Herpetophobia - Fear of reptiles

Search by Phobia Name or Symptoms

Herpetophobia or fear of raptiles is a relatively common phobia. Severity can vary drastically, making it difficult to decide whether you have a clinical phobia or simply a fear. Herpetophobia, like arachnophobia fear of spiders is belived by man to be an evolutionary phobia.Herpetophobia is an intense, irratoinal fear of reptiles most specifically; the herpetophobic individual may fear only reptiles such as snakes and lizards. While this is a surprisingly common fear among people, for the person coping with herpetophobia, that fear is paralyzing, in its extreme form. Herpetophobia derives from the Greek word herpeton, meaning reptile and Phobos meaning fear. Herpetophobia is an intense fear of something that poess little or no actual danger. While adults with herpetophobia realize that these fears are irrational, they often find that facing, or even thinking about facing, the feared situation brings on a panic attack or severe anxiety. This phobia can become quite irrational if left untreated.

What Causes Herpetophobia?

A with all phobias, there person impacted by herpetophobia has been severely frightened at some time in their life. That traumatic experience is the consistently and automatically associated with reptiles. The herpetophobic person watched the fearful and negative reaction of others, when confronted with reptiles and learned to imitate that response. Perhaps this individual has person experience of being frightened by a snake or lizard and herpetophobia developed over time. The person coping with this phobia could have personal knowledge of another person's frightening and negative experience with reptiles.

Symptoms:-

The symptoms of herptophobia are individual and will vary from person to person some people when confronted with their fear of reptiles, may begin to perspire, feel slightly uncomfortable or become nauseated at the opposite end of the spectrum, other people are so severely compromised by this phobia. the symptoms are A dry mouth heart palpitations, numbness, heightened senses, breathlessness, feeling dizzy, muscle tension, hyperventilation, trembling, feeling out of control, feeing trapped and unable to escape

Treatment :-

When the fear of reptiles becomes intense enough to disrupt an individual's ability to function. Hypnotherpy, exposure therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy

Cognitive behavioral treatments:-

Exposure treatment can provide lasting relief to the majority of patients with panic disorder and agoraphobia. Disappearance of residual and subclinical agoraphobic avoidance, and not simply of panic attacks, should be the aim of exposure therapy.

Cognitive restructuring has also proved useful in treating agoraphobia. This treatment involves coaching a participant through a diagnostic discussion, with the intent of substituting irrational, counterproductive beliefs with more factual and beneficial ones.

********Fix your Herpetophobia