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Body Phobias

Amychophobia – The Fear of Scratches

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The Fear of Scratches or Being Scratched

Have you ever avoided petting a cute dog or cat because you were afraid of being scratched? Do you get so anxious at the thought of being scratched that it distracts your thoughts?

Has the thought of someone or something scratching you kept you up at night?

If you identify with any of those scenarios, you may have a phobia of being scratched. But you can overcome your fear of scratches by first understanding how your fear developed. Once you know the answer, you’ll be able to find  ways to cope with this fear and lead a normal, happy life.

What Is the Fear of Scratches?

What does amychophobia mean? It is the fear of scratches, or being scratched, lacerated, or clawed. If you suffer from this fear, you may experience extreme anxiety at the thought of being scratched. Sometimes your stress can be so intense that it can cause you to experience severe symptoms such as panic attacks.

You may not understand what exactly you are feeling when you have these symptoms. Your anxiety may cause you to miss out on special family moments like owning a pet or even going near one.

Amychophobia Causes

Most phobias don’t have a common cause and vary from one person to the next. To know what brought about this fear in you, you’ll have to travel memory lane.

Any sort of emotionally painful moment in the past related to scratching, lacerations, or being clawed may have caused this condition. If you can recall this, that may be the root of your phobia.

Another cause of amychophobia, or any phobia, is genetics. Ask a family member if they know of anyone else in the immediate family who may struggle with phobias.

You may not be able to pinpoint a cause based on past experience or genetics alone. But don’t worry. Scientists believe that both genetics and environment can cause a phobia to develop. Perhaps analyzing these two factors will shed some light on the origins of your phobia.

Some Things You Need to Know about Amychophobia

Sometimes people relate this phobia to unbearable sounds. For example, the sound of fingernails scraping the blackboard. That fear or dislike is not amychophobia. The dislike of that sound is considered a disgust. There is an acoustic resonance that takes place because of the shape of the ear canal. Certain frequencies are amplified. That’s what causes this feeling of disgust in most.

If you suffer from a fear of being scratched, you may find yourself avoiding socializing or owning a pet in an attempt to prevent being scratched by someone or something. But this may worsen your symptoms in the long term. In addition, actively avoiding your fear suggests that you are justifying it.

Symptoms of Amychophobia

Just like any other phobia, you may experience an array of symptoms from generalized anxiety to panic. Those with mild amychophobia may be able to deal with minor scratches or cuts, but those with severe cases of this phobia might experience panic attacks. If you believe you have amychophobia, you may have some of the following physical and psychological symptoms.

Amychophobia may cause the following physical symptoms:

  • Hot flushes or chills
  • Rapid heartbeat
  • Pain or tightness in the chest
  • Dizziness
  • Numbness in the body
  • Ringing in the ears
  • A rise in blood pressure

Amychophobia can cause the following psychological symptoms:

  • Extreme anxiety
  • Fear of losing control
  • Fear of dying
  • Anger, mood swings
  • Difficulty with focus
  • Fear of harm
  • Withdrawing from others

A person who has amychophobia may experience one or all of the symptoms listed above, depending on the severity of the phobia.

Ways You Can Deal with Amychophobia

Just like any other phobia, amychophobia is irrational and sometimes exaggerated. Some sufferers may be able to cope with amychophobia and lead a normal life. However, if you experience severe anxiety at the thought of scratches, consider seeking professional help.

When to Seek Treatment

Many people don’t need treatment to lead a normal life. They opt to simply avoid the source of their fear. However, you can’t always avoid certain phobias, like amychophobia. Entirely avoiding situations involving scratches is not possible and doing so is detrimental to your mental wellbeing.

So when exactly should you visit a doctor? The points below will help you answer this question:

You should visit your doctor if:

  • Your panic attacks have become frequent
  • It has become impossible for you to lead a normal life
  • You get anxious in public spaces, especially involving animals
  • You are struggling to cope with your phobia
  • Your symptoms are getting worse every day

How can treatment help you?

  • Treatment will help you analyze your thoughts
  • It will help you recognize unhealthy patterns
  • You will have a place where you can share without being judged
  • It will teach you how to deal with uncomfortable situations
  • It will help you gain control over your thoughts

Amychophobia Treatment Options

Self-Help: How Can You Help Yourself?

While you may find several professional treatment options, self-help is always a good place to start in dealing with a phobia or any kind of fear. First, try to convince yourself that scratches are not that harmful. If you remind yourself of this repeatedly, your mind will begin to believe.

Relaxation

Relaxation helps control anxiety not just during panic attacks but in other stressful situations you may face. You’ll be able to make better decisions. In addition, deep breathing, yoga, and other relaxation techniques can help ease your physical symptoms.

Meditation

Meditation helps by soothing your nerves and relaxing you. Meditation will help you regain control of your feelings and reduce the frequency of your panic attacks. In addition, you can use meditation to train your mind not to dwell on your fears but to live in the present moment. This is helpful because most phobias are related to past experiences in our lives.

Additional Self-Help Tips

  • Learn to take control of your feelings
  • Join a support group
  • Share what you feel with your partner
  • Desensitize yourself
  • Challenge your negative thoughts
  • Practice breathing techniques

Professional Help

Cognitive Therapy

Cognitive therapy attempts to change how we perceive situations, because we act according to our perceptions. This therapy will prepare you to deal with those times when you’re actually exposed to your phobia. It will help you learn how to control your emotions and make sense of what is real and what is harmful to you.

Exposure Therapy

This type of therapy involves gradually exposing you to your fears over time. The goal is to desensitize you to your triggers and eventually overcome them.

No treatment guarantees a cure from phobia. These forms of treatment are designed to gradually help you better manage your fear so that you can lead a healthy, fear-free life. And remember, always seek a professional opinion before starting any type of treatment.

How to Cope with Amychophobia

The fear of scratches may not be a common phobia, but that doesn’t change who you are. Perhaps you don’t feel confident talking about your fear in front of others, so start with a trusted family member. Gradually work your way up to a friend or therapist who will understand and support you.

Conclusion
By managing your fear of scratches, you can learn to lead a more normal life. Work toward growing more comfortable with pets or situations where there’s a risk of being scratched. Remind yourself that it isn’t harmful. With a little help, maybe one day you’ll own a pet of your own.

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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