Fear of stairs (batmophobia): symptoms, causes and treatment
The stairs are a structure that facilitates our day to day life and makes our life much simpler. While for many of us, stairs can be very helpful, some individuals experience symptoms of anxiety and fear when they see them or when they imagine them. It is what is known as batophobia or scary fear of stairs . In this article we will deal with this topic and we will delve into its causes, symptoms and treatment.
There are different types of phobias, and, in fact, they are one of the most frequent psychological disorders. While many people may suffer pathological fear when they have to get on a plane or when they have a spider nearby, it is not very common for people to develop phobia on stairs.
- Related article: "The 15 purest phobias that exist"
What is batmophobia
Stair phobia is an anxiety disorder, in which the main symptoms are extreme anxiety, fear and the attempt to avoid the feared stimulus. Although using stairs can be a practical experience, the batmophobe suffers great discomfort .
Phobias are usually classified into three types: social phobia, agoraphobia, and specific phobias. The latter make reference to Irrational fear that an individual suffers before objects, animals, activities or concrete situations , such as snakes, driving a car or flowers.
You can learn more about agoraphobia or social phobia in articles:
- Agoraphobia: the fear of losing control (causes, symptoms and treatment)
- Social phobia: what is it and how to overcome it?
Causes of phobia on stairs
The irrational fear of stairs can be associated with fear of heights or falls, but it is a disorder in itself. While climbing stairs can be a good source of exercise, people with this mental disorder they will avoid using the stairs at all costs , since in many buildings there is the possibility of climbing in an elevator, in most cases it is not a problem for the person who suffers it. Now, if the only way to get to a place is by stairs, then that can be a complicated situation.
This phobia usually developed by classical conditioning , which is a type of associative learning. This happens because the person, who has suffered a traumatic event (for example, a fall), can associate it with the fact that the reason for this is the stairs. If you want to know what exactly classical conditioning is, you can read the article "Classical conditioning and its most important experiments".
However, the traumatic experiences experienced by a person are not the only way to develop this disorder, but other individuals have developed the batmophobia to see people fall down the stairs in real life, but also to see actors fall by the stairs in the movies and end with serious injuries. This can produce a phenomenon called vicar conditioning, which is explained in the article "Vicar conditioning: how does this type of learning work?"
Some experts say that human beings are predisposed to suffer phobias, because the emotion of fear occurs easily as it is adaptive . Fear occurs through primitive and non-cognitive associations and, therefore, does not respond to logical arguments.
Symptoms of this phobic disorder
The symptoms of this disorder are the same as other phobias, but the difference is in the stimulus that manifests . For example, in the case of coulrophobia, phobic symptoms appear in the presence of clowns.
The symptoms of this phobia can be classified as cognitive, behavioral and physical . The former include catastrophic thoughts, anguish, fear or confusion. Avoidance of the feared stimulus refers to behavioral symptoms. Finally, the physical symptoms are: nausea, headache, shortness of breath, excessive sweating, etc.
Treatment of this disorder
The person suffering from this disorder may be aware of their problem; but nevertheless, it's not that easy to get over it without the help of a psychologist . Luckily, psychotherapy has proven to be very effective for treatment, according to many scientific studies.
Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the most used currents for treatment, and includes several effective techniques, such as relaxation techniques and exposure techniques. Actually, the best known is the systematic desensitization, which includes the two previous ones. This technique exposes the patient to the phobic stimulus gradually , but first learn a series of strategies to deal with this stimulus.
In addition to cognitive behavioral therapy, cognitive therapy based on Mindfulness and acceptance and commitment therapy have also shown that they provide excellent results.
New technologies and phobias
In recent years, advances in new technologies have also been used to treat phobias. Virtual reality has proven to be very useful , and for that reason, many psychotherapists use it in their interventions.
But the technology continues to advance, and with the advances of smartphones, have been appearing apps that help treat phobias. You can know them in the article "8 apps to treat phobias and fears from your smartphone".
