Last Updated on March 11, 2023 by Mike Robinson
Uranophobia is the irrational fear of the mystical idea of a paradise and not being worthy of it. As is reasonable, this is a fear derived from the fear of dying and not having done enough to deserve to ascend to heaven. By extension, it also refers to the simple fear of dying.
Since the origin of the human species, man has feared his death, and this experience has led him to develop myths and religions, many of them with an idea about where the human goes when he dies. In general, there is usually an idyllic place for those who are awarded for acting well and a horrible place for those who did wrong.
This is a generalized phobia, which means that its effects can be felt at any time of the day without a stimulus that provokes them, as they do with simple phobias (for example, the fear of dogs). For this reason, it can be highly disabling or limiting for the sufferer.
In this article, we will talk in detail about uranophobia in order to clearly understand its symptoms, the possible associated causes, and how to alleviate its symptoms. The course of this condition and the guidelines for the differential diagnosis of other similar phobias will also be discussed.
The Symptoms of Uranophobia
Uranophobia, like other phobias, is characterized by a strong, irrational fear of death, the afterlife, or outer space. “Accused, persistent, excessive, and irrational” are explained next. Fear is justified when the subject can express and recognize it. If the person cannot identify the cause, it is not a phobia. Persistence means it stays the same over time (months or years).
A fear is excessive when it exceeds context-, age-, and culture-related quotas. For instance, most people fear death, but not enough to prevent them from living fully. Many believers fear not reaching heaven. However, fear of outer space or the vastness of the physical sky is rare, so expressing it too much will be considered excessive.
Children rarely realize their fears are irrational, but adults do. Exposure to death, life after death, or outer space always or almost always causes anxiety, which is another important symptom. It can also cause panic or anxiety. The person may also fear these stimuli for fear of anxiety or anguish. Since one of the symptoms of the crisis of anguish is the fear of dying, uranophobia can worsen the symptoms in a spiral. When phobic stimuli cause a constant anxiety crisis, it can be diagnosed as distress disorder with or without agoraphobia.
Space and open spaces can cause agoraphobia. Phobic anxiety in children can cause tantrums, inhibition, freezing, and affective protection. Finally, uranophobia causes anxiety and fear avoidance. Sleep avoidance is a common avoidance strategy. Thus, this phobia may cause insomnia. The subject may also avoid death, wakes, affinities, looking at the sky, or reading about life after death. The person’s life, relationships, and comfort are affected by these avoidance behaviors and anxiety.
Causes of Uranophobia
There is not much literature on the causes of uranophobia. However, most agree that they are similar to those of other phobias. For example, a past traumatic experience, namely, an accident, a near-death experience, or a very strong religious education
The victim may have been threatened with going to hell or not going to heaven for minor infractions by his parents, school, or religious tutors. He thinks nothing he does will get him to heaven when he dies.
You may have experienced the sudden death of one or more loved ones, a severe illness, or an invasive medical procedure, which makes you think life is fragile and that you could die at any time.
When a family member has uranophobia or another phobia like tanatofobia (fear of death), tapephobia (fear of being buried alive), or stiglophobia, the phobia can develop through learning or modeling. The person may have had a sudden emotional crisis that caused uranophobia, or a fear of dying.
Finally, there will be some cases where the person is not able to remember the origin of their fear. For example, the person could have been sexually abused and, from there, start to fear heaven as a living space after death.
In cases where the person cannot remember the cause of their phobia, they are usually advised to remember when they started avoiding these stimuli and what the context of their life was at the time. This could offer an imprecise but useful picture for understanding the origin of this irrational fear.
Origins of Uranophobia
Uranophobia, like other situational phobias, usually begins in the second grade or mid-30s. Uranophobia can be eliminated if treated in childhood, but not in adulthood.
Psychotherapy is unlikely to cure childhood-onset uranophobia. They can be reduced or controlled, but not eliminated. It can be eliminated in adulthood if treated early, but less so than in childhood. In the same way, uranophobia caused by a traumatic experience or anguish crisis tends to be more intense and harder to treat, as well as requiring special attention for the crisis or trauma integration.
Finally, living with one or more people who have the same, similar, or associated phobia and have not treated their symptoms makes it harder to cure the phobia. If the cause remains, nothing changes. Parents continue to threaten hell.
Phobia Comparisons
Many specific phobias share similarities, making them hard to distinguish. The following phobias are similar to uranophobia and describe their differences.
Eonofobia is the irrational fear of eternity. This includes immortality and other forms of eternal life (for example, the life after death that many religions promise). It also involves fearing eternity.
As you can see, it is similar to uranophobia, but uranofóbico is not afraid to live forever, but not in the paradise promised by its religion. Or fear outer space for its vastness, not its eternity.
Often associated with hypochondria and necrofobia, the irrational fear of dead things or death (for example, urns), tanatofóbicos also fear losing loved ones. uranophobia differs from sophophobia in that it is the fear of dying unexpectedly or before the person can do the minimum to earn their religion’s heaven or paradise. Tanatofobia is the fear of death. (fear of committing sins that are worth a life in hell).
Pecatofobia and enosiophobia—fears of sinning and committing an unforgivable sin—are linked to them. The first two of these four phobias are about hell, but uranophobia is about not going to heaven. In the last two, sin is not a fear of not going to heaven, as the uranophobic fears.
Astrophobia is the irrational fear of space and stars.
Anablephobia is more like vertigo than uranophobia, which fears the vast celestial space. As you can see, many phobias resemble uranophobia, and if the criteria for two or more are met, both are present. Otherwise, choose the one that best describes the person’s situation.
Treatment Options for Uranophobia
The treatment of uranophobia is not different from that of other phobias and may include the consumption of psychotropic drugs, according to the assessment of the specialist and the patient’s will or interest.
Habitually, the consumption of psychotropic drugs is justified when there is the presence of panic attacks or when the intensity of the phobic anxiety is very high.
In the field of psychotherapy, the use of behavioral or cognitive therapy is very common. In behavioral therapy, the objective is to expose the person to the feared situation. But this can be done in different ways. System desensitization is one of the most used because of its effectiveness.
This technique of behavior modification consists of the patient being progressively exposed to higher levels of the feared situation while becoming less sensitive to fear. Usually, it begins with imagined situations, which are then seen at a distance and then experienced closely.
For this, the patient elaborates a list of situations in which his phobia occurs. He then rates them from highest to lowest anxiety. On this basis, desensitization is performed. For example, a patient with uranophobia will first be exposed to imagining how the sky is, then to seeing cards with graphic representations of it, followed by talking about the subject, etc.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy
Cognitive therapy places its emphasis on the restructuring of distorted thoughts that cause or sustain the phobia. For example, the person can perform a selective abstraction (see only a part of reality). They do this by analyzing their behavior within their faith system. This leads them to conclude that it is bad.
Other cognitive distortions that could occur are polarized thinking (“I will never get to heaven”), overgeneralization (“I was a bad Christian today; I always am”), disqualification of the positive (“I helped that beggar, but not as much as I could “), catastrophization (” if I sleep, I can die “), etc.
Also Read: Nomophobia: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment
Since phobia is irrational, these distortions of thought are easily maintained. Therefore, psychotherapeutic care is required to achieve a true positive result. Self-help can work in mild cases, but even so, the advice of an expert is recommended to prevent it from evolving negatively.
