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The Fear of Going to Church
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Ecclesiophobia – The Fear of Going to Church

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Decoding Ecclesiophobia or The Fear of Going to Church

Does the sight of church buildings make you cringe?

Do you break out into a sweat at the mere mention of church or religious gatherings?

Do you find yourself making excuses to somehow skip Sunday service or even Christmas Mass?

Does this sound like you? If yes, you might be suffering from ecclesiophobia or the fear of going to church.

Ecclesiophobia Meaning

Ecclesiophobia refers to the extreme or irrational fear of churches. Ecclesiophobia is the fear of what negative events might happen if a person visits a church. Those with ecclesiophobia go out of their way to avoid churches, religious gatherings, or even looking at pictures of church buildings.

Even if you’re not religious, a fear of churches can negatively affect your life, because it makes it difficult to attend weddings, funerals, and other important ceremonies. Though this might seem like an irrational fear to you, know that you’re not alone.

The Fear of Going to Church

Types of Ecclesiophobia

There are two types of ecclesiophobia or the fear of churches.

Fear of the Church Building

Some fear the ancient look and feel of church buildings. The architecture and Gothic cathedrals can be imposing and may invoke images of Victorian horror novels. Smaller chapels can also be claustrophobic and disorienting.

Fear of the Church

Some may fear the church as an institution and its religious beliefs and practices. True incidents of pedophiles in the clergy and the emotional abuse of the LGBT community can also invoke fear in people. What starts as a mild reluctance can develop into a full-blown phobia over time.

Causes of Ecclesiophobia

Though there are no specific known causes of ecclesiophobia, many in the mental health profession believe that environment and genetics play a huge role in developing this condition. We can inherit phobias and fears from family members or ancestors, especially if there is a heightened genetic predisposition for developing mental illness.

A traumatizing childhood event or a negative or fearful incident experienced in a church can instill an overbearing fear of going to church. Those who are afraid of authority can also develop this fear of churches as they are a symbol of supreme power throughout history.

Some may develop this anxiety because of the décor, architecture, and images of Jesus on the cross as it can activate fear of blood and death.

Ecclesiophobia Symptoms

Physical Symptoms

  • Headaches
  • Excessive sweating
  • Trembling and dizziness
  • Shortness of breath
  • Numbness, dry mouth or hot flashes, chills
  • Confusion, ringing in ears, rapid heartbeat

Mental/Emotional Symptoms

  • Avoiding churches and religious ceremonies
  • Feelings of dread, hopelessness, and disconnect
  • Fear of being ridiculed
  • Becoming socially withdrawn
  • Fear of losing control or being possessed
  • Anxiety about attending sermons, weddings, or funerals
  • Mood swings, irritability, and anger

Ecclesiophobia Treatments

Many with ecclesiophobia are not even aware that such a phobia exists and move through life avoiding situations and circumstances that require them to face their fears. But it doesn’t have to be that way. It is possible to overcome a church phobia by seeking the right kind of professional therapy or even through self-help techniques.

Professional Help for Ecclesiophobia

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

In this technique, a therapist can help you overcome your church phobia by helping you amend your thoughts to achieve the desired behavior.

With CBT you can treat your ecclesiophobia by understanding why you think and behave the way you do with regards to your irrational fears. One of the main issues with ecclesiophobia is the lack of understanding in those who struggle with it. This contributes to an immediate subconscious reaction to fears, leading one to experience symptoms blindly.

CBT is a short-term and goal-oriented therapy that focuses on the present situation instead of probing the past. In this therapy, the problems are usually segregated into parts, such as feelings, thoughts, and actions. This can help you analyze your fears more deeply.

Along with understanding your church phobia, you can also expect to learn various other skills and relieve the anxiety caused by your condition.

Exposure Therapy

Exposure therapy is one of the common ways of treating ecclesiophobia. This therapy exposes you to your fears for a certain period, starting with the least triggering stimuli. Gradually, when you’re able to control your anxiety, you may be exposed to images and be asked to visualize your greatest triggers and situations. After you successfully master this stage, you’ll be exposed to real-life situations.

As you progress through the stimuli, your therapist will simultaneously teach you coping exercises like muscle relaxation methods or breathing techniques. These will help you lower your anxiety in a real-life situation.

However, before starting this therapy, your therapist must make sure to assess the severity of your symptoms so that no psychological or physical harm is caused during treatment.

Talk Therapy

Talk therapy includes counseling and can be very effective at treating fear of church or ecclesiophobia. This is a laid-back treatment that is physically non-intrusive and involves speaking to a trained therapist about your feelings, thoughts, and behavior.

Your therapist may recommend different coping skills to deal with your symptoms while uncovering the underlying reasons for your fear. Talk therapy is aimed at helping you recognize obstructive patterns in the way you think or act, and develop ways to alter them. It also gives you a safe place to speak to someone who won’t judge you.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

DBT is a therapy related to emotion regulation. Often used to treat people suffering from anxiety or borderline personality disorders, it can be very effective in treating ecclesiophobia, too. Sometimes conducted in groups, it usually lasts for around six months and can have either two people or more in a group.

This therapy provides you with a host of techniques, one of which is a half-smiling technique. In this, you’ll be required to think about your triggers and raise the corners of your mouth when fearful thoughts come to your mind. You will also be asked to refrain from entertaining any painful emotions evoked from your specific fear.

Coping ahead is another useful DBT skill. You’ll be asked to sit still in a place without distraction, close your eyes and think about different possible scenarios when you would face your specific fear. Then you strategize ways of dealing with it in the moment.

Self-Help: How Can You Help Yourself?

Mindfulness Meditation

This technique involves being aware of your thoughts and feelings by being focusing on the present. For this to be effective, you will have to clear your head of all the clutter and see to it that your body and mind are in sync together. It includes methods like focusing on your breath and influencing your emotions by processing the way your body feels and responds to certain thoughts and stimuli.

Exercise

Exercise is one of the most effective ways of dealing with anxiety disorders, including ecclesiophobia. Daily walks or jogs can help take your mind away from negative thoughts and help you focus on the present. Cardiovascular exercises can help relieve your stress by releasing those endorphins, the feel-good chemical in the brain. Aerobic exercise like biking, swimming, and skiing can help relieve some of the stress and pain related to ecclesiophobia. It can also condition your mind to better cope with stressful situations.

Reduce Caffeine

Consuming large amounts of caffeine and stimulants throughout the day can add to your anxiety. Caffeine essentially puts your body into a fight or flight mode which can make you experience more panic attacks and add to your ecclesiophobia symptoms. By being more mindful of your daily caffeine consumption you can reduce some of the symptoms associated with ecclesiophobia.

Coping with Ecclesiophobia

Coping with the fear of going to churches can be exhausting. Along with having to constantly explain to people the reason for your absence at weddings and ceremonies, you need to cope with symptoms too.

However, once you learn to deal with it, its grip on your life will fade away. Many people disregard ecclesiophobia and even claim that it doesn’t exist. But it is important to understand that for a person experiencing this fear, it is as real as it can get.

Invest in therapies and have faith that you’ll be able to overcome your fear of churches and lead a normal and carefree life. Remember that you have the power to control your fears. No fear is impossible to tackle. With the right efforts and dedication, you’ll be able to enjoy your next Christmas and attend weddings without having to make up excuses.

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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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