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Fear of Getting Rid of Stuff
Environmental Phobias

Disposophobia: The Fear of Getting Rid of Stuff

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Assistance with Getting Rid of Disposophobia, or the Fear of Throwing Things Away

Ever felt on edge when your family forced you to clean up in your childhood?

Does the task of discarding old possessions make you feel uneasy and restless?

Do you constantly have anxiety about getting rid of things, some of which have absolutely no use?

If the answer to all of these questions is yes and you constantly wonder Why can’t I throw stuff away?, you are most likely going through disposophobia.

Let’s work through in detail this irrational fear of throwing things away.

What Is Disposophobia?

Simply put, disposophobia is the irrational fear of getting rid of stuff. Why is getting rid of stuff so hard? Those with this condition experience inner conflict in throwing things away. They have a constant desire to accumulate things that have no apparent use or value.

Fear of Getting Rid of Stuff

The term itself is derived from the Latin word dispos, meaning “getting rid of personal belongings,” and the Greek term phobos, meaning “fear.” Together, disposophobia is the irrational fear of getting rid of possessions. It’s similar to a hoarding disorder.

In severe cases, those with disposophobia live in crowded homes piled high with things on tables, counters, floors, and windows. They may have no space to move around. This can quickly compound into further issues such as self-isolation and health risks.

The individual suffering from diposophobia will carry out compulsive hoarding. They experience acute anxiety when any of these items are moved or thrown away.

What is hoarding a sign of? Hoarding is a disorder on its own and can be a symptom of another condition. It’s closely linked to obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and depression.

What Causes Disposophobia?

Similar to other specific phobias, diposophobia may be genetic or be related to one’s childhood or other environmental factors. Some probable causes include:

  • Having a family member with this condition
  • Injury in the brain that triggers you to hoard things
  • Uncontrollable buying habits and inability to detach from things
  • Traumatic life event
  • Depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder
  • The individuals have an intense sentimental value with the things around them. They feel they will lose those people connected to items or the significance of those items if discarded.

Disposophobia Symptoms

Disposophobia is associated with certain general, physical, and mental/emotional symptoms. The hoarding disorder affects an estimated 2 to 6 percent of the American population. Let’s take a closer look at possible symptoms.

General Symptoms

  • Hoarding of unnecessary things
  • Exhibiting indecisiveness, avoidance, procrastination, and lack of organization
  • Difficulty in discarding or parting with things, and constantly saving hoarded items
  • Cluttering rooms with food items and trash
  • Not washing or discarding things
  • Experiencing a feeling of comfort and security from the collected items
  • Having a deep emotional connection with the items around you

Physical Symptoms

If an individual attempts to discard or is asked to do away with the collected things, they might experience severe anxiety. Here are some examples of how that anxiety may appear in an individual:

  • Hot flashes or chills along with headaches and sweating
  • Trembling or feeling shortness of breath
  • Nausea, dizziness, or feeling of fainting
  • Numbness, a dry mouth sensation, and constant confusion
  • Hyperventilation over small things, and in extreme cases, fluctuations in blood pressure

Mental/Emotional Symptoms

A person suffering from disposophobia might undergo the following during a panic attack:

  • A constant fear of losing or being ridiculed leading to social isolation
  • Fear of losing control and thoughts of self-harm
  • Constant state of hopelessness, lack of concentration
  • Anger, irritation, and severe mood swings
  • Fear of rejection

How to Get Rid of Stuff: Ideas for Disposophobia

  • Start by locating a certified hoarding therapist. You must be able to trust those who wish to help you. You can also take a disposophobia test to know the intensity of your hoarding disorder. Involving a trained professional is a great way to better understand the phobia and work on controlling it.
  • Try your best to understand the deep-rooted factors that have influenced your condition.
  • The best plan of action can be undertaken when you come to terms with all the kinds of items hoarded. It’s important to understand the different forms of hoarding.
  • Once you’ve gained enough resources, you can start cleaning and sanitizing your home.
  • Work toward dividing your items into three categories to achieve a normal lifestyle. These are:
    1. Keepsakes/collectibles
    2. Donations
    3. Trash/Garbage
  • Once the items are organized, start placing them back into the areas they fit. Throw away or donate those items that don’t fit. It’s important to remember that everything needs to be stored in its spot.
  • Once you’ve completed the organization step, frequently clean your home to maintain a safe environment and prevent future hoarding.

Disposophobia Treatments

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

In CBT, you are guided to work on your thoughts to achieve positive behavior. It’s an efficient method, as desirable thoughts affect our entire body. The therapist supports discovering the reasons behind particular thoughts and behavior. It is short-term and can change the way a person feels. CBT dwells on making improvements in the present rather than focusing on the past.

Exposure Therapy

Exposure therapy is one of the most effective ways to treat a person with disposophobia. In this method, a therapist recommends ways to disrupt the pattern of avoidance of the fear. A safe environment is created where you are gradually exposed to your fears. This helps you reduce the avoidance and better deal with the triggers in reality. You will also be assisted with learning some relaxation techniques.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming

This therapy involves guiding the individual to:

  • Experience the phobia in a safe space
  • Dwell through the phobia along with happy emotions
  • Gradually detach from the fears

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

MBSR is generally an eight-week program that combines meditation and yoga. Started in the 1970s by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, this method addresses all the negative thoughts, fears, feelings, and behavior. It develops awareness of the present moment and helps to reduce all the factors that contribute to stress and fears.

Tips to Avoid Disposophobia

While therapy and treatment for the phobia are encouraged, you can also adopt some healthy coping mechanisms that help you avoid the phobia.

  • Meditation helps to clear the bundle of random fears and thoughts. It gives you a calmer approach to deal with the feared stimulus.
  • Self-help groups are a gathering of people going through similar issues. These groups provide you moral support to deal with or avoid the fear. They also present the personal experiences of others and broaden your coping mechanisms.
  • Take up jogging or follow an exercise routine. A healthy body will promote a healthy mind.
  • Keep a check on your eating and drinking habits. This will help you reduce general anxiety.
  • Adopt a healthy sleep cycle to improve concentration and focus.

In Conclusion

Phobias can be physically and mentally exhausting. While you have to deal with internal fears, you might also face stigma from the outside world.

If you have disposophobia or know of someone who is suffering with this phobia, remember that these fears are valid. They occur in people from all walks of life and deserve attention and treatment.

Treatment and adopting new behaviors have achieved milestones in reducing disposophobia and compulsive hoarding. It can curb the need to save items and allow one to live a hassle-free life.

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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