The fact that is not frequent or that you have not heard of it does not mean that it does not exist and that it does not entail a certain danger. This is the case of omphalophobia or fear of the navel, a disorder that is very limiting and problematic, and that must be treated as soon as possible. We tell you everything you need to know about omphalophobia in our phobia.
What is omphalophobia?
Omphalophobia is the fear of the navel. An irrational and excessive fear, as occurs with all phobias, in which the navel is considered something dangerous. What danger can a navel entail? The truth is that none, but logic does not come into play when we talk about phobic disorders.
Phobias to some parts of the body are not unknown to us. We have already seen how some people suffer from hydrophobia or fear of the hands or the more frequent podophobia or fear of the feet, where fear is mixed with certain repulsion towards that specific part of the human body. And the same goes for omphalophobia.
Symptoms of omphalophobia
This phobia of navels presents the same symptoms as anxiety. When you have your own navel in front of you or someone else’s, you begin to notice a feeling that something is wrong. It is when the anxiety in the face of the supposed danger is triggered and then the, palpitations, tingling, tachycardia and shortness of breath appears until they can become a panic attack.
All this for a stimulus as seemingly harmless as a belly button. But in addition to the physical symptoms, omphalophobia also has a series of psychological symptoms, the usual ones in this type of phobia. Among them are distorted thoughts, anguish and a drop by being aware that the fear of the navel is irrational.
Causes and consequences of omphalophobia
You can intuit the consequences of this phobia if you can imagine what the life of a person who suffers from omphalophobia is like. From the difficulties when it comes to daily that are solved by not looking at your own navel, to the impossibility of going to a space like the beach where people display their navels without complexes and without knowing that there is a person afraid of this specific part of the body.
But what can cause a phobia as curious as that of navels? It is difficult for us to establish the cause of omphalophobia in a traumatic experience, as it happens with most phobias. Therefore, it is most likely that its development is linked to an anxiety disorder that promotes distorted thoughts.
Omphalophobia treatment
The avoidance behavior caused by phobias is precisely what imposes the limitations on the lives of the people who suffer from them. And although it seems that it can be relatively easy to avoid belly buttons without serious consequences, it is not. Even if it were, a phobia by itself is a sign that something is wrong and help should be sought as soon as possible.
Psychotherapy is necessary to overcome omphalophobia and the most effective is cognitive, a treatment that reaches the origin of irrational thoughts that considers the navel as a danger and also works on avoidance behavior. With fear removed, the need to escape is also removed.
Whenever we talk about phobias, the presence of anxiety must be taken into account, so any therapy to overcome the phobia must be accompanied by the practice of relaxation techniques to better cope with day to day.