal to jot down every source of your fear. If you’ve started professional therapy or are making other efforts toward dealing with your phobia, make a note of your behavioral changes. Your improving trajectory will motivate you to face your fear with confidence.
  • Try to distract your mind with a favorite hobby anytime the thought of kidney disease crosses your mind.
  • Educate yourself about your fear.
  • Make sure to acknowledge your fear each time it makes an appearance. You can also join support groups and counseling sessions to discuss your fears with people who share the same phobia.
  • High consumption of caffeine can elevate your anxiety. Avoid caffeine-infused beverages when you are on the journey of coping with fear.

Final Words on Albuminurophobia

Dealing with phobias requires a high level of commitment and perseverance. No phobia is easy to overcome; however, with patience and consistency, there is no phobia you can’t manage.

Any fear, including the fear of kidney disease, can deter you from carrying on with your everyday activities. Panic attacks, feelings of detachment, and a racing heart may make their appearance every now and then throughout your day. However, a little bit of self-love, meditation, practical therapy sessions, and the acknowledgment of your fears will help you conquer albuminurophobia in no time.

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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