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Hoplophobia – The Fear of Firearms
Other Phobias

Hoplophobia – The Fear of Firearms

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Do You Have an Excessive Fear of Firearms?

We’ve all heard someone say, “Oh, I don’t like those things,” or ” Get that gun away, it scares me.” But some have a much deeper fear of guns—an excessive, debilitating fear.

Do you break into a cold sweat in the gun section at Walmart?

Do guns firing give you a horrible feeling in the pit of your stomach?

Sure, you might not be a hunter or a sports shooter, but even being near guns terrifies you.

You may be suffering from hoplophobia, or a fear of firearms.

A Comprehensive Look at Hoplophobia, the Fear of Firearms

If watching cops and robbers on TV—or even news where firearms are involved—causes you to lose focus or control, you may worry about what’s happening to you. Perhaps the mere sight of firearms causes you to spiral into an unexplainable and uncontrollable panic. You may have hoplophobia.

This fear can cause you to lose control of your thoughts and actions. It can be an unpleasant feeling leaving you overwhelmed and physically drained. People around you may not know how to react to your sudden panic. Instead of being helpful, they may be quick to judge.

An Irrational Fear of Firearms

You know that firearms are a form of protection. Police authorities use them to help save and defend lives, but this doesn’t comfort you. For you, firearms trigger fear regardless of the situation.

Take deep, slow breaths. Know that somewhere, someone shares the same fear as you. With the right mindset and a strong will, you can manage this condition and release yourself from this fear.

Hoplophobia Causes

Like most phobias, hoplophobia can be caused by a traumatic experience you might have had when you were younger. Perhaps you were shot at and survived. You may have been directly or indirectly involved in a shooting experience and witnessed death from the shooting. It’s possible you watched a gruesome and intense scene involving guns in a movie or from the news, and it rattled you to the core.

Hoplophobia Can Be a Learned Behavior

The fear could also be a learned behavior watching your elders while growing up. There might have been a shooting incident where a family member was involved. As a result, firearms were considered taboo in your home and consistently associated with death, fear, and unpleasantness.

Growing up, you may have had family who understood and shared the same fear as you. However, facing it alone is a different story and your fear always gets the better of you.

Quick Facts about Hoplophobia

Hoplophobia is a common phobia. It’s defined as the fear of weapons, specifically firearms. It encompasses weapons like shotguns, rifles, and pistols. It comes from the Greek word hoplon which stands for weapon, and phobos, meaning fear.

More Than a Fear of Firearms

This specific phobia is not just limited to firearms. It can also manifest as an irrational fear of those carrying or using weapons. It doesn’t matter if the firearm is being used to serve and protect the innocent, because once the unfounded fear kicks in, you can’t differentiate good from bad. Therefore, you find yourself focusing solely on the firearm and nothing else.

Hoplophobia may cause you to fear the weapon, the one using it, and the damage and havoc it can cause. Thus, you perceive it as a destructive and deadly weapon—never as an instrument for saving or protecting lives.

Colonel Jeff Cooper, a former Marine and popular firearms instructor, once described this irrational fear as a mental disturbance. He said people who are afraid of firearms believe that firearms have a life and will of their own. Mental health professionals, on the other hand, generally attribute phobias such as hoplophobia to one’s genetics and/or environment.

Hoplophobia Symptoms

The range of symptoms of hoplophobia are the same as other phobias. There is no one distinct symptom for the fear of firearms.

These manifestations are generally classified as physical and mental/emotional symptoms.

Physical Symptoms

  • Breathlessness
  • Heart palpitations
  • Difficulty breathing
  • Discomfort
  • Dizziness
  • Dry mouth
  • Extreme sweating
  • Feeling faint
  • Headaches
  • Hyperventilating
  • Nausea
  • Rapid pulse
  • Sleeplessness

Mental/Emotional Symptoms

  • Fear of getting hurt
  • Fear of dying
  • Extreme anxiety
  • Irritability
  • Mood swings
  • Self-doubt
  • Shame

The extent and severity of symptoms are unique for each person. Some might experience physical symptoms for a few minutes while others may have a myriad of symptoms which impact their daily activities.

Dealing with Hoplophobia

Most of those who have hoplophobia know their fear borders on the irritational. However, this perspective is forgotten once they’re overcome by terror. It’s a complex mental battle.

Since hoplophobia can affect one’s mental health and relationships with others, those struggling with the fear are encouraged to seek help to overcome and manage their fear as soon as possible.

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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