Skip to content Skip to sidebar Skip to footer
3K
3K
740
3K
Menu
Menu
static-img
Body Phobias

Trichinophobia – The Fear of Trichinosis

Share This Article
Share Post

Fear Trichinosis, Avoid Trichinophobia

Trichinosis is a serious and troublesome condition. Parasites living in your body? Who wouldn’t be unsettled at the thought?

But developing a phobia over the idea of trichinosis is something else entirely.

Do you avoid game meat at all costs? Is sushi not on your menu, ever!

Do you feel sick even thinking about the roundworm infection you may get from undercooked meat?

If you answer yes, you may have trichinophobia, the fear of trichinosis.

Explaining to your loved ones why you are so particular about the meat being cooked properly must be another concern. Will they understand the terror that grips you at the thought of acquiring the parasitic infection? Or will they poke fun at you? Living in constant fear of getting sick can be sickening in itself.

You have probably avoided countless meals, no matter how tasty they smelled or looked, for fear that the meat may be undercooked.

And although you may think this is rare, you’re not alone. You can refer to a list of phobias for evidence of that.

Also, there’s no need to lose hope. With a combination of self-help and professional treatment, you can overcome your fear.

Keep reading to learn more about the causes of trichinophobia, its symptoms, and treatments.

 

Trichinophobia Definition

Trichinophobia is the fear of trichinosis. Someone with the phobia fears acquiring the parasitic infection caused by the microscopic parasite called trichinella.

Trichinosis is a food-borne disease spread by eating undercooked or raw meat of an infected animal.

People who have the phobia become anxious at the thought of getting sick with trichinosis. Their fear may reach a level where they may experience panic attacks at even the thought of eating meat.

The person is in constant fear of acquiring the infection rather than merely being disgusted by the disease or its symptoms.

Oftentimes, people with the phobia try to avoid the object of the fear. So, they may not attend events involving meals such as barbecue parties or dinner events hosted at venues they don’t trust. However, it is just an avoidance technique and does not help overcome the phobia.

Is Trichinophobia a Phobia of Fear or Disgust?

 

Potential Causes of Trichinophobia

Getting to the root cause of a phobia can be beneficial in determining the treatment plan and help speed up recovery. However, it’s often not possible to get to the root as the patient may not know exactly what triggered the phobia.

A person may develop anxiety disorders like trichinophobia for various reasons. These causes may singly or in combination be the reason for the development of the phobia.

Genetic predisposition: Someone with a family member or a family history of mental illness, especially anxiety disorder or specific phobia, has a high chance of acquiring the phobia. Such individuals are genetically predisposed to mental illnesses, and sometimes the slightest trigger can lead to the onset of the phobia.

Experience: If you experienced being sick with trichinosis or saw someone struggle with it, it can lead to the development of fear. Also, as trichinosis can be fatal, hearing about someone dying from the infection can instill a fear of death, bringing on trichophobia.

Learned behavior: If you know someone with the phobia, their description of the fear can also be instilled in your mind. Having absorbed and learned their fears may have caused you to develop your own.

 

Symptoms of Trichinophobia

Symptoms vary from one individual to another and depend on the severity of the phobia. While those with mild cases of trichinophobia may experience sweating and other mild physical symptoms, those with extreme cases may experience panic attacks.

Depending upon the intensity of the phobia, a person may experience four or more of the symptoms listed below.

Physical Symptoms

  • Increased rate of breathing
  • Increased heart rate
  • Sweating
  • Muscle tension
  • Trembling
  • High blood pressure

Psychological Symptoms

  • Anxiety
  • Panic attacks
  • Constantly thinking about trichinosis and things that may cause trichinosis
  • Avoiding eating at new places
  • Fear of dying
  • Fear of dread

 

Treatment of Trichinophobia

Like other phobias, there is no definitive treatment for trichinophobia. However, the different treatment options used for other specific phobias also work well to treat trichinophobia.

Self-Help

Before trying any treatment options, first try to help yourself. You are well aware of your case, the cause, the triggers, and more.

Reading about the phobia, maintaining a journal, and recording observations like triggers, the progression of your condition, and what helps you will go a long way in helping you overcome your fear.

You can also try other self-help techniques like relaxation, yoga, and meditation. These techniques relax the mind and cause the release of feel-good hormones.

You can also try the exposure technique. Although doctors do it in a professional setting, you can try the same yourself. You can gradually expose yourself to the object of your fear to the point where you become desensitized to it.

 

Professional Help

You may also consider seeking the help of a therapist. Therapists can expertly guide you through the process of overcoming your fear. Many treatment techniques are available, and they will employ the ones they deem most fit for you.

As discussed above, therapists may try exposure techniques. They may also use cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT may help clients uncover the cause of their phobia. It’s helpful in modifying someone’s thought process and replacing irrational and negative thoughts with positive, more rational ones.

Therapists may also use techniques like mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and other talking treatments to help clients overcome their fear.

In extreme cases, doctors may prescribe medication, like antidepressants, beta-blockers, and anti-anxiety medication until the patient responds to therapy techniques.

 

Learning to Cope with Trichinophobia

Trichinophobia may limit your social life. The anxiety and dread of acquiring the disease may stop you from attending social gatherings. You may even stop eating meat altogether.

Trying self-help techniques can help you overcome or at least reduce the levels of anxiety.

If self-help doesn’t work, you can seek professional help. Licensed practitioners will guide you through the process and help you regain a sense of normalcy.

 

Conclusion

Trichinophobia can affect your social life and may even limit your diet. However, you do not have to live with fear. A little help from family, friends, or a professional will help you get back to a fear-free and fulfilling lifestyle.

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.
0LikesShare Post

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.
This Pop-up Is Included in the Theme
Best Choice for Creatives
Purchase Now