Fear of insects (entomophobia): causes and symptoms

There are many phobias, some of them are very common and others not so much. Among the most frequent we can find the fear of insects or entomophobia, which is also called insectphobia.

If you are paralyzed by seeing a cockroach scampering around your living room, or you avoid traveling because you obsessed with the idea that the hotel you are staying in is infested with bed bugs, you may suffer from this disorder.

In this article we will talk about the pathological fear of insects, and we will delve into its causes, its symptoms and its consequences.

What is entomophobia

Entomophobia is an irrational and persistent fear that manifests itself in the presence of insects, and can appear in anywhere, whether camping in the mountains, walking in the park, jogging on the beach or visiting a house rural. And it is that this phobia, although it may seem ridiculous in some cases due to the harmlessness of some insects. creates great discomfort to the person who suffers, who feel great anxiety and distress and an exaggerated attempt to avoid the dreaded stimulus.

Although most insects are not harmful to humans and pose no threat, those who sufferers with this phobia experience extreme anxiety at the mere thought or observation of a insect. People with entomophobia may feel ashamed and be aware of their fear, but they are unable to cope with it and often require professional help to overcome it.

Any insect, be it spiders, wasps, butterflies, dragonflies or caterpillars can become the stimulus that elicits a phobia. Now, the most common forms of entomophobia are the phobia of bees and spiders.

You can learn more about these phobias in our articles:

• Fear of bees (apiphobia): causes, symptoms and treatment
• Arachnophobia: causes and symptoms of extreme fear of spiders

Causes of fear of insects

To understand how a person develops this phobia it is necessary to understand how a phobia develops in general. Because phobias is an irrational fear, it is not a real danger, and it is learned.

In most cases, phobics developed this pathology as a consequence of a traumatic experience. This occurs due to associative learning called classical conditioning. You can know more in our article "Classical conditioning and its most important experiments".

But people don't necessarily have to experience phobias on their own skin, they can learn them by observation, in what is known as vicarious conditioning. What's more. some irrational beliefs can promote the development of these pathologies.

Some experts suggest that phobias may also be due to the human body being biologically prepared to be easily afraid. This would be so because fears develop in the primitive part of the brain and not in the neocortex, the most rational part. This explains why phobias do not respond to logical arguments.

This can be understood because this type of behavior could have helped the human species to survive. But they can cause serious problems today, by developing fears without any apparent risk..

Symptoms of this phobia

When a person suffers from this phobia and other individuals try to make him see reason about the non-dangerousness of an insect, these logical arguments do not help much, and the symptoms drastically affect the phobic's ability to live normally.

Like all phobias, entomophobia or insectphobia is a condition that should be taken seriously, because it can be disabling. Symptoms affect the individual on a cognitive, behavioral and physical level. Among the first symptoms, fear, anguish, lack of concentration or catastrophic thoughts stand out. As a behavioral symptom, the attempt to avoid the phobic stimulus is characteristic. And as physical symptoms, the most common are the sensation of suffocation, hyperventilation, headache, nausea or stomach pain.

Treatment of entomophobia

The classic treatment of phobias aims to end the association between the stimulus-response, so cognitive behavioral techniques, also known as second-rate behavior therapy, are used with some frequency wave. The therapist can help the patient overcome the phobia through these techniques. The most common are relaxation and breathing techniques and exposure techniques..

But the technique that is most used in this type of treatment is systematic desensitization, which includes the previous two and consists of gradually exposing the patient to the stimulus phobic. That is, you can start by exposing yourself to photos of insects and later to real insects. This method also allows you to learn coping strategies, among which relaxation and breathing techniques stand out. Many patients have successfully completed a systematic desensitization program. If you want to know more about this technique, you can read our article: "What is systematic desensitization and how does it work?".

At present, other therapeutic methodologies such as the Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and the Acceptance and commitment therapy.

In addition, with the development of new technologies, new ways of treating this pathology have appeared. An example of this is virtual reality, which has proven to be very effective in exposing the patient to phobic stimuli. Secondly, Smartphone apps have appeared that include psychotherapeutic tools to treat these irrational fears.

• You can know more in our article "8 apps to treat phobias and fears from your smartphone"