There are phobias that it is difficult for us to imagine that they exist except in some horror movie. This is the case of tocophobia or technophobia, the fear of being buried alive that goes beyond the borders of logical fear to become a phobic disorder with serious consequences. In our dictionary we talk about tape phobia or the fear of being buried alive.
What is tocophobia?
Perhaps you have heard it told, from someone who knows someone that it happened to him and that was known a long time later. Maybe you’ve seen it in a horror movie and just thinking about it makes you shudder with fear. We talk about those stories of people who have been buried alive since they are the basis of tocophobia.
Realistically, today there is little chance of that happening, but we already know that when it comes to phobia, fear is irrational and excessive. The fear of being buried alive is an almost instinctive fear and is also closely related to claustrophobia. But let’s get to the phobia in question.
The symptoms of this phobia
People with tape phobia do not have to be directly exposed to the stimulus to experience the full range of anxiety symptoms. Fortunately, you won’t have to put yourself in that situation like when you have agoraphobia, for example. There is not going to be a situation where they have to bury you alive.
But the mere idea that this could happen can trigger an anxiety attack or even a panic attack. This happens especially if the person gets sick and has to go to a hospital or when they go to bed to sleep, in a situation that reminds us a lot of clinophobia.
Why am I afraid of being buried alive?
Most phobias develop from a previous traumatic experience or anxiety disorder. Both situations can give rise to the fear of being buried alive because, after all, it is nothing more than an excessive reaction to a very logical and natural fear.
In addition, in the case of tape phobia, the concept of death that we have in our society comes into play, as that of an inevitable evil. Everything that surrounds death is mysterious and unknown and that is still a source of fear. Hence, necrophobia or fear of corpses can also develop.
Treatment of tocophobia
Like all the fear of being buried alive can be overcome. For this, it is necessary to go to psychological therapy so that the causes that have caused this phobia can be found out. Talking to that person to understand what death implies for them will make it possible to better understand the origin of fear.
Therapy is the most effective for the treatment of phobias. A therapy whose objective is to transform both thought and behavior and that must be accompanied by relaxation techniques to reduce the anxiety component with which all phobias are loaded.