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Animal Phobias

Kabourophobia – Fear of Crabs

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The Clawed Nightmare: Overcoming Crab Phobia

Do you get the creeps when you see a lobster tank at a restaurant ? Have you skipped dinner invitations, because you know they would be serving buttery crabs?

If you can relate to these situations and know the culprit is the crustacean crab, it’s not just because you’re allergic to seafood. You may be dealing with kabourophobia or the phobia of crabs.

Finding out that you have a specific fear of crabs can feel silly, but this is a very real phobia that can have a debilitating impact on your life. You may even feel embarrassed trying to explain this fear to friends and family who may not fully understand.

Fortunately, there are many practical ways to manage and even overcome your fear of crabs. Let’s dive in.

 

Kabourophobia Meaning

If you’ve been dealing with this phobia and wondered what the fear of crabs is called, it’s kabourophobia.

Kabourophobia a specific phobia and a recent discovery. It’s an uncommon fear, which is why you won’t find it among the list of common phobias. But it is a real fear, one that can affect your daily life and overall well-being.

An individual with kabourophobia may be terrified at the mere thought of crabs. They may not only avoid going anywhere near beaches or the sea but may also avoid seafood restaurants. They might even turn away if they see an image of a crab.

Kabourophobia can also be associated with ostraconophobia, which is the fear of all shellfish, including clams, lobsters, shrimps, and crabs.

Kabourophobia Causes

Like almost all phobias, there is no way to pinpoint the exact reason behind the onset of the fear of crabs. Generally, genetic and environmental factors are considered the most likely reasons for developing kabourophobia.

For instance, a traumatic childhood experience of getting bitten by a crab, or experiencing crab poisoning, can cause one to develop a phobia.

Family members who have had a negative experience with crabs can also pass along their own fears to their children or relatives. This can cause someone to grow up with a fear of crabs.

A history of mental illness such as anxiety is another factor that can lead to developing kabourophobia.

 

Kabourophobia Symptoms

Generally, those with crab phobia can experience one or several of the following symptoms, with the severity depending on the level of phobia.

Physical Symptoms

  • Chills
  • Excessive sweating
  • Fainting
  • Headache
  • Increase in blood pressure
  • Nausea
  • Palpitations
  • Vomiting

Mental/Emotional Symptoms

  • Anxiety
  • Confusion
  • Fear that something terrible is about to happen
  • Irrational conclusions and assumptions
  • Mood swings
  • Unexplained dread and morbid thoughts
  • Withdrawal from society

 

Kabourophobia Treatment

For any phobia, acknowledging your fear and accepting you need help is the first step toward treatment and recovery.

Self-Help Options

When you want to overcome your phobia, it’s important to understand that your battle is not against the crab, but rather a mental battle against yourself. Here are some of the most effective self-help techniques that can help you deal with your fear and triggers:

  • Write in a journal
  • Learn breathing exercises
  • Meditate to calm your anxiety and be better able to deal with panic attacks
  • Use exercise to release your fear
  • Try yoga to bring more stability to your life
  • Take note of your triggers and how you initially react to them

Professional Help

While you continue self-treatment, you can also seek the service of a licensed therapist to help you manage your phobia. Many dealing with phobias, including kabourophobia, benefit from talking with a professional who is better equipped to help one understand and deal with their fear.

A therapist will typically recommend one or more treatment options and work with you at your own pace. The most common therapies are:

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

With CBT, your therapist will help you identify your thought patterns and reactions surrounding your phobia triggers and help you slowly shift them into better, more positive responses.

Exposure Therapy

The goal of exposure therapy is for you to slowly comprehend that the source of your fear—the crab—is not something to be afraid of. You’ll be exposed to crabs to varying extent over some time in a controlled environment until you feel comfortable enough to not have an extreme fear reaction.

Narrative Therapy

Telling your story about your fear can help you feel empowered and realize there’s nothing to fear. With narrative therapy, you can start rewriting your future beyond your phobia.

Mindfulness Training

This training aims to help you stay grounded in the present and avoid all the what-ifs that tend to make phobia worse. You’ll be guided to slowly understand how much your thoughts can impact your actions.

 

Learning to Live with Kabourophobia

When dealing with and seeking treatment for kabourophobia, always remember that your fear—despite how irrational it may seem—is valid. And so are your feelings of anxiousness.

It will make a difference if you can start a conversation about your fear with those you trust, so you can have a support system. There are also online support groups you can join, which can offer some comfort knowing you’re not alone.

It’s important for a person suffering from kabourophobia to understand that crabs are generally afraid of humans and would rather stay at a safe distance. These crustaceans also don’t proactively attack unless they feel threatened. So, there is no imminent threat or danger.

And although the recommended self-help and professional treatment options are always within reach, it’s important to note that results are not immediate.

Learning to manage your fear is the best way to live side-by-side with crabs. And with continuous therapy and professional intervention, you may soon discover that crabs are completely harmless.

 

Final Thoughts

Suffering from any phobia, including kabourophobia, can make you miss the simplest joys in life. But with a mindset committed to overcoming your fear, you might soon find yourself enjoying the beaches and maybe even sampling the delicious crustaceans on the menu.

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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