You can have, or almost everything. But, without a doubt, some of the most common phobias are animal-related phobias. What are the animals that arouse the most fear among the population? And how do you know if you have a phobia of any of them? Is there a treatment or solution for these types of disorders that sometimes limit people’s lives so much? Attention because these are the 5 most frequent animal phobias that you can also suffer from even if you still don’t know it or have been diagnosed.
How do I know if I have an animal phobia?
It is very important to learn to differentiate. Fear is a basic emotion that all human beings have experienced or are going to experience at one time or another in our lives. Fear is fundamental to our survival. It is activated when we are exposed to threatening situations that endanger our lives and prevent us, for example, from approaching a wild animal or jumping off a cliff.
So when does fear become a phobia? The psychologist Ingrid Piston tells us that “fear becomes a phobia when we exaggerate and turn that fear into something irrational.” The emotional intensity with which we react to the stimulus (in this case the animal) is disproportionate.
Anxiety is unleashed in your body. And the symptoms can be both physical and psychological and behavioral. The most common are sweating, shortness of breath or shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, tremors and chills, distorted and disproportionate thoughts and, of course, avoidance of the feared situation or stimulus.
The most common animal phobias
You may have a phobia of bees, birds, ants, horses or even chickens. However, the 5 most frequent animal phobias:
Arachnophobia
Arachnophobia is the fear of spiders. An extreme fear that is unleashed not only when you meet one of these beings, but also when you see them in a photo, in a video or you imagine them. At that moment you begin to suffer from all the symptoms of anxiety and can even lead to a panic attack.
Its causes are closely linked to Seligman’s theory of preparation, which concludes that human beings have acquired by habit and inheritance a natural tendency to fear spiders because in the past most arachnids were very dangerous animals, poisonous and potentially deadly.
Cynophobia
Gynophobia is the fear of dogs. And although arachnophobia does not limit the life of the person who suffers from it so much because it is not so common to find a spider every day, gynophobia is very limiting since dogs are domestic animals that abound in homes and on the streets.
And how do you know if you have gynophobia? You will know if, for example, you know that there is a dog in your neighbor’s yard and instead of walking past it, you take a detour (even if it takes you twice as long) in order to avoid the feeling of anguish you experience: dizziness, nerves, palpitations, desire to run away.
Ailurophobia
As with the phobia of dogs, ailurophobia (phobia of cats) is also very limiting. And what are its causes? It is most likely that from a very young age your mother or father has transmitted messages to you such as ‘be careful with that cat that is going to scratch you, do not come near it, it could hurt you’. Your brain learned that cat-avoidance behavior that has persisted to this day, causing you a true phobia.
Musophobia
Monophobia is the fear of mice or rats, although here, in addition to fear, as Ingrid tells us, disgust comes into play. Rodents are animals that usually cause a lot of repulsion among people.
Its treatment, like that of the rest of phobias, involves going to a psychologist. The most appropriate therapy is cognitive behavioral and exposure, which change the perception one has of these animals and progressively expose the person to the stimulus until they can accept it without avoiding it or experiencing the symptoms of anxiety.
Motephobia
Mote phobia is the fear of butterflies or moths. This fear is mainly caused by the uncontrolled way these insects have when flying. That fear of not having everything under control is what causes anxiety to break out in many people.