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Barophobia is the fear of gravity, caused by traumatic incidents or imagining harmful events. Symptoms include panic, terror, and anxiety, but treatment options include counterconditioning, desensitization, exposure therapy, and hypnotherapy.
Barophobia is the fear of gravity. Sufferers of this phobia have irrational concerns about the potential danger of gravity. Barophobia is sometimes caused by traumatic incidents in childhood. In other cases, it is caused by the individual imagining harmful events resulting from the force of gravity failing or becoming excessively powerful. Treatments for barophobia include counterconditioning, systematic desensitization, exposure therapy, and hypnotherapy.
A person suffering from barophobia feels helpless over gravity. He may fear that gravity will suddenly cease to exist, sending everything and everyone into the air. Alternatively, gravity is perceived as having the potential to suddenly become powerful and able to harm people.
The symptoms of barophobia are similar to those of many phobias. A person with barophobia will generally experience feelings of panic, terror, dread, and anxiety. These symptoms could occur when the person rides an escalator or elevator, for example. The tendency to go to great lengths to avoid taking an elevator or ride at an amusement park is a symptom of the condition. The phobic individual will generally have difficulty breathing and a rapid heart rate when in these situations.
Treatment for barophobia focuses on eliminating the fear and relaxing the patient. In some cases, a counterconditioning method is used in which the phobic person is asked to consciously replace his fearful thoughts with relaxation. The next time he thinks about going up a flight of stairs or going down an elevator, for example, he might be asked to engage in deep breathing or other relaxation techniques to overcome his phobia.
Once the phobic individual has learned relaxation techniques, some counselors will apply systematic desensitization and exposure therapy. In this case, the patient may be asked to take incremental steps to overcome his phobia. He may be instructed to enter an elevator or other place that generally stimulates his phobia. He must then consciously apply relaxation techniques as a way to overcome the fear of gravity.
Hypnotherapy can also prove helpful for barophobia. In this case, the hypnotherapist guides the patient into a deep state of relaxation. While the patient remains in the relaxed state, the therapist deprograms the brain away from the fearful state and teaches the person to adopt new thoughts when experiencing the fear of gravity. Many hypnotherapists also teach a relaxation mechanism that the patient can apply immediately the next time he experiences the phobia.
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