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Gerascophobia – The Fear of Growing Old
Body Phobias

Gerascophobia – The Fear of Growing Old

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Gerascophobia: The Fear of Growing Old

Does watching movies like The Notebook or Tokyo Story make you feel weird, yet you find solace in watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button?

Do you get hot flushes or chills every time someone talks about growing old? Does your heart beat faster or do you feel a choking sensation when someone talks about what age is doing to their body? If the answer to all or any of these questions is yes, chances are that you may be suffering from gerascophobia.

Before you try to face your fear, it’s a good idea to learn a little about it. Read on for things you should know about gerascophobia, or the fear of growing old.

Gerascophobia – The Fear of Growing Old

What Is Gerascophobia?

What is the word for the fear of growing old? That term is gerascophobia. The word consists of the Greek phrase tha geraso which translates to ‘I am getting older’ and phobos which means a dread of something. In short, gerascophobia is the fear of growing old.

Most people fear getting older. With increasing age comes a decrease in physical and mental functions, such as receding gums, weight fluctuations, memory loss, and much more. To top it off, we may begin to experience an increase in our fear of death. Humans have been searching for that secret youth potion since time immemorial. We’re no strangers to stories of explorers seeking that magic fountain of youth.

Is gerascophobia common? Four to six percent of Americans suffer from the fear of growing old. In extreme cases of gerascophobia, one experiences constant irrational fear of getting old. Their eyes are fixed on the ticking clock. The adverse effects and consequences this phobia can have on an individual are many. It can interfere with one’s social, professional, and personal life.

More often than not, an individual with gerascophobia realizes that the fear of growing old is ridiculous, but they feel powerless. Do you wonder what causes gerascophobia or continuously ask yourself why am I scared of growing old? It’s a clinical phobia that’s generally classified under a single panic trigger. It may be based on your anxieties related to being left alone. Some might feel they are incapable of taking care of themselves due to the disabilities that come along with old age.

Gerascophobia Symptoms

Before we talk about symptoms, it’s important to understand that different individuals have different responses to a particular phobia. The intensity of the fear you feel may be different from someone else going through the same thing. Some, however, get so overwhelmed and afraid of aging that they get anxiety and panic attacks along with the following symptoms:

Mental/Emotional Symptoms

Mental and emotional symptoms are those that affect the mind and cannot be seen by the naked eye.

  • Disconnection from reality, muddled head, and inability to express
  • Helplessness, hopelessness, and feelings of loss of control

Physical Symptoms

Physical symptoms are the symptoms that affect the body and can be seen or recognized.

  • Dizziness
  • Shaky balance, shivering, and chills
  • Heart palpitations/increased heart rate

Behavioral Symptoms

Behavioral symptoms are persistent or repetitive behaviors that are unusual, disruptive, inappropriate, or problematic. One may face the following:

  • Aggression
  • Frustration
  • Irritation

It is quite normal for a person to feel completely withdrawn if he/she is experiencing such symptoms. This can greatly affect your day-to-day life, too. Excessive worrying about having this phobia might also lead you to feel stressed, which can further cause health issues. You are more likely to be at risk of high blood pressure or heart disease.

Treatment for Gerascophobia

Now that you know the symptoms, you’re probably wondering how you get over the fear of growing old? How do you treat gerascophobia? This fear can be treated with self-help methods, or you might seek professional help as well. If you’re looking to confront your fear on your own, here are some pointers that may help you:

Self-Help

To begin with, you need to come up with a self-help program that helps you face and confront your fears. You can consult a psychologist before creating one on your own or you can refer to these points:

  • Lifestyle changes can help with symptoms, such as panic attacks. Eating healthy meals and exercising regularly, reducing caffeine and other stimulants, and getting proper sleep at night could be a few.
  • Relaxation techniques help you control and relax your breathing. You can work on your visualization techniques where you see yourself fiercely dealing with your phobia. This combines relaxation and breathing techniques.
  • Self-help groups are another useful method of overcoming a phobia. Seek out like-minded people and share your experiences with them. Sometimes, opening up and talking out loud about your fears can take you a long way. Those who are dealing with the same thing are more likely to relate to you. Together you can overcome your phobias.
  • Beyond that, self-help techniques such as yoga and meditation can help a great deal.

Professional Help

In case you’re unable to deal with your phobia on your own, there are plenty of professional methods out there to help you. Consult a mental health professional to obtain a proper diagnosis and discuss possible treatments. Here are just two techniques that can be explored:

  • Exposure therapy is a type of therapy closely related to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). It consists of five steps: evaluation, feedback, developing a hierarchy against fear, exposure, and building upon the rationalization steps. Your therapist would help you change the way you think about your phobia. They would help you rethink your thoughts, feelings, and responses about aging and teach you how to better control them. This process might also include looking at pictures or videos involving aging to help you confront your fear.
  • Energy psychology or the emotional freedom technique is a form of acupuncture technique that doesn’t require needles. It will help you get to the root of the phobia. It can also help remove any kind of negative association you may have with growing old.

How to Avoid Gerascophobia

If you’re feeling the pangs of a fear of growing old, or if you’re already struggling with the fear on a daily basis, here are some things you can do to help you better manage your fear and discomfort.

Maintain a Positive Outlook

There is no escaping getting old. While this might make us feel powerless or overwhelmed, it’s important to be optimistic. We need to focus on the positives about ourselves, others, and the world around us. Be grateful and appreciate all the great things you have in life.

Embrace Your Fears

As we get older, our fears about aging grow bolder. If you want to grow old happily, the key is to pay attention to your phobia and confront it sooner rather than later. Hear what your body and brain are trying to tell you; listen to what it needs.

Create Cheerful Daily Habits

Learn to live in the present and not care too much about the past or the future. As you make some lifestyle choices, reward yourself once in a while with some breaks. Take time for things you like to do. Don’t chase success. Stay where you are to enjoy the moment you are in.

Explore Elderhood

The society that we live in provides us with quite a few useful guidelines about growing old with a positive outlook. The elder in each family may be responsible for solving a crisis, upholding values, and mentoring the young. You need to be your own elder. Be there for yourself.

In Conclusion

As a society, we need to work to accept that there is nothing wrong with aging. All of us will grow old. While everyone wants to leave a mark in this world, it’s essential to understand the importance of being present. We need to start living in the present, focusing on the people around us, living in the moment, and living our lives to the fullest.

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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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