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Body Phobias

Cardiophobia – The Fear of Heart Problems

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The Excessive Fear of Heart Problems

Being scared of heart disease is not unusual. Indeed, people have reasons to fear heart diseases—they can be deadly. But having an excessive fear of heart problems to the point of distress is peculiar. The condition has a name: cardiophobia.

What Causes Cardiophobia?

Under ordinary circumstances, fear elicits a natural fight-or-flight response that permits people to respond quickly to environmental threats. Excessive and irrational fear however is usually a maladaptive response. In people, persistent and unwarranted fear of a certain object can generate overwhelming distress and disrupt their daily lives.

Like other phobias, the exact causes of cardiophobia are unknown. However, it is believed to have originated from many factors or causes. Possible causes include:

Particular Incidents or Trauma

People who have seen a relative suffer from cardiovascular disease have an increased chance of developing cardiophobia. The phobic person might have had a heart attack themself and survived, but it is possible that the episode left a trauma.

Genetic Factors

Like other specific phobias, cardiophobia is an outcome of genetics or a traumatic experience. Someone with a family history of specific phobias or anxiety disorders has a higher likelihood of developing the condition than somebody who doesn’t; this is due to a genetic predisposition.

The genetic tendency to develop a specific phobia or mental disorder is also called a diathesis-stress relationship. Someone with a genetic predisposition won’t develop any symptoms of cardiophobia unless a trigger event instigates fear or anxiety associated with the heart.

A trigger event can be, for instance, the development of hypertension or other associated heart issues. The person who suffers with these will be very conscious of their health and activities that might result in further heart trouble. They may experience anxiety at the slightest chest pain or increase in blood pressure.

Also, someone with a family history of heart illnesses has a likelihood of developing cardiophobia. Those who have lost a loved one because of heart disease could develop cardiophobia as well.

Environmental Factors

When it comes to environmental factors, a person might develop cardiophobia after a frightening event, especially if the person feels out of control. Hearing about or witnessing a traumatic occurrence could also lead to its development. Watching a loved one die from a heart condition might trigger the phobia.

Cardiophobia in Action

Those suffering from this phobia experience intense anxiety when their heart races or when they see a picture of a heart. Even the mere thought of experiencing chest pain could instigate unpleasant emotions.

These feelings arise because they fear death from heart disease. Despite undergoing repeated medical heart examinations and tests, they still presume they are suffering from a particular heart issue.

It is usual for someone to presume that they might be suffering from a heart condition if they develop known symptoms. However, excess anxiety and recurring thoughts of dying from a heart attack or intensifying worry if you exhibit chest pain in spite of being healthy are particular to cardiophobia.

Those suffering from the phobia try to evade every situation that might elicit a heart attack. It is possible that the repeated avoidance can become a compulsion. Such a person won’t just develop obsessive compulsive disorder; they could also experience other health-related issues.

According to DSM-V, avoidance and anxiety influence one’s occupational and social functioning. For instance, one will evade running due to the fear that increased blood pressure could elicit a heart attack.

Consequently, they’ll presume every instance of pain in the left arm or chest to be an indication of an imminent heart attack. Sufferers will even go to the extreme of exercising excessively or eat very little to remain healthy. This could lead to the development of eating disorders. One might even reside near a hospital to obtain instant medical help in case a cardiac emergency arises.

Cardiophobia Symptoms

People with cardiophobia complain of heart palpitations, chest pain, and experiencing a heart attack. They could also end up avoiding situations that lead to variations in their heart rate, such as sports or activities that cause excitement.

In extreme cases, a phobic person might even self-isolate for fear of stressful events that could trigger heart problems. The condition could also result in obsessive behavior like examining the heart rate or blood pressure at frequent intervals.

When cardiophobia is triggered, the phobic could experience several physiological and/or psychological symptoms. Some of the symptoms include:

Physical Symptoms

  • Hyperventilation
  • Dizziness
  • Trembling
  • Sweating
  • Fainting
  • Muscle tension

Psychological Symptoms

  • Panic attacks
  • Fear of losing control
  • Fear of dying
  • Fear of losing one’s mind

What Are the Self-help Strategies to Overcome Cardiophobia?

Meditation can prove to be beneficial for people with cardiophobia. In particular, meditation helps divert the mind toward positivity and calmness, enabling the person to avoid negative, distress-causing thoughts.

Meditation can also soothe the nerves, enabling a relaxed state overall. While you might experience a phobic response, meditating before you face the situation may decrease the severity of your symptoms.

Exercise is useful for those with anxiety disorders. Cardiovascular exercise can help alleviate your stress. You’ll discover that exercise works by conditioning the mind to cope with stressful circumstances.

 

Professional Help

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

This approach works to help those suffering from anxiety disorders and other conditions. You’ll find that it is equally effective at addressing cardiophobia. You may also discover the reason behind your thinking when it comes to your fear and learn to redirect negative thought patterns.

Exposure Therapy

In this treatment, a therapist exposes a patient to their object of fear. A therapist might begin by showing images of a heart to the patient. In the next stage, the therapist could show videos of the heart.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

The coping skills that patients with anxiety learn from DBT sessions can also help those with cardiophobia. DBT takes about six months to complete.

Mindfulness

This approach aims to teach phobic people to refocus their attention on something else. With this technique, a cardiophobic in the middle of a panic situation can redirect their attention to their breathing pattern and focus on that.

Managing Life with Cardiophobia

Many people still have difficulty in understanding cardiophobia, but for people who are actually affected, the struggle is real. The condition has a far-reaching effect, affecting all facets of life.

After all, it can be isolating, embarrassing, and can often lead to severe anxiety. Because the phobia can be very disruptive to a person’s life, appropriate treatment is recommended to help the person live without excessive anxiety and fear.

While some go into remission, some might still experience anxiety and fear, but it’s manageable. You simply need the right help. If you decide to seek treatment, ensure you connect with an expert with specific expertise or experience in phobia treatment.

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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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