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Body Phobias

Geniophobia – Fear of Chins

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Chins Plus Extreme Fear Equals Geniophobia

Do you feel uncomfortable talking to people because you’re afraid you’ll see their chins? You don’t want to be rude, so you try to look into people’s eyes while you’re talking with them. However, you can still glimpse a part of their chin, and you can’t help but feel anxious.

 

Does the mere thought of chins make your heart race and have you on the verge of panic? Even the thought of seeing your own chin in the mirror fills you with dread.

 

Yes, geniophobia, or fear of chins, is on the list of phobias, and it can be debilitating when it’s severe. But with professional treatment and self-help, you can overcome it and lead a normal life.

 

What Is the Fear of Chins?

Geniophobia comes from the Greek word genio, which means chin or jaw, and phobia, which means fear.

 

Prominent chins give people their identity. Part of what makes Jay Leno funny is that he is able to make fun of his chin and make money off the jokes, too. Part of what makes actors Henry Cavill and Jessica Chastain beautiful and memorable are their cleft chin.

 

But to some people, their butt chins are the devil! In fact, any chin fills them with dread.

 

You see…

 

People who have geniophobia will experience a rush of anxiety just thinking of chins. Some may have goosebumps when they touch their own chin.

 

The reaction may be strange, but that’s how phobia works. About 5% to 10% of the world population have a specific phobia, which is the fear of something that poses little to no danger, like the innocent chin.

 

Geniophobia is rare. Unfortunately, if you have it, you may have difficulty dealing with people with remarkable or weird chins. Sometimes, you might isolate yourself just because you don’t want to see chins—any type of chin!

 

Now. . .

 

You may seem standoffish or rude, but it’s not intentional. Phobia is an anxiety disorder. And just like other anxiety disorders, there are ways to cope with your phobia. The first step is understanding its causes.

 

What Causes Geniophobia?

Most phobias develop because of negative or traumatic experiences. However, with geniophobia, it’s hard to ascertain because chins are not characteristically scary, unlike obvious phobias like fear of spiders (arachnophobia) or snakes (ophidiophobia).

 

Experts say upbringing has a lot to do with it. Parents with geniophobia may unwittingly raise their children to have a similar fear because they could not overcome it themselves.

 

Genetics also plays a role in geniophobia. Someone with a family history of anxiety disorder has a higher chance of developing geniophobia.

 

Related Phobia – Fear of Hair

 

How Genes Play a Role in Geniophobia

Have you ever wondered how you got geniophobia when none of your other family members have it? There are no geniophobia genes to be passed around from one generation to the next. However, genetic susceptibility to mental illness, particularly anxiety disorder, is something that can be passed.

 

A phobia is a form of anxiety disorder. If someone in the family has a history of anxiety, people who share the same genes may develop different types of anxiety disorders.

 

The phobia may develop at a certain point even though it may not run in the family. For example, one may have had an experience falling and busting their chin open, resulting in a misshapen chin. From then on, they may have a hard time looking at strange chins, or worse, chins in general.

 

Another situation may involve an unexpected scare with a unique chin.

 

While it’s hard to pinpoint a specific root cause for geniophobia, mental health experts agree it’s a combination of genetics and environment.

 

Symptoms of Geniophobia

There is a fine line between disgust and fear. Geniophobia does not stem from disgust; it is an intense, irrational fear.

 

Psychological symptoms of geniophobia may include:

  • Anxiety at the thought of chins
  • Fear of passing out
  • A sense of dread
  • Fear of losing control

 

Here are some physical symptoms of geniophobia:

  • Increased heart rate
  • Increased breathing rate
  • High blood pressure
  • Sweating
  • Muscle tension
  • Tremors
  • Panic attack (in case of severe geniophobia)

 

Symptoms vary from person to person, depending on the severity of the phobia.

 

But there’s a way out of it!

 

How to Deal with Geniophobia

There is no definitive root cause for geniophobia, so there is no specific medical or psychological way of treating the fear of chins.

 

Nevertheless, there are several ways to cope with geniophobia:

Self-Help: What You Can Do to Cope

Most of the professional help available for geniophobia involves changing the way you think about chins. You can try to manage it yourself using the following methods:

 

  1. Yoga
    Yoga can help you regulate your stress response, which is essentially what a phobia is—a stressor that gives you anxiety. Coupled with meditation, yoga will provide you with the necessary psychological mechanisms to cope with your fear of chins. One of the techniques of yoga is breathing deeply and slowly. You can visualize chins while you breathe in deeply and slowly release the visual when you exhale. 
  2. Talk to Someone
    It is understandable that geniophobia is not something easy to talk about with other people. After all, it’s not a common phobia. However, a true friend will listen, try to understand, and won’t judge you. Talking to someone will lighten your load. That someone may also help you manage your reaction whenever you see a weird chin. 
  3. Join a Support Group
    It’s comforting to meet people, whether in real life or online, who are in similar situations as you. You may not necessarily find another person with geniophobia, but there’s a sense of relief knowing you’re not the only one having anxiety problems over what most people would think as inane. Some may even share techniques to help you manage your fear. 

 

Geniophobia Treatments: Professional Help

Exposure Therapy

Exposure therapy is one of the most common psychological treatments for phobias. The goal is to change your response to the thing you fear the most: chins. The therapist will repeatedly expose you to different types of chins, help you manage your emotions and reactions, and hopefully alleviate your anxiety.

 

The exposure is gradual. The first step may involve thinking about chins in different situations. The next step would be looking at photos of chins, which may progress into looking at videos.

 

And when you’re ready, you’ll be able to look at people’s faces, especially those with prominent chins.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT is a psychological treatment used for various problems, including anxiety disorders, depression, substance abuse disorders, eating disorders, and even eating disorders. The core principle of this type of treatment is that problems are partly based on how people think and a pattern of unhelpful behaviors.

 

CBT strategies in this case include reevaluating how a person thinks about chins and gaining a better understanding of their behavior toward them. The goal is for those with geniophobia to become more pragmatic about their thinking and approach when it comes to chins.

 

How to Avoid Fear of Chins

Avoiding chins is not the answer, as it will only cause heightened anxiety in the future. The best thing to do is to cope with geniophobia and manage your reaction to chins.

 

With self-help techniques, you can handle the fear. Breathing deeply through a rise in anxiety can help you relax. It will also help when you have a friend who can support you through the ordeal.

 

However, if your geniophobia is not getting better with self-help techniques, seek professional help.

 

Lastly, there is exercise. The simplest forms of exercise, like walking, jogging, and cycling, can do wonders for your anxiety. For one, exercising diverts your attention from what you fear. Two, plenty of research has shown that exercise is great for your mental health. With regular exercise, you may conquer your chin problem in no time.

 

Bottom Line

Keep your chin up. Geniophobia is nothing to be ashamed of. Just like people with unusual chins have nothing to be ashamed of, neither do you.

 

But to ensure that your fear of chins doesn’t graduate to a more severe disorder, do something about it. In most cases, you can cope through yoga, meditation, and therapy. Otherwise, professional help will go a long way.

 

Maybe once you’ve conquered your fear, you can head to TikTok for some funny chin videos.

 

 

 

 

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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