Phobia of cats (ailurophobia): causes, symptoms and treatment

Cats are one of the favorite pets of humans; however, while some individuals love these little creatures, others feel an intense fear towards them.

It seems hard to believe that there are people who feel terrified in the presence of these animals, more taking into account that many scientific investigations have shown that these small cats provide many benefits to humans. For example, they help prevent allergies in children, improve self-esteem and mood, or prevent respiratory infections. However, the world of phobias is diverse and to some extent independent of rationality.

• Related article: "Types of Phobias: Exploring Fear Disorders"

Phobia of cats: what is it

Although cats often have a reputation for being somewhat selfish and self-interested, especially when food is involved, a scientific study has proven that they love humans more than we used to think (you can see this study clicking here). But regardless of whether we like cats more or less, some people experience an irrational fear of these animals

, a fear that causes them great anxiety and makes them try to avoid its presence at all costs.

This disorder it is known as aliurophobia or phobia of cats.

A phobia is an extreme, irrational, and persistent fear of a particular object, activity, or situation. It belongs to the group of anxiety disorders, in which exposure to the feared stimulus can cause different symptoms such as nervousness, anxiety, sweating, tremors, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, etc. The phobia towards cats is totally irrational, and although a cat does not represent a real danger for these people, the mere presence of it can trigger this strong involuntary reaction.

What causes this phobia

Experts affirm that phobias have different causes, although the most frequent is the occurrence of a traumatic event from the past.

For example, when a child is bitten by a cat, he may generalize and see all the animals in this species as potential attackers, regardless of whether they are aggressive or are meek. This happens because a type of associative learning called classical conditioning, which was originally discovered by Ivan Pavlov and later popularized by John Watson.

Classical conditioning is also called stimulus response or E-R learning. If you want to delve into how this learning occurs. you can read this article:Classical conditioning and its most important experiments”

False beliefs can also cause this phobia, because cats are often associated with black magic, witchcraft, sadism and evil, especially black cats, thanks to Halloween legends, superstitions and countless works literary.

Furthermore, some researchers believe that the genetic origin It may or may not favor the appearance of phobias, that is, some people are more prone to suffer from this type of fear than other people. Other experts believe that personality plays an important role in phobias, since people with anxious personality traits would be more likely to suffer from this irrational fear.

What characteristics does this pathology present?

Phobias are far from the fear that a person can feel towards a cat that perhaps shows an aggressive attitude. And it is that normally cats do not usually threaten humans, but they feel very comfortable in their presence, especially domestic cats. Some of them, in fact, seek constant signs of affection when surrounded by people.

For the fear of cats to be considered a phobia, it must be irrational and not associated with coherent thoughts, cause great discomfort in the presence of any cat, being persistent, being uncontrollable and, therefore, causing the avoidance of the phobic stimulus, in this case, cats.

Aliurophobia symptoms

The most frequent symptoms of ailurophobia in people are:

• Extreme and irrational fear (can also be triggered by a thought or image of a cat)
• fight flight response in the presence of a cat, idea or thought of it, that is, trying to avoid the situation that the person considers threatening.
• Also avoid places where cats are or may be found. For example, not accepting an invitation to a friend's house because he has a cat.
• Great discomfort and anxiety in the presence of a cat, thought or idea.
• Realizing that fear is irrational but not being able to control it.
• Hypervigilance and extreme nervousness thinking that he may meet a cat.
• Panic attacks with signs such as agitation, shortness of breath, sweating and clammy hands, rapid pulse, etc.
• dizziness, nausea and intestinal discomfort.

Treatment

The treatment of this phobia is not different from that of other phobias and, since it usually occurs for classical conditioning, cognitive behavioral therapy is often one of the preferred treatments for its great effectiveness.

The cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) it focuses on modifying the thoughts and behavior of a person who is considered a maladjustment and who is the cause of the discomfort. The therapist, from the outset, usually helps the patient to understand why he has developed a phobia, and usually provide him with a series of tools so that he can overcome it.

The idea is that the subject replaces the negative and irrational thoughts that he has towards cats with more realistic and adaptive ones. The therapy sessions also help to release the stress and tension that one has been having due to the phobia.

techniques used

Some of the most used techniques in cognitive behavioral therapy for the treatment of phobias are expository techniques and relaxation techniques. Therefore, the therapist guides the person through regular exposures that include the presence of cats.

This is usually done gradually, starting with, for example, cat photos, videos, stuffed animals, and finally real cats. In addition, the objective of one of these expository techniques, called systematic desensitization, is to foster more useful coping skills when the patient is exposed to the phobic stimulus.

Different forms of relaxation are also taught in psychotherapy sessions including breath control and mental visualizations, and other therapeutic methods such as Mindfulness or clinical Hypnosis can be used.

Medications, generally anxiolytics (although also antidepressants), can be used in more serious cases, those in which the patient has panic attacks.

New technologies applied to the treatment of phobias

New technologies are also beginning to be used for the treatment of these pathologies, since they have turned out to be very useful. Virtual reality (VR) or Augmented reality improves the patient's therapeutic experience.

Likewise, there are different mobile “apps” that can be used to treat phobias and are useful for this purpose.

• Related article: “8 apps to treat phobias and fears from your smartphone”