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Environmental Phobias

Fear of Winds – Ancraophobia

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Let’s Discuss Ancraophobia

Do you get anxious or restless when strong winds gush past? Do you get scared of the wind blowing outside even when you’re in the comfort of your room? Does the pure power of wind cause you fear?

If you answered “yes” to any of the above questions, you might be suffering from ancraophobia or the excessive fear of strong wind.

Bad or raw weather—which includes turbulence, thunderstorms, and stormy winds—can affect most of us. But people who suffer from ancraophobia have an erratic, fearful, and frantic response to winds of any kind—especially high winds.

If you’re interested to learn more about this irrational, little-known fear, read on.

Major Points You Need to Know about Ancraophobia

Phobia of wind, known as anemophobia or ancraophobia, is the irrational fear of winds. If you feel that the blowing wind holds the power to kill or destroy something, you may have ancraophobia.

Winds can be observed in various forms, some gentle and some harsh. For a person suffering with ancraophobia, all wind seems the same. Even the sound of wind in their ears triggers fear and a negative response. They avoid coming in contact with wind, even if it means they cannot venture outside their house.

Some Causes of Ancraophobia

People have inexplicable reactions to strong winds. This potent fear of winds at night and day can originate from negative experiences with winds in the past, as a learned behavior, or due to genetics.

Someone who has a family history of anxiety, mental illness, or any physical or mental or emotional symptom associated with a phobia is at a higher risk to develop phobia themselves.

Some develop ancraophobia as a result of a traumatic experience they had in the past that involved winds. This may include surviving a tornado or a hurricane.

What Is Ancraophobia Like?

Having ancraophobia is like having any other fear. Having an extreme negative response toward winds becomes the norm, and this can affect your everyday life. You begin to lose control over your emotions and feelings. It becomes a challenge to manage your involuntary reaction to winds without help or treatment.

Symptoms of Ancraophobia

Many who suffer from ancraophobia are concerned that wind, no matter how gentle or strong, holds the power to destroy their homes or communities. They are fearful of the destruction that wind can cause. To establish if you are suffering from ancraophobia, look for the following symptoms:

Mental/Emotional Symptoms

  • Excessive worry or anxiety
  • Losing concentration, focus, and motivation at work and usual activities
  • Constantly having the urge to avoid winds
  • Excessive, sporadic panic attacks at the thought of winds
  • Losing physical and mental control over the body
  • Feeling detached and dissociated from everyday affairs
  • Stress, irritation, feeling overwhelmed

Physical Symptoms

  • Heart palpitations
  • Sweating
  • Accelerated heart rate
  • Shortness of breath
  • Numbness
  • Tingling sensation
  • Lightheaded
  • Cold and hot flashes
  • Shaking

How Do You Deal with Ancraophobia?

Overcoming the fear of wind requires as much patience and time as any other fear. The first step to dealing with anxiety is to accept that you have it. Once you are aware of what makes you fearful or uncomfortable, you’ll be able to heal and tend to it quickly.

The second step is to expose yourself to your fear gradually. The more you encounter your fears, the more likely it is that your worries will fade away. This should be done in combination with self-healing and self-help.

Above all, don’t run away from your fear. Whenever you feel flooded with anxiety and dread, breathe through it. Take a break from whatever you’re doing and go for a walk, clear your thoughts, and just try to relax physically and mentally.

Ancraophobia Treatments: How You Can Help Yourself

Although ancraophobia is a rare phobia, there are plenty of treatment options readily available so the fear doesn’t interfere with your daily activities.

If you’re dealing with a child who has been showing a negative response to winds for at least a period of six months, help them associate good feelings with the object of their fear. Indulge in activities like kite flying, which can help them see the wind in a positive light. If the symptoms are severe and long-lasting, make sure to seek professional help through a child counselor.

There are no specific treatments designed for ancraophobia, but there are plenty of general ones you can employ to get some relief from your fears and the associated symptoms.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy

With dialectical behavior therapy, you learn different coping skills you can utilize to put your anxiety and mental/emotional symptoms at ease. Besides other skills, you are also taught how to practice mindful meditation, with a particular focus on breathing techniques.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT allows you to better understand the causes of your fear. You begin to realize what triggers the negative response when you encounter your fear and are subsequently taught techniques to overcome it.

Coping with Ancraophobia

Here are a few great tips to practice coping with ancraophobia or any phobia you may suffer from. If your phobia is not severe and doesn’t require professional treatment, you may be able to practice self-help options.

  • Various studies have shown that if you want to overcome a fear, you need to encounter it frequently. So, if you chance upon any situation where you are exposed to winds, don’t run away from it.
  • Introduce some exercise to your routine to keep your mind and body fit. This can include a stroll in the nearby park, yoga, ten minutes of stretching in the morning, and meditation.
  • Take small steps. Write down what you are grateful for in life and everything that you have accomplished. Motivate yourself to not be intimidated by your fears, and then fight them off with your newfound coping skills.
  • Breath in. Breath out. Learn a few relaxation and breathing techniques that you can apply whenever you feel anxious or restless.
  • You might be tempted to turn to alcohol or other unhealthy habits when overcome by strong emotions. Avoid doing it. The after-effects will only make you more anxious in the long run.

Final Words

Your fears and phobias are nothing to be ashamed of. Even if they seem unreasonable and irrational, they are something that most of us suffer at some point in our lives.

The best way to overcome your fear of winds is to talk about it and seek help for the symptoms. Meanwhile, focus on the good things in your life, and don’t let your fear get the better of you.

When you finally win your battle with your fears, pat yourself on the back. Reward yourself with your favorite treats and celebrate your victory with everyone who has been a part of your journey.

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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