Does your heart start to race when you are locked in a small room?
Cleithrophobia, or the fear of being trapped, is a bang out of specific phobia.
The root word for this phobia is from the Greekcleithro, which means to shut or close.
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Many events might trigger cleithrophobia, including being locked in a bathroom or other small room.
The condition can affect both children and adults and can lead to a range of disruptive and distressing symptoms.
This phobia may be linked to traumatic experiences, but evolutionary and genetic factors may also play a role.
While similar (and often confused) with claustrophobia, the two differ in important ways.
While it can have a serious impact on your ability to function, therapy and medication can help.
Relaxation strategies, like deep breathing and grounding techniques, can also help you better handle your fear.
Crying, screaming, physically lashing out, freezing up, and attempting to run away are very common.
You will likely be unable to think of anything other than the need to escape.
How Is Cleithrophobia Diagnosed?
A doctor or mental health professional will ask questions about your symptoms to make a diagnosis.
Instead, it would be classified as a form of specific phobia.
Cleithrophobia vs. Claustrophobia
Cleithrophobia is often confused withclaustrophobiaor the fear of enclosed spaces.
While they share some similarities, there are several significant differences between the two conditions.
Claustrophobia may occur at any time.
The specific focus of the phobia itself is the small space.
Cleithrophobia is triggered by actual confinement in a small space.
People with cleithrophobia are often entirely comfortable entering small areas they are free to leave.
The specific focus of this phobia is being trapped, locked in, or otherwise unable to leave.
However, it can be nearly impossible to distinguish between them.
Both phobias often causeanticipatory anxiety, in which you begin to panic long before the actual event occurs.
Cleithrophobia may mirror claustrophobia if you see even a slight risk of becoming trapped in the space.
The treatment of the two conditions is similar.
What Causes Cleithrophobia?
Experts are not 100% clear on what causes people to develop a fear of being trapped.
However, there are a number of factors believed to play a role in the development of cleithrophobia.
These may include:
In general, cleithrophobia is triggered by a lack of escape.
Treatment for Cleithrophobia
Treatment for cleithrophobia depends on your needs and the severity of your symptoms.
Options include medication, psychotherapy, and behavioral strategies.
If your symptoms are severe or life-limiting, it is always best to seek advice from amental health professional.
Systematic desensitization and othercognitive-behavioraltechniques work very well with phobias.
You might even find it hard to function normally in your daily life.
If you tend to have milder symptoms, you may find that self-help techniques can be very helpful.
But this is not always possible or practical.
You may not be able to avoid locked doors in public places.
If you begin to panic, try usingpurposeful breathingor guided visualization to calm your anxiety.
Some people find that theStop!
Techniquehelps curb anxiety, while others find that it does not work in the middle of a panic attack.
This technique is a form of cognitive-behavioral therapy aimed at stopping racing thoughts or obsessive worrying.
When thoughts of the fear arise, you yellStop.
At first, you may do so out loud but eventually, you progress to doing so silently.
Although cleithrophobia is unpleasant, it typically responds well to a variety of treatment methods.
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