Last Updated on April 13, 2023 by Mike Robinson
Entomophobia is an anxiety disorder in which a person gets very scared when seeing an insect. Entomophobia can be more or less debilitating and humiliating for the person who has it, depending on the case. But the anxiety resulting from this change is unpleasant and bad for the person.
In this article, we’ll talk about the causes and possible treatments for entomophobia. We’ll also talk about the disorder’s characteristics and symptoms.
Phobia characteristics
Entomophobia is a specific phobia, so it is on the spectrum of anxiety disorders. This means that this disease leads to psychopathology, which is a mental disorder. It can be hard to connect a fear or phobia of insects or other things to a mental illness because this is often seen as a sign of something else, like schizophrenia or depression. But when we talk about entomophobia, we’re not talking about a normal fear of bugs.
When a person with entomophobia sees an insect, their fear is out of proportion, irrational, and intense. It also has several harmful effects. So, the first thing we need to know about entomophobia is that it is an abnormal form of anxiety that is different from how most people react to fear and needs to be treated to be overcome.
It is an Irrational Fear.
The fear that people with entomophobia feel differs from that of most people. Fear is a typical response for humans, and it also comes from an experience that is important for the species’ survival. Fear, like other emotions, can keep a person from getting hurt. For example, if we walk down the street and see someone who wants to attack us, our body will react with fear, letting us start the processes we need to run away or fight back.
On the other hand, the fear that comes from entomophobia cannot be included in this normal or adaptive response. A person with this disorder doesn’t have normal feelings of fear; instead, they have pathological feelings of fear.
What Kind of Fear is Entomophobia?
When we talk about “adaptive fear,” we usually mean a set of feelings that are normal responses to real dangers. But when these feelings happen in situations that aren’t really dangerous, we end up with a fear that isn’t helpful. This unhelpful and non-adaptive fear response is called a “phobia.” Since phobia is a type of fear, it can be hard to distinguish between normal and phobic fears. This is one of the most apparent problems with diagnosing people. So, to correctly define entomophobia, the person who has it must feel the following kinds of fear whenever he is in contact with an insect or thinks he might be:
Disproportionate Fear
When an entomophobe sees an insect, they feel a lot of fear that is entirely out of proportion to the situation. This means that the panic caused by the insect doesn’t match up with the real threat that exists.
In fact, the most common thing that happens is that the insects make the person feel panicked and anxious, even though the animal in question is not a threat to the person.
Irrational Fear
The last point explains a lot about phobic fear but doesn’t explain why some people fear insects. To be sure that someone has this anxiety disorder, the person’s fear must also be irrational. This means that a person afraid of insects can’t explain or reason about the feelings and thoughts of fear he has when he sees an insect.
The person with entomophobia knows that their fear is too big and not helpful, but they can’t explain why insects make them feel this way right away.
Uncontrollable Fear
The person can’t explain or understand what makes him afraid of insects and can’t control it either. In fact, many people with entomophobia try to prevent or lessen their anxiety when they see an insect but cannot do so.
One of the main goals of psychological treatment for this kind of change is to help the person take control of their fearful thoughts and feelings when they are around their phobic stimuli.
Leads to Avoidance Behavior
The fear of insects is so intense and out of control that a person with entomophobia will try to avoid seeing insects at all costs. In other words, the entomophobic will go to great lengths to avoid being around or seeing insects.
Most psychological trends say that a person with entomophobia can avoid their fear and anxiety by staying away from insects; at the same time, this is the main thing that keeps the disorder going. So, most psychological treatments for entomophobia involve putting the person in situations where they can’t escape insects. The goal is for the person to learn how to deal with their fear and anxiety when insects are nearby.
Persists over time.
Entomophobia is a mental disorder, so the anxiety and worry of being around insects stay with the person over time. The fear of entomophobia will not go away without proper psychological treatment. Therefore, it is a chronic disorder that requires intervention.
Presents social challenges.
It is clear that the fear that people with entomophobia feel is not healthy. This means that the set of physical and mental responses that lead to the feeling of fear doesn’t help the person adapt to their surroundings but rather does the opposite.
It is not age specific.
Children may be more likely to feel scared during childhood or adolescence when exposed to different things, like insects. This phobia of bugs isn’t limited to a particular stage in life. Therefore, it lasts for a long time. A person with entomophobia will have problems for the rest of his life if he doesn’t get help to overcome his fear.
Symptom of Entomophobia
So far, we’ve talked about the signs of entomophobia. If you’re afraid of bugs, you can start to figure out whether you have entomophobia. But entomophobia isn’t just defined by the things that make it scary; it also has several very different symptoms. Constant fear can lead to the onset of the disease. We can tell the difference between the physiological plane, the mental plane, and the behavioral plane in the clinic of entomophobia.
Physiological Symptoms
The physiological symptoms are all of the ways that a person’s fear of insects shows up in their bodies. Before the feared stimulus, an insect appears, the body undergoes a series of physical changes. These physical responses set up a rise in activity in the central nervous system.
So, a person with entomophobia might have a faster heart rate and breathing, more sweating than usual, dilated pupils, tachycardia, tight muscles, or a dry mouth. As we can see, this list of symptoms refers to anxiety and normal fear. In this way, when a person is in real danger, their heart and breathing rates go up, and they sweat more or tighten their muscles. This prepares their body for action so they can deal with the danger in the best way possible.
So, these symptoms don’t explain the phobic part of fear because all of these symptoms happen when a person is around an insect that doesn’t pose a real threat. Plan for thinking.
Cognitive Symptoms
The cognitive affects are made up of all the thoughts that a person with entomophobia has. These thoughts can be about what is feared (insects) and the ability to deal with them. A person with entomophobia can think of the worst possible things that could happen if he sees an insect and feel like he will die if one is near him.
Thoughts related to entomophobia are obviously not logical, so we need to do something to stop the fear.
Changes in Behavior
Lastly, we’ve already said that entomophobia leads to a set of determined actions. These actions only happen when insects are present or thought to be present, and their main goal is to avoid them. So, a person with this anxiety disorder might do several things to avoid coming into contact with an insect at all costs.
Common Causes of Entomophobia
Like the other phobias, it is generally agreed that this disease does not have a single reason and can but is the result of several different things. The leading causes of entomophobia are direct conditioning by others and genetics.
In terms of direct conditioning, having bad experiences with insects when you were young can cause you to associate them with fear. Another idea is that entomophobia is caused in part by being able to see or think about images or situations that promote a fear of insects. But this kind of link only shows up in some disease cases.
Another common reason is that the person may have genetic factors that make them more likely to have this disorder.
Treatment Options
The best thing about a fear of insects is that proper treatment can help overcome it if done correctly. But people with this problem often need more professional help. They think because insects don’t show up often, they don’t cause many daily problems. That is the wrong mindset to have when dealing with a phobia.
Psychotherapy is the best way to treat entomophobia because it can quickly get rid of the disorder. Cognitive behavioral treatment is the type of psychotherapy that is the most useful and effective for this kind of problem.
In this treatment, the patient comes in close contact with different insects. The goal is for him to get used to the insects and realize that nothing bad will happen if he is near them. Then, relaxation techniques will help deal with the anxiety caused by insects. Cognitive methods can sometimes change irrational and phobic thoughts about these animals.
Also Read: Anuptaphobia: Symptoms, Causes and Treatments
