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Body Phobias

Fear of Tall People – Gigantasophobia

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Gigantasophobia: The Fear of Tall People

Have you ever avoided going out with your friends because tall friends will be there too? You don’t have anything against them, but being in their presence makes your skin prick with fear.

If your answer is yes, then you may suffer from gigantasophobia.

You don’t have any other reason for sitting out most plans, but being in the presence of tall people makes your chest tighten and your heart beat faster. Admitting that you have a phobia of tall people may feel irrational, but it isn’t.

Gigantasophobia is a real phobia. In fact, many people deal with it every day. However, with proper steps and some help, you can overcome this fear. But first, you need to get to the root of your tall people phobia.

What Are the Causes of Gigantasophobia?

Phobias are complex, so it’s not always easy to identify your gigantasophobia causes. More often than not, phobias are connected to our past experiences.

Perhaps you were bullied by a tall person. Or maybe you got caught in a sea of people when you were a child and felt like you would be trampled by the much taller people around you. Or maybe in your childhood, your parent or a teacher painted a villain in a story as someone very tall.

Such experiences can instill a deep-seated fear in our minds. Oftentimes, such an extreme fear stays with us for a very long time.

Everything You Need to Know about Gigantasophobia

Gigantasophobia is derived from two words: gigantism and phobia. Gigantism is a condition where a child has high levels of growth hormones that result in them growing especially tall. And phobia refers to an extreme fear of any particular situation or object.

Anyone who struggles with a phobia generally tends to avoid situations and thoughts that trigger that specific fear. They do not always have to be exposed to the cause of their phobia to experience anxiety; sometimes even the mention can trigger their fear. It can cause their brain to paint all kinds of scenarios involving the object of their fear—in this case, tall people—and spiral into panic or extreme anxiety.

Like most phobias, gigantasophobia is one of the fears that you can consider on the irrational fears list. While gigantasophobia in itself is not irrational, it’s the effect that this fear of tall people can have on your life that’s irrational.

Such a phobia can cause you to avoid stepping out of your home for fear of running into tall people. But that’s not possible when you have to go to school or work. You can’t control whether or not you’ll come across a tall person.

However, the good news is that gigantasophobia can be treated. Acknowledging the fear, accepting it, and recognizing the symptoms are all crucial steps in dealing with the phobia.

Gigantasophobia Symptoms

Phobias are a serious issue that should be addressed with caution. In extreme cases, they can significantly impact our daily lives and limit us from living a full life.

Depending on the severity of this fear, you can experience any of the physical and psychological symptoms described below.

Physical Symptoms

Similar to other phobias, people suffering from gigantasophobia may also experience severe anxiety or panic attacks when faced with a tall person. Some of the physical symptoms of an impending panic attack are as follows:

  • Sweating and trembling
  • Shortness of breath/Difficulty in breathing
  • A choking sensation
  • Rapid heartbeat
  • Tightness in chest
  • Nausea
  • Headache and dizziness
  • Confusion or disorientation
  • Hyperventilation
  • Rise in blood pressure

Psychological Symptoms

Along with physical symptoms, people may feel other fears and thoughts seep into their minds that are triggered by their phobia.

  • Fear of losing control
  • Fear of dying
  • Fear of harm or illness
  • Fear of fainting
  • Feelings of dread
  • Guilt, shame, and self-blame
  • Withdrawing from others
  • Generalized anxiety and fear
  • Feeling disconnected
  • Anger, irritability, and mood swings

These symptoms can have a negative impact on a person’s well-being and can even make it difficult to lead a normal life.

But there are ways in which you can manage this fear.

How to Overcome the Tall Peoples Phobia

There are different ways in which a phobia can be treated. In the case of gigantasophobia, since it’s not always possible to avoid tall people, it’s crucial that you address this fear in a positive and effective way.

Self-Help

Only you know what you experience during panic episodes when your phobia is triggered. So, you can help yourself overcome this fear in ways no one else can. Here are some effective methods that can help:

  1. Manage Your Anxiety
    Learn to manage your anxiety by trying different relaxation techniques. It can be meditation or exercise or anything else that helps calm your nerves. You can even learn breathing techniques to focus on when you feel a panic attack kicking in.
  2. Talk to Someone
    Talk about your fear with someone your trust. Talking it out will help you acknowledge it yourself. Often the reason our fears affect us so much is that we aren’t ready to acknowledge them. Talking with someone you trust can help reaffirm that your phobia is valid but also irrational. It can help you see that there is no reason to fear tall people.
  3. Join a Support Group
    Look for peer support groups in your locality or school. If you don’t want to reveal your identity, you can try online support groups where your identity will be kept hidden. Meeting other people who share your experiences will reassure you that you are not alone. These groups can also help you find other methods to overcome your fear.

Professional Help

If none of the self-help methods work or don’t yield the expected results, you can seek help from a professional. Take a look at a couple of the more common gigantasophobia treatments that are known to be successful.

  1. Talk Therapy
    Just like how you acknowledge your fears and slowly try to overcome them while talking to your friends, in talk treatments or talk therapy, you will be talking about your fears with a trained professional. These professionals are experienced in identifying your thought patterns that lead to anxiety. They will help you resolve your feelings and cope with your past, which may have been the cause of your phobia.
  2. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
    Cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT will help you identify your perception of reality and challenge it. It helps you identify your fear of tall people and whether what you are feeling is real and valid. If it’s not, the therapy will challenge your perceptions and work on ways to change them.

Most phobias are treatable as their roots are more psychological than physical. But there’s no guaranteed treatment that will work. What works for one may not work for another. It depends on the person suffering from the phobia and the severity of the fear.

Coping with Gigantasophobia

Gigantasophobia is not as common as other phobias, but that doesn’t make it irrelevant. It is a valid and very real fear that can have crippling effects if left untreated.

You can try to overcome this phobia by acknowledging and understanding your fear of tall people. You can also try exposing yourself to your fear gradually. Go out with your tall friends, if not alone then with some other friends. Focus on your breathing and positive thoughts if you start feeling uncomfortable.

Talk to a professional and learn about other ways that can help.

In Conclusion

Gigantasophobia or fear of tall people, if not dealt with, can hinder your daily life and can have lasting effects. Don’t let it prevent you from leading a normal life. Acknowledge your fear, talk about it, and get help.

So, the next time your friends call you for an outing, say yes. And if you feel your anxiety creeping in, just breathe!

 

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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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