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Other Phobias

Feretrophobia – Fear of Caskets or Coffins

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Let’s Close the Lid on the Fear of Coffins

Is it nearly impossible for you to pay your last respects at someone’s funeral? Does the site or even the mere image of a casket send chills down your spine or make you sick?

Does an agonizing terror grip you by the throat at the sight of these finely chiseled boxes? Perhaps your blood runs cold at the sight of coffins—even if onscreen or in photos.

If any of these scenarios sound familiar, then there’s a high possibility you suffer from feretrophobia.

This fear of coffins can make it difficult to function in daily life. Yes, living with this phobia can be troublesome, but it’s not incurable. The first step in dealing with your fear is to acknowledge that you have it. Once you’ve done that, you’re on your way toward overcoming your fear of caskets. Read on to learn more.

What Is Feretrophobia about and What Causes It?

Feretrophobia is the fear of coffins. The term feretrophobia comes from the Greek words feretro, meaning coffin, and Phobos, meaning fear. The fear of coffins is sometimes mistaken for taphophobia or necrophobia. This is because coffins are a symbol of death and are used to bury the dead.

The feeling that accompanies this fear can be so gripping at times that it interferes with your daily activities. That’s when this fear becomes a phobia.

The exact cause of feretrophobia is unknown, however, a central cause for any phobia is genetic makeup. If your family has a history of mental disorders, you have a greater risk of developing a phobia.

Traumatic events of the past may also result in a phobia. An example of such an event could be the loss of a loved one. Their burial, last rites, and watching them leave forever could have caused you to develop this phobia.

Upbringing plays a significant role as well in development of a phobia. Your family’s influence, or the myths and stories you heard while growing up, can shape the way you see a casket. Continued exposure to such ideas can gradually turn the fear into a phobia.

However, this doesn’t mean your phobia is incurable. If you suffer from such a condition, don’t think twice before seeking medical help. There’s no need to feel embarrassed or ashamed. Many famous people, including George Washington himself, have experienced the fear of feretrophobia.

Symptoms of Feretrophobia

Feretrophobia is one of the lesser-known phobias. That’s why the diagnosis of this phobia can be challenging. Still, one should not take phobias lightly. All phobias can limit a person’s daily activities to some degree. It can also emerge as the root cause of anxiety, panic attacks, and depression.

Everyone is different, and so are all the types of phobias and their symptoms. Symptoms also vary depending on the severity of the individual’s experience.

Feretrophobia is an anxiety disorder. Those with this fear of coffins may experience at least some of the physical and mental/emotional symptoms listed below.

Physical Symptoms

The most commonly seen symptom in people with feretrophobia, or the fear of coffins, is panic attacks. These panic attacks can be distressing and erupt without prior warning. The occurrence of a panic attack or anxiety can cause physical symptoms such as those listed below:

  • sweating
  • hot flushes and chills
  • rapid heartbeat (tachycardia)
  • trembling
  • chest pain or tightness in the chest
  • shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
  • a sensation of butterflies in the stomach
  • nausea
  • feeling faint
  • a choking sensation
  • numbness or pins and needles
  • headaches and dizziness
  • dry mouth
  • ringing in the ears
  • a rise in blood pressure
  • hyperventilation
  • chest tightness, chest pain, and difficulty breathing
  • confusion or disorientation

Mental/Emotional Symptoms

In severe cases, a panic attack triggered by fear can have mental and emotional consequences too. Individuals may experience one or all of the following symptoms:

  • fear of losing control
  • fear of passing out
  • feelings of dread
  • fear of dying
  • fear of harm or illness
  • guilt, shame, self-blame
  • withdrawing from others
  • feeling sad or hopeless
  • feeling disconnected
  • confusion, difficulty concentrating
  • anger, irritability, mood swings
  • anxiety and fear

Self-Help for Feretrophobia

Taking good care of yourself is one of the most effective ways to overcome any fear. Understanding how to help yourself will allow you to control your fear of coffins before it worsens.

You can practice relaxation techniques like meditation, deep breathing, positive affirmations, and self-talk. Any practice that brings peace and calms you can help.

Another helpful approach is Kidlin’s law. It says if you can write down the problem, you can solve half the matter. This law can be helpful in dealing with problematic thoughts. Such thoughts are usually part of the initial stage of the development of a phobia.

Professional Help for Feretrophobia

Someone suffering from feretrophobia might not feel the need for treatment as long as they can avoid caskets or coffins. This gives them a feeling of being in control. However, that is far from true.

Feretrophobia doesn’t need the physical presence of a casket. A scene in a movie, an image in a magazine, or a video on the web is enough to trigger panic.

As a result, individuals should seek professional help whenever possible. When you understand what’s happening, you can better manage the fear and keep it from controling your life.

All phobias can be treated, but there is no one single treatment that works for all. Nor is there any guarantee which one will work. It all depends on the individual and the severity of the phobia. In many cases, a combination of treatments may be more effective.

Talking therapies in particular can be effective at treating feretrophobia, but here are the more widely used treatments:

  • Exposure therapy
  • Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
  • Medications

In exposure therapy, the patient sees more of the object of fear over a given period. Greater exposure to the source of fear makes it less effective over time.

CBT is another form of treatment used to help people with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). It’s also used to treat obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and other similar conditions. In CBT, the therapist helps the patient uncover the cause of their fear and work toward looking at it in a different way.

While medications are an option for treating symptoms of phobia, they are not a treatment for the phobia itself. Doctors sometimes prescribe medication to treat the effects of phobias such as anxiety or depression.

Avoiding Feretrophobia Altogether

Although phobias are treatable, there is no one single treatment.

Most phobias result from traumatic experiences or genetics. You can’t avoid these two factors, but what you can do is train your mind. Yoga, meditation, exercise, healthy eating, and healing practices can help you manage your fear better.

Final Thoughts

Phobias are common and not a source of embarrassment. The keys to overcoming a phobia are timely diagnosis, treatment, and self-care.

Don’t be hard on yourself. Talk to a trusted friend or family member about your fears. Take it slowly until the fear gradually fades. Be aware, acknowledge it, and work on your fear to get the better of it.

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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