Individuals with spectrophobia may be extremely fearful of their own reflection, of the mirror itself, or of ghosts appearing in mirrors. This condition is very rare, but it can also be quite serious. 1 Like other phobias, spectrophobia can disrupt all aspects of an individual's life and lead to avoidance behaviors.
Sufferers of spectrophobia can fear the breaking of a mirror bringing extreme bad luck. They can fear the thought of something frightening jumping out of the mirror, or seeing something disturbing inside of it next to their own reflection when looking directly at it.
Determine How Your Spectrophobia Affects You
There is a myriad of reasons why you may be afraid of reflective surfaces. Perhaps it is because there is something involved with your self-perception, or perhaps you are more spiritual and are worried that something may appear in the reflection.
You may have eisoptrophobia if you have an intense fear of mirrors. Eisoptrophobia is a specific phobia, which means it causes fear of a particular situation. The fear is typically much greater than the actual risk of danger. Eisoptrophobia may also be called spectrophobia or catoptrophobia.
Spectrophobia: An abnormal and persistent fear of ghosts. Sufferers of spectrophobia experience undue anxiety even though they realize their fear is irrational. They may fear going into woods, empty houses or dark places and may react with alarm at strange or unexplained noises.
Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of having peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth. Arachibutyrophobia is a rare phobia that involves a fear of getting peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth.
Treatment of spectrophobia typically doesn't require medication, but psychoactive drugs are necessary on occasion, particularly if an individual has a co-occurring mental health disorder. Research has found that medication works best for treating specific phobias when used in conjunction with psychotherapy.
Understanding the phobia can help you overcome it and live a fulfilling life. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is one of the longest words in the dictionary, and ironically, it means the fear of long words. It originally was referred to as Sesquipedalophobia but was changed at some point to sound more intimidating.
Dissociation and depersonalization disorders
Depersonalization-derealization disorder: This can involve out-of-body experiences, a feeling of being unreal, and an inability to recognize one's image in a mirror.
“The creepiness is probably tied to the way in which a mirror creates a duplicate world—when you look in a mirror, you're always seeing something that's not actually there,” says Phillips.
Pediophobia is a type of specific phobia characterized by a fear of dolls. A person with pediophobia will experience anxiety when thinking about or physically near dolls.
Social phobias are the most common type of fear. They are considered an anxiety disorder and include excessive self-consciousness in social situations. Some people can fear being judged so much they avoid specific situations, like eating in front of others.
Nyctophobia is an extreme fear of the dark. The name comes from the Greek word for night. Children and adults with nyctophobia may fear being alone in the dark. They may have anxiety in dark places, and they may have trouble sleeping in a darkened room.
550+ Types of Phobias A to Z
Essentially, any object, activity, or situation can become a phobia if associated with a traumatic experience or irrational idea gripped by emotion.
Despite its appearance, chloephobia isn't a morbid dislike of girls named Chloe. A rare appearance was here: A woman who developed a fear of newspapers after watching her mother hit her father over the head with one has told how her unusual phobia affects her life every day.
Scopophobia is an excessive fear of being watched. People with scopophobia find social interactions extremely stressful because they think people are judging them. Some people avoid socializing altogether. The phobia can stop them enjoying everyday activities or impact their work or school life.
Simple phobias
Some common examples include: dogs. spiders. snakes.
According to Forbes Magazine, the number one fear for the average person is that of public speaking. The second fear is death... So maybe you feel more relieved now, knowing that most people would rather die than give a presentation in front of a crowd...