The grand reveal of phobias!

I feel like this is a massive reveal because I've spent so long trying to decide what to go for and it feels like I've wittered on about it for ages. This post will be the choices I have settled on, general information about those phobias and how I can try to present them in visual form! It feels really good to get this part of the research out of the way because it means I can move on now!

These are the phobias I have selected after looking through the feedback I got, I also had a think about it to decide whether or not these phobias would work artistically.

Iron Maiden:

• Claustrophobia - Fear of confined spaces.
• Haemophobia - Fear of blood.
• Cleithrophobia - Fear of being locked in an enclosed place.

Pear of Anguish:

• Aichmophobia - Fear of needles or pointed objects.
• Mechanophobia - Fear of machines.
• Agliophobia - Fear of pain (something painful about to happen).

Rat Torture:

• Merinthophobia- Fear of being bound or tied up.
• Musophobia - Fear of mice and rats.
• Trypophobia - Fear of holes.

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Here is the definition of each phobia listed in device order.

Iron Maiden –

Claustrophobia is a type of situational phobia (fear of certain situations) where an individual experiences great fear of small or enclosed spaces. A person suffering from Claustrophobia might be afraid of going in elevators. Many claustrophobic individuals are also known to fear being inside tunnels, caves, mines, or air planes. They typically report seeing images of being trapped or unable to escape from such places and are known to go to great lengths to avoid them.

Causes of fear of small and enclosed spaces

Claustrophobia is a common social phobia affecting nearly 4% people worldwide. Scientists believe that the following reasons may lead to this phobia:

• People with spatial distortion are more likely to fear enclosed and small spaces. They tend to have an exaggerated sense of their personal space.
• Generally, people with higher tendency towards anxiety disorders are also likelier to be claustrophobic.
• Those with a history of panic disorder or prone to panic attacks are likelier to have the fear of small and confined spaces.
• Traumatic past experiences are also known to play a role in the development of the fear of small spaces. For example, children that have been accidently trapped in closets or punished are at higher risks for developing Claustrophobia.
• Some theories also suggest that it could be an evolutionary phobia, which means that the fear of small spaces could have some evolutionary benefit.

Thus, the development of this social phobia is complex but the treatment for it almost always focuses on reducing the sufferer’s anxiety.

Symptoms of Claustrophobia

The essence of this phobia is the fear of being trapped or unable to escape or that of “being buried alive”. Thus, a sufferer might experience both physical and psychological symptoms:

• Thoughts or images of being buried alive or trapped
• Thoughts of death
• Feeling like running away
• Inability to distinguish between what is real and unreal

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Hemophobia or the extreme fear of blood, elicits a phobic reaction from the suffering individual at the sight of blood, which may or may not be his own. Often, there is confusion between Hemophobia and the fear of needles. A person may be afraid of having his blood drawn which can be mistaken for Trypanophobia (or the extreme fear of needles). In fact; this common specific phobia is actually categorized broadly as blood-injection-injury phobia.

Causes of fear of blood phobia.

• In general, the fear of blood phobia is triggered by a fear of the field of medicine as it is often related to blood, injections, injury, pain and death.
• TV and movie images can also contribute to this fear. Halloween culture, gory bloody movies, serial killer murder stories etc have also been known to cause this phobia.
• Bleeding is often a sign or indication that there is something wrong with the body. Hence, hypochondriasis or nosophobias are also linked to Hemophobia. Hypochondriasis and Nosophobia are both characterized by a fear of falling sick or developing specific diseases like cancer, diabetes etc.
• The fear of germs or Mysophobia can also trigger Hemophobia since the individual is afraid of ‘catching germs’ from someone else’s blood.
• Fear of blood is also linked to the fear of death or Thanatophobia.
• The sight of blood often causes the individual to faint; s/he may fear embarrassing oneself by fainting, which is actually the body’s defense response to protect itself from further stress.
• As with other extreme phobias, the fear of blood can be brought on by a prior negative or traumatic childhood experience with blood.

Symptoms of Hemophobia

The similarities with other phobia symptoms are:  anxiety, nausea, increased heart rate, sweating, trembling or shaking at the sight of blood. This is followed by a sudden drop in blood pressure and heart rate that leads the individual to faint, become pale or weak, which are not seen in other phobia reactions.

Fainting occurs because the brain does not receive adequate blood supply. Fainting or having a panic attack can be an ‘embarrassment’ to the individual who then tries to avoid seeing blood at all costs.

Hemophobics not only fear seeing their own blood or that of others, in some cases, they may even have an anxiety attack upon seeing blood of animals.

The phobia can sometimes consume one to the degree that it interferes with his/her daily life. The sufferer might refuse to visit a doctor or dentist or even see printed pictures of movies involving blood. S/he may lead a sedentary lifestyle in order to avoid sports related injuries.

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Cleithrophobia is the fear of being locked up in an enclosed space. Those who have this fear the loss of freedom and movement that they need in order to feel healthy. This fear has a close association with Claustrophobia. The idea of being confined in an enclosed space that offers no way out can be upsetting in both Claustrophobic and Cleithrophobic.

Symptoms of Cleithrophobia include

• Nausea
• Dizziness
• Syncope
• Increased heart rate.
• Panic attack

People who have been kidnapped or held prisoner will be highly susceptible to this phobia. They will feel severe terror when faced with the idea of going through a similar experience at other times in their lives. Imagining that you are locked up in an enclosed space will make you upset and anxious. And, if his reaction continues at an extreme level one maybe suffering from Cleithrophobia.


Pear Of Anguish - 

Agliophobia is the persistent, unwarranted and often irrational fear of pain. It is derived from the Greek word algo which means pain and phobos which means fear or dread. The dictionary defines pain as a “highly unpleasant sensation following an illness or injury or mental suffering or distress”. Thus, pain is subjective and what is extremely painful to one might trigger little or no response in another. Therefore, pain is treated as a complicated subject by psychologists and experts in the field of medicine. Pain indicates that something is wrong in the body. But in case of Agliophobia, there is an intense and constant anxiety in the sufferer’s mind about experiencing pain. This tends to aggravate his/her physical/emotional distress and can be highly disruptive in everyday as well as medical settings.

What causes Agliophobia?

Like in all other specific phobias, Agliophobia also originates from an intense traumatic experience in the past as well as intrinsic factors.  For example, highly sensitive people could be more prone to the fear of pain phobia. Even seeing their loved ones suffer can lead to a lifetime of fear of pain. Children who have experienced pain at the dentist’s or doctor’s office will be fearful of experiencing that pain all the time.

Symptoms of fear of pain phobia

• The fear of pain phobia is often mistaken for depression, bipolar disorder, ADHD, sleeping disorder, schizophrenia and so on. Depending on the extent to which one suffers, the disruptive phobia can lead to many physical symptoms including:
• Shaking, trembling, sweating
• Crying, screaming
• Experiencing a full blown panic attack
• Rapid and shallow breathing, having an increased heart rate
• Experiencing dizziness, nausea and other gastrointestinal distress
• Inability to express self accurately

Often, medical and dental pain agliophobics end up aggravating their medical/dental condition as they refrain from seeking help for it. Their fear and paranoia about pain might also make them turn to excessive use of pain relievers which could cause an overdose.

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Aichmophobia is a specific phobia which is defined as an abnormal and morbid fear of sharp objects such as knives, needles, and pencils.  This type of phobia is often mistaken for Trypanophobia which is an irrational and extreme fear of medical procedures which involve injections and/or hypodermic needles.

Symptoms of Aichmophobia

• Pounding heart, palpitations or accelerated heartbeat
• Chest pain and/or discomfort
• Shortness of breath
• Shaking or trembling and excessive sweating
• Stomach distress and nausea
• Feeling of being detached from reality
• Fear of dying, losing control, going crazy or fainting

Aichmophobia may cause intense and disabling anxiety, panic and fear. Patients may recognize that their fear is unreasonable and excessive, but they will try as much as possible to avoid places or situations which are related to their fear. This avoidance may start to interfere in their normal routine and may cause significant distress.embarrassing themselves by fainting and hence they tend to avoid needles completely.

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Mechanophobia is the fear of machines. When machines were first used, many thought that this could take away jobs from many and some even viewed them as evil.

What causes Mechanophobia?

In the olden times, many reluctant to accept machines and this reluctance lead to fear. Fear of machines can also be caused due to a previous trauma by direct contact with a machine such as those who have missing limbs, fingers or toes or even crushed some bones. We live in an industrialized world, and machines have become a part of our daily living to the point that it would be so much trouble if one of our efficient machines in the workplace did not work. People who fear machines will always avoid industrial places or machinery. Their homes may have fireplaces for heat or candles for light. Some of them may have no trouble with the benefits of machinery as long as they don’t have to have physical contact with the machine itself.

Symptoms of Mechanophobia

• Dizziness
• Elevated heart rate and temperature
• Panic attacks
• Trembling
• Urge to flee.

Rat Torture -

Musophobia is the fear of mice or rats and the word originates from Latin Mus which means mice and Greek phobos which means deep fear or dread. Other terms used for fear of rats and mice include Murophobia, which is derived from the word ‘Murine’ or the ‘Muridae’ family of mice/rats and Suriphobia which is derived from souris, which is French for mouse.

Causes of Musophobia

Musophobia is a very common phobia affecting hundreds of thousands of people all over the world. Where some people think of mice as “cute and cuddly”; phobics tend to find them “disgusting and carriers of disease”. Rats and mice are known carriers of pathogens. They are also infamous in history for spreading the Black Plague which wiped away large chunks of the human population. In general, they are known to dwell in sewers, drainages and dark, wet or dirty places. Rats are also known to carry fleas and other parasites that harm not just humans but pets as well. Wild rats and rodents are not welcome guests in human homes, so they tend to hide in cracks and crevices found around pantries, kitchens and other places having an abundant storage of food. Naturally, they might spring on unsuspecting individuals and startle them. Like most animal phobias, the fear of mice also stems, usually, from a negative or traumatic experience with rats. Incidents in childhood where a rat has bitten a child or loved ones can also trigger this phobia. Humans are conditioned from childhood to fear wild rats and rodents. An adult, might have been startled by a rat and screamed or climbed up on a chair. Children unknowingly learn to imitate this behaviour and the occasional fright triggers an anxiety response that might turn into lifelong phobia of rats and mice. Popular culture depicts these creatures in negative light: cartoons (Tom and Jerry), books (Pied Piper of Hamilton), movies, and TV shows etc show stereotypical traits about them. Typically: a rat scares the woman protagonist who jumps and climbs up screaming on a chair/table.

Symptoms of fear of mice phobia

The symptoms of Musophobia vary depending on the extent of fear the phobic experiences. Just like any other Zoophobia, the fear of mice typically triggers physical and mental symptoms which include:

• Screaming, crying, climbing on beds or tables/chairs
• Trying to flee
• Shaking, trembling, and sweating profusely.
• Having accelerated heartbeat, breathing rapidly or gasping
• Feeling nauseated, vomiting or having other signs of gastrointestinal distress
• Musophobes might experience anxiety/panic attacks at the mere mention of mice, or even from watching them feeding on trash, or in pictures, on TV etc.

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Trypophobia, is an irrational and persistent fear of holes, generally not the huge ones but the tiny holes seen within asymmetrical clusters. It is a rather unusual, albeit, a common type of phobia, wherein sufferers report having an adverse reaction to images of holes or objects with holes.

Symptoms of trypophobia

According to researchers Geoff Cole and Arnold Wilkins of the University of Essex, the brains of trypophobic individuals associate the holes with some kind of danger. The kind of danger one senses or imagines it yet to be established. The fear of holes not only covers holes in the form of images,  the individual may also fear holes in meat, clusters/pores on the skin, on vegetables or fruits or even those in sponges, wood, honeycombs etc.  For some people, even the mere verbal mention of “fear of small holes” is enough to trigger trembling and shuddering. The reaction displayed by each trypophobic individuals is different: some feel their skin ‘crawling’, others may shudder, a few report feeling itchy while still others report feeling physically sickened or disgusted. Some phobics also report thoughts of falling into the holes triggering major panic attacks.

Causes of trypophobia

A group dedicated to the fear of holes on a popular social media site has tried to establish the causes behind this as yet unexplored phobia. Often people are completely unaware that they have a latent form of trypophobia until they actually see images of holes. Individuals in the group have volunteered the following probable causes behind this unusual fear:

• Deep rooted emotional problem-Some object associated with childhood that triggers traumatic memories associated with holes. Possible bee stings in the past that led to a swelling wherein the swollen skin displayed every pore.
• Scientists have also reported that evolution may be one of the major causes behind the fear of holes. They explain this fact by giving the example of “pockmarked objects” which do not seem “quite right or completely normal”.  Some primitive portion of the brain perceives or associates these ‘pockmarks’ with something dangerous.
• Holes also tend to be associated with organic objects like rashes or skin blisters that typically follow an episode of measles or chicken pox.

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Merinthophobia is the fear of being bound. The origin of the word merintho is Greek (meaning string) and phobia is Greek (meaning fear). Merinthophobia is considered to be a specific phobia.

Causes of Merinthophobia?

Those who suffer from this phobia suffer also fears loss of control. They may experience feeling of passing out, difficulty of breathing or feeling of defencelessness. This fear may stem from a regrettable incident in which he/she was bound either as a joke or intentionally. The trauma of such occurrence often stays with an individual for the duration of their lives. Observing someone who is bound and engaged in a panic attack can also leave a lasting impression, even if the individual is someone you do not know and more so if the individual you observed was someone close to you. An individual with Merinthophobia will be very uncomfortable watching an illusionist escape from being bound. They may feel sick to their stomach and leave quickly. They may feel as if they can’t catch their breath. It is generally accepted that phobias arise from a combination of external events (i.e. traumatic events) and internal predispositions (i.e. heredity or genetics). Many specific phobias can be traced back to a specific triggering event, usually a traumatic experience at an early age. Social phobias and agoraphobia have more complex causes that are not entirely known at this time. It is believed that heredity, genetics, and brain chemistry combine with life-experiences to play a major role in the development of phobias.

Symptoms of Merinthophobia?

As with any phobia, the symptoms vary by person depending on their level of fear. The symptoms typically include:

• Extreme anxiety
• Dread
• Shortness of breath
• Rapid breathing
• Irregular heartbeat
• Sweating
• Nausea
• Shaking

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And the final part of this post as I feel it's going to be a long one, I'd rather all the information was in here rather than in individual posts. How I will try and visualise each phobia.

Iron Maiden:

• Claustrophobia - 
• Haemophobia - 
• Cleithrophobia - 

Pear of Anguish:

• Aichmophobia - 
• Mechanophobia - 
• Agliophobia - .

Rat Torture:

• Merinthophobia - There will be a lot of binding with this image to attempt to play off this phobia, I imagine a lot of binding around vital places on the body could would such as wrists, arms and legs, I want the character to look like they have ripped the device off them and damaged themselves in the process. I want to work with the loss of control which is a feeling that sufferers of this phobia can have, this is also the essence of torture, where the person being tortured loses all control.
• Musophobia - Obviously with a piece devoted to the rat torture there will be rats in the image, I am going to hyper-extend these rats and make them a bit more horror genre, I really hate to make rats the bad guys because I really love rat, but I am going to go all out with the demonised view of rats, being vermin and diseased. I feel like I could do something plague wise with this angel and make the character a bit black death style.
• Trypophobia - To get this I will have several boils and buboes that will be clumped together, also bite marks playing with the rats biting the character will be in several places together, this should get people with the phobias skin tingling for sure (even typing it down is making my skin crawl, how am I going to paint this!)