Apiphobia is an irrational fear of bees or being stung by bees, often caused by a painful past experience or allergic reaction. Exaggerated fears can lead to indifference to protecting bees, and therapy can help children recover from this phobia.
Apiphobia is the irrational fear of bees or being stung by bees and is related to the phobia called spheksophobia, the fear of wasps. This fear can develop in many ways and is called irrational because bees rarely sting except as a last resort. When a bee stings it dies, and so these bees usually do not sting, although they can be naturally curious and fly around people and, if extremely threatened, may resort to this final attack.
Bee stings are painful and it’s no wonder people would develop apiphobia if they’ve encountered a sting in the past. Often it doesn’t matter whether the sting came from a bee or a wasp. A sting from either one may be responsible for developing apiphobia. Another reason for the development of this fear occurs when people have an allergic reaction to a bee sting. Although a severe allergy usually doesn’t develop until a person is stung twice, the fear of anaphylactic shock can lead some people to become very fearful of all bees and wasps.
Unfortunately, apiphobia is a fear that can be inflated by public representations of bees. In particular, news coverage of “killer bees” or Africanized bees has given the honey bee a terrible and undeserved reputation. The fact that the human race relies on bees to pollinate so many edible plants gets lost in the headlines about the spread of killer bees that are said to be able to sting people to death in short periods of time. Exaggerated fear of bees can lead to indifference to protecting this very vital species, and those confronted with a bee, rather than simply walking away from it, may decide it needs to be killed instead.
Reactions when people suffer from true apiphobia can vary. Some people will have a fight reaction, hitting the bee and killing it if they can. Others are so terrified of these creatures that they don’t spend time anywhere outdoors where bees are frequent. When faced with a bee, they might scream, have a panic attack, have an elevated breathing or heart rate, and sweat profusely. Because this fear is unreasonable, it is often difficult to get the apiphobic person to simply walk away from the bee, which is usually the best way to avoid a painful encounter with the bee.
Apiphobia is often a common childhood fear and there are methods with therapy to help children recover from this phobia. These can include desensitization methods that help gradually introduce children to images and then real bees to help them recover. Bee education can also be helpful, but is usually undertaken when some degree of control over fear can be exercised.
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