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Excessive Fear of Stairs of Slopes
Environmental Phobias

Bathmophobia – Fear of Stairs or Slopes

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The Excessive Fear of Stairs or Slopes

Do you tremble at the thought of climbing stairs? Are you more terrified of getting on the airport escalator than on a plane that flies thousands of feet in the air?

Have you ever put off replacing a broken lightbulb because of a fear of climbing ladders?

Have you seen someone fall down the stairs and hurt themselves? Or did you experience losing your footing on a slippery step? Maybe nothing has happened at all, but you still have a severe fear of falling down the stairs.

Perhaps you’re planning to move, but your fear of steep hills is keeping you from buying that dream home. Or maybe you want to put up holiday decorations but can’t because of a fear of ladders.

You feel your hands shaking, and you get an irresistible urge to run away. Your heart starts beating faster and your head swims.

You may feel embarrassed sharing your fears with someone. You’re afraid they will make fun of your stair anxiety.

What can you do about this overwhelming fear?

What Is Bathmophobia?

Bathmophobia is the extreme fear of stairs, ladders, hills, or any steep surface. Those with this phobia are deathly afraid of the possibility of falling while moving up or down a slope. Anytime you see or reach a height, you’re afraid you will lose your balance and hurt yourself.

Some have a fear of climbing stairs, which is called climacophobia. The difference is that they only feel afraid during the act of climbing. But with bathmophobia, the anxiety comes at the mere idea of climbing.

You are aware that this fear of hills or slopes is irrational, yet you still feel the tremors. And you can’t simply ignore your fear. It’s impossible to completely avoid stairs, ladders, or slopes in your daily life.

Telling yourself to stop being afraid is not the solution. But there are ways to manage this fear. Finding out why you feel this way and taking steps to overcome your fear of stairs or slopes will help you lead a happier life.

Everything You Need to Know about Bathmophobia

It’s reasonable to be cautious about falling off a ladder or down a flight of stairs. No one wants a sprain or a broken bone. But a phobia is more serious. It takes you over, and you lose control over how you react.

The National Institute of Mental Health reports that around 12.5 percent of Americans have experienced a phobia at some point in their life. It may have to do with genetics and brain chemistry. You are also more likely to develop a phobia if a close family member has dealt with phobia.

Symptoms of Bathmophobia

You may have experienced this deep fear a few times. Or, it could be so severe that you make plans to avoid going anywhere near stairs or escalators. Each individual has different symptoms when suffering from this phobia, making it challenging to diagnose.

The symptoms are either physical or mental/emotional.

Physical Symptoms

  • Panic attacks
  • Dizziness
  • Prickly sensations like being poked with pins and needles
  • Fast heart beat
  • Aches in the body
  • Dryness and stickiness in the mouth
  • Sweating a lot
  • Running out of breath
  • Tired but not being able to fall asleep

Mental/Emotional Symptoms

  • Constantly living in fear
  • Going out of the way to avoid stairs and steep surfaces
  • Fearing that someone you know will get hurt
  • Inability to relax
  • Inability to concentrate
  • A short temper
  • Feeling out of control
  • Self-disappointment

Those who have bathmophobia could experience many of these symptoms, which could get worse the closer you are to the trigger.

How Do You Deal with Bathmophobia?

Imagine you need to evacuate from a burning apartment. The only way out is down a rickety fire escape. Can you save yourself?

Consider a less dramatic but more realistic example. You just got an amazing job offer, but your new office is on the second floor of a building with no elevators. Will your fear of escalators stop you from pursuing this opportunity?

Imagining yourself in such situations helps you realize what is more important to you. But before seeking professional help, see if you can help yourself  first.

Face Your Fear

Every phobia is dealt with one step at a time. In this case, literally. You can start by going up a staircase with just a few steps. Then, slowly shift to a staircase that goes up one floor. Use the handrail for support. Or, if you have a friend, accept their help. If you can trust your friend, share your fears with them, ask them to walk with you.

Hold the Handrail

Most stairways have a guardrail or handrail that you can hold on to for support. Always keep a firm grip as you go up or down. If there isn’t one, keep your balance by putting your hand against the wall. Make sure the stairs are clear of any objects to avoid tripping. Be extra careful if the stairs seem to have missing or loose steps, as this may increase your nervousness.

Write It Down

Write down how you feel after each attempt. Each experience will get you closer to removing your phobia. If you still feel anxious, try talking to someone you trust. Ask your family physician if they could suggest a therapist who has experience in treating phobias.

Getting Professional Help

A therapist who specializes in phobias can better understand and help you, step by step, so you can finally take those stairs. Phobias like bathmophobia are more serious and require help before it completely controls your life.

One of the therapies used in bathmophobia treatment is cognitive behavioral therapy, which teaches you to replace irrational thoughts and negative emotions with more logical and pleasant ones. You are taught how to calm down whenever you feel anxiety. This type of therapy uses the relationship between how you think and how you feel and your behavior in response to it.

Cognitive behavioral therapy uses systematic desensitization, which means that you gradually face your fears, so you get used to the idea of them. You then get used to climbing up and down stairs, walking uphill, or taking an escalator.

Hypnotherapy is also used to treat or manage bathmophobia. This method helps you find and use your inner strength to fight the issues that gave rise to your phobia. Hypnotherapy helps you to help yourself.

Hypnoanalysis is another approach that many therapists rely on to remove the root causes of many mental or emotional issues.

How to Avoid Bathmophobia

It may take weeks, months, even years to learn to overcome or better manage your phobia. Meanwhile, don’t just depend on professional treatment alone. You need to help yourself too. Learning to meditate in stressful situations reduces the impact of anxiety. Or practice deep breathing to help chase away the jitters or dizziness.

In Conclusion
Don’t let phobias stop you from doing the things in life you dream of doing. Once you decide to conquer your bathmophobia, there’ll be no stopping you from reaching the top. Just take it one step at a time.

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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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