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Beliefs

Apeirophobia – Fear of Infinity/Forever

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What Comes After Forever? A Scary Question for Some.

 

Scared of infinity? Is there a phobia for the fear of infinity? What is fear of infinity or the fear of endless space called?

Why, yes, there is an official phobia for the excessive fear of infinity or eternity. It’s called apeirophobia.

Forever is a beautiful place to be.

Does that quote make you feel uneasy? While many might agree with the sentiment, there’s a fraction of us who are terrified of the idea.

Does the idea of the infinite space between the galaxies or the never-ending value of Pi make you uncomfortable?

What lies beyond space or the universe? A universe in a universe never-ending? These perplexing questions can cause misery for some. If you’re one of them, you may suffer from apeirophobia.

Many religions prescribe to the idea of eternal life after death. This idea of eternal life is unconvincing to those suffering from apeirophobia, or the fear of infinity. These individuals have a difficult time grasping the concept of infinity or the idea that something will last forever.

To some it means life’s struggles and problems will continue indefinitely, and that this drudgery will never end. The anxiety and panic that follows can be so alarming that it causes severe physical or emotional symptoms.

Life with any phobia is difficult. It affects our everyday functioning and social lives at work and with friends. A mere thought manifesting itself at any time of day can send the person into a series of anxiety, heavy breathing, numbness, and panic. However, that does not imply there is no way out of it. Every phobia can be cured or improved to such an extent that it becomes ineffective.

What Causes Apeirophobia?

How beautiful is the vast, limitless, and endless sky? Or is it? People with apeirophobia may not consider it so. In fact, some prefer life to be predictable with a full stop. Eternity is not attractive to them.

The infinity symbol, representing the concept of infinity.
Apeirophobia originates from the Greek words apeiro, meaning infinity, and phobos, meaning fear. It is a rare phobia that focuses on something abstract instead of a living being, a landscape, or a specific object. This particular phobia is linked to introspection or imagination.

Certain experiences affect our senses and make us think about the infinite. These sensory stimuli vary with each person, but some of the most common triggers are the sky, the sea, or certain numerical sequences that have no end.

Causes of Apeirophobia

Like most phobias, apeirophobia does not have a unique cause. Some experts have attributed this phobia to various genetic, social, environmental, and natural causes. The inability to have control over a situation is linked to apeirophobia.

Apeirophobia is often associated with thanatophobia or the fear of death. People with apeirophobia cannot grasp the concept of infinity and fear it because they’re unable to control it. On the other hand, people with thanatophobia can’t handle the idea of death. So these are like two sides of a coin. After all, the most well-known example of eternity is death.

Any traumatic event can give rise to phobia. If a child loses a close one and is told that they have ascended to heaven where one lives forever, the idea of not having that person anymore and having lost them “forever” can sow seeds of apeirophobia.

Such a traumatic experience may even cause them to develop obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). This constant thought of eternity turns into a plaguing concern for them, which develops into an irrational fear of eternity.

This phobia can also be a learned response. Children may learn it from parents or loved ones who display similar fears. As children reproduce the behaviors of those around them, they pick up anxieties and phobias, too. They usually pick the fear of a particular concept or object, in this case, infinity.

Genes also play a significant role in the development of anxiety and certain phobias. Being genetically predisposed to phobia makes you more susceptible to developing one. A family history of a medically diagnosed phobia, especially among the parents, increases the risk of the children acquiring the same or similar phobia.

While there are numerous possible apeirophobia causes, genetics and environment are the top causes of the condition.

Symptoms of Apeirophobia

Apeirophobia cannot be observed or measured like responses to the fear of spiders, depth, or even death, which are tangible things. Ironically, you can find more information about apeirophobia on Reddit or Quora than in research laboratories. However, that doesn’t mean it isn’t real or proven.

A phobic reaction starts when a person is exposed to the specific trigger or situation that they associate with danger. This reaction results in panic or anxiety and other symptoms. Most individuals with apeirophobia exhibit a need to keep everything under control. This is an attempt to avoid confronting the concepts of eternity or infinity or to nullify it.

Physical Symptoms

Apeirophobia can cause physical symptoms like:

  • sweating
  • rapid heartbeat
  • trembling
  • difficulty breathing
  • choking sensation
  • tightness in the chest
  • nausea
  • headaches and dizziness
  • numbness
  • dry mouth
  • urge to urinate
  • ringing ears
  • disorientation
  • increased blood pressure

Psychological Symptoms

Apeirophobia can trigger panic attacks and may cause some or all of the following psychological symptoms:

  • losing control
  • feelings of dread
  • fear of dying
  • fear of harm or illness
  • withdrawing from others
  • feeling sad or hopeless
  • feeling disconnected
  • anger
  • irritability
  • mood swings
  • anxiety and fear

How to Overcome Fear of Infinity

Self-Help – How to Be Your Own Hero

How do you overcome the fear of infinity? Once you acknowledge that you suffer from a condition requiring medical intervention, you’ve already conquered half the battle. Long gone are the times when phobias were treated as taboo and something to be embarrassed about. It’s normal to have a phobia and wise to seek treatment.

Consulting a mental health professional is the best way to resolve the issue. But along with this, you can do a few things to ease the anxiety and manage the symptoms.

Therapy takes time to manifest results. If you lack patience, practicing meditation might help calm your mind and body. Insight meditation reduces anxiety and increases focus in human beings. Such mindful activities are beneficial to everyone.

A helping hand can ease your troubles. Talk to close family and friends. An honest and deep conversation about how you feel about your condition, the process of improvement, and your thoughts can make you feel lighter. Sometimes, validation from our loved ones is all it takes to sway away the tension.

Professional Treatment for Apeirophobia

Specialists like psychologists or psychiatrists usually treat phobias with psychotherapy and sometimes medication to treat the anxiety. The need to prescribe more complex medication arises only in the most extreme cases when the patient’s normal functioning is inhibited.

There is no specialized apeirophobia treatment available. However, exposure therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy are the most widely administered forms of treatment for this condition.

Exposure therapy is one of the most common types of therapy for people suffering from almost any phobia. It works by gradually exposing the patient to their fear over time in a safe environment.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) assists in identifying connections between thoughts, feelings, and behavior. This eventually aids in the development of practical skills for dealing with anxiety-inducing situations.

You can also treat apeirophobia with hypnotherapy. One must select a certified professional with extensive experience in this field. Medications, in addition to these techniques, may be useful, especially in extreme cases.

Summing It Up

Apeirophobia can be tough to handle. Overcoming it begins with taking good care of yourself. Begin with self-help to manage your fear of infinity before it begins interfering with your daily activities.

Acknowledge, accept, and be aware of the fear. Talk to a trusted someone, practice relaxation methods, and finally, seek professional help if required.

With the right care, your fear of infinity won’t last forever!

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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