Pluviophobia: symptoms, causes and treatment

People who suffer from any type of phobia know that when the event that triggers it occurs, they suffer great suffering, which they would be grateful to avoid. There are some -phobic stimuli- that occur very occasionally, and the trigger can even be avoided. But others, however, are very common, such as pluviophobia. That is why we explain to you what its symptoms, causes and treatment are.

Pluviophobia is characterized because The person suffers an intense fear of everything related to rain. That is, storms, lightning, thunder, etc. Therefore, it is a phobia that can become very disabling because the feared object can be very generalized and reproduced very frequently.

It is also called ombrophobia and Its appearance can occur throughout lifealthough it is more characteristic throughout youth and early adulthood.

Symptoms of pluviophobia

When a person suffers from a phobia, their nervous system responds as if they were exposed to a very serious threat. Depending on the degree of the phobia, it can even be compared to what our ancestors felt when they were being chased by an animal or to how we would feel today if in the middle of a tunnel we anticipated that we were going to be hit by a train. Therefore, this generates a state of mind dominated by anxietywhich can turn into a panic attack.

The most common symptoms are usually hyperventilation, gastrointestinal disturbances, tachycardia, sensation of pressure in the chest and head, dizziness, headache, breathing difficulties, etc. All of this represents great suffering for the personwhich in many cases causes you to take measures to avoid the stimulus.

Phobias can be the effect of the evolution of a fear, that is, starting with a small fear and evolve until you feel the same terror What we would feel when faced with a threat that we thought was mortal. At the same time, the level of anxiety will also depend on the severity of the weather phenomenon (intensity of the phobic stimulus). It won’t be the same if it’s a little drizzle or a big storm.

Causes of pluviophobia

It is a type of phobia specific to this physical phenomenon, so anyone can develop it. It is not necessary to have conditions that predispose you to suffer from this type of psychological alterations.

It is usually triggered by a negative experience suffered in connection with heavy rain, flooding, severe storms, lightning or any such particularly strong weather phenomenon. This is indicated by the doctor in Psychology, Arturo Bados.

In these cases, the person feels very vulnerable against the force of nature. Thus, he would learn an association between certain natural phenomena, in this case related to rain, and lack of control and fear. Thus, this association would come into play every time the phobic stimulus was anticipated or produced.

Treatment of pluviophobia

The first thing to do when you suffer from pluviophobia is go to a specialist that assesses the degree of affectation suffered, the causes that trigger it and the symptoms and reactions it provokes to establish which is the most recommended intervention in each case.

Generally, the core intervention is based on exposure with response prevention. They consist of exposing the person in a fictitious way to the causes and events that trigger the phobia for short periods of time set by the specialist, which will be increased at his discretion. With this exposure, the aim is for anxiety to occur and for the anxiety itself to begin to reduce within the exposure itself, not allowing the person to give the avoidance response until this reduction has occurred.

Pluviophobia is one of the phobias that most affects those who suffer from it since it is impossible to isolate oneself from the factor that generates it, that is, rain, storms and other meteorological phenomena. Therefore, the sooner a solution is found, the better.

You might be interested…