This phobia is related to others such as claustrophobia or acrophobia
What are you afraid of? But we are talking about excessive and irrational fear, as much as to avoid that stimulus that can be an object, an animal, a sensation … and also a place. This is the case of elevator phobia , a problem linked to other phobic disorders and that must be resolved as soon as possible because it limits the life of the person who suffers it. In our dictionary of phobias we tell you all about the fear of elevators and its solutions .
Why do you have a phobia of elevators
We are used to those strange and complicated names that define our terrors and phobias, but in this case there is no specific name. Elevator phobia is left without its corresponding word because it is thought that it is not a phobic disorder as such, but is a derivative of two other phobias .
On the one hand, elevator phobia can be an obvious sign of claustrophobia or fear of closed spaces . And, on the other hand, it can come from a problem of acrophobia or fear of heights . Nor do we rule out that, sometimes, the phobia of elevators comes from both fears at the same time.
But, in any case, we find it impossible to enter an elevator, either because it is a closed space, or because it is a mechanism that rises very high. And what if you can’t take the elevator up to that important job interview on the 51st floor? The truth is that avoiding elevators can deprive you of many opportunities and it is not always possible to go up or down the stairs .
Symptoms of elevator phobia
Irrational and excessive fear, whatever the stimulus, produces a heightened anxiety response. This generates a series of symptoms that go beyond the obvious physical symptoms such as shortness of breath , palpitations , excessive sweating , dizziness or numbness in the legs and arms . Let’s go over there.
Because the phobia of elevators also causes a series of cognitive symptoms that are the ones that in the long run reduce the quality of life of the person suffering from the phobic disorder. These symptoms translate into obsessive, irrational, and intrusive thoughts about elevators. Not only do you have a distorted idea about the danger involved in an elevator, but also those ideas do not go out of your head for a second.
The catastrophic ideas about everything that can happen in an elevator are taken almost as premonitions. The possibility that there is a failure in the elevator becomes a kind of premonition and the absolute certainty that it will happen. And in this situation, as much as we talk about phobias being irrational fears, the most logical thing is to feel fear, panic and terror .
Causes of elevator phobia
And what can motivate the appearance of this irrational fear of elevators? As we say, this phobia is closely linked to claustrophobia and acrophobia , so the causes may be the same. On many occasions, the phobia arises from a previous traumatic experience .
And when we talk about a traumatic experience, it is not necessary that any misfortune has occurred in an elevator, but simply to relate this place to a moment of high tension , anxiety or anguish. Your first job interview, for example, the same one in which you did not get the position can be a reason for the phobia of elevators. Or that season that you were working in the offices of a high floor where you lived with significant stress.
Phobias are generated like this, without the need for something serious to have happened, by conditioning . And once the conditioning mechanism is unleashed, it is when you begin to avoid the stimulus that causes you so much fear and so much anxiety. The avoidance strategies to lighten the load of anxiety and reduce fear in this case involve avoiding elevators at all costs and, as time goes by, the more you reaffirm your fear.
Other times it is impossible to find a concrete relationship between fear and stimulus. Nothing has happened to you in an elevator, you have not suffered in an elevator, you do not relate it to any specific moment in your life, so where does that fear come from? When suffering from an anxiety disorder , the consequences are unpredictable and phobias, fears and obsessions can arise without apparent cause .
But perhaps more than the causes we should look at the consequences of this phobia of elevators. Stimulus avoidance that occurs in all phobic disorders is limiting and eventually spreads to all areas of life . It is not difficult to imagine that the inability to enter an elevator will cause problems in the workplace, social, family and, especially, personal. The quality of life is drastically reduced when a phobia settles in your life, so it will be better to seek treatment as soon as possible.
Treatment and solutions for elevator phobia
The treatment for phobias goes through psychological therapy because we are talking about a disorder closely linked to anxiety and that in the end can end up leading to depression. The objective is to overcome the phobia of elevators , but also to reduce anxiety and ensure that the quality of life is not limited by this fear. And how is it achieved?
The therapy most used to overcome phobias is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy . With this method, you first work on that distorted thinking that leads you to think that elevators are very dangerous places and that something terrible will happen if you enter one of them. This is the cognitive part of the therapy, which takes a while.
And later on, you move on to the behavioral part, that is, to transform the avoidance behavior that will lead you to being able to enter an elevator. But let’s go step by step, that psychology therapies are not miraculous, so be suspicious of anyone who promises to overcome your phobia with a magic solution. As we say, the behavioral part takes time and is accompanied by progressive exposure techniques .
As its name suggests, progressive exposure consists of facing the stimulus that causes you fear little by little . Do not think that the psychologist is going to put you in an elevator in the first session . First you can get closer to the place you fear through images and you may even have to interview a professional to teach you how to operate the elevators to gain safety.
From here, each patient takes their time and the therapy is combined with breathing exercises and relaxation techniques to cope with the burden of anxiety that will gradually decrease over time. We talk a lot about the time that therapies take to overcome phobias because, indeed, they do not work from one day to the next. You will need patience, but rest assured that you will lose your fear of elevators .