Ailurophobia: what is it and how to get rid of it?

Funny cats and cute kittens delight the eyes of most people. And it’s even difficult to imagine that there are individuals who are terribly afraid of these animals. Their fear is called ailurophobia, and it is one of the rarest human phobias. According to some reports, about 0.2% of the population suffers from it to one degree or another.

Fear of cats has several names that are synonymous with each other - galeophobia, gatophobia. But most often this mental disorder is called ailorophobia - from the Greek “α? λουρος "- a cat. The second part of the word is represented by the word "phobia" - this is a pathological fear.

Cats, cats and kittens cause genuine horror in the ailurophobe, which a person himself cannot control. The onset of a panic attack is not excluded, in which the patient can harm himself, lose consciousness, balance. The name of this phobia is included in the reference books on psychiatry as one of the varieties of zoophobia (fear of animals). This is a mental disorder in which inappropriate avoidant behavior is formed, as well as somatic reactions disproportionate to the degree of danger.

At the sight of a cat (not necessarily black), a true galeophobe loses control over its actions. At the same time, he retains self-criticism and understanding of reality, and therefore does not burn with the desire to become an object of public discussion because of his "weakness", he worries, which only intensifies panic manifestations.

Ailurophobia has been known for a long time. There is no doubt the historical fact that Napoleon Bonaparte suffered from a panic fear of cats.His contemporaries left in their memoirs and letters memoirs in which they argued that "Napoleon was able to defeat the lion, if necessary, but he would never defeat the cat." The commander had fear of them since childhood, at the most tender age a cat simply jumped on him, which seemed to the baby a huge creature.

Throughout his life, Napoleon sweated terribly and began to shake at the sight of a cat. In the battle with the British, Nelson, who knew about Bonaparte's weakness, sent several dozen cats ahead of his soldiers. Napoleon immediately asked his assistant to take command of the battle, as he simply could not think of anything other than the nightmare from his childhood dreams. Needless to say, Napoleon lost this battle miserably. Then the British joked that it was the cats that defeated the great Bonaparte.

Other "cat-haters" include the military leader Alexander the Great, the dictator Benito Mussolini, the German politician Joseph Goebbels during the Third Reich, the Soviet party leader and revolutionary Lavrenty Beria.

Pathological fear of cats can be of two types - unconscious irrational fear and hypertrophied, excessive manifestation of the protective mechanism in the implementation of the instinct of self-preservation. Experts believe that, in most cases, childhood experiences are at the root of this phobia. It is believed that pathological anxiety can develop under several circumstances.

A cat is small, but still a predator, and therefore its claws and teeth can cause a lot of pain to a person. If the person himself is small, then an attack or other aggressive actions on the part of a cat may seem like a threat to his life. Children quite often shamelessly treat domestic cats - they torture, drag by the ears, whiskers and tail, and therefore the aggression from the pet against the child is not always groundless. But the child cannot understand this and rationally comprehend.

If fear originated and was associated with an episode of panic, then it is possible that the image of a cat will become firmly entrenched in the child's subconscious as threatening, dangerous, scary. It is not necessary that there were any attacks, bites or scratches on the part of the animal. Sometimes panic is triggered by the sudden appearance of a cat, which may jump on top of the baby to pet (as was the case with Napoleon).

Impressionable and vulnerable children with an anxious temperament may be overwhelmed by experiences they have never experienced themselves. For example, to see the severely scratched hands of another person, the consequences of trauma inflicted by a cat, by watching a movie or news release, where the cat is presented as an aggressor and pest.

In this case, an incorrect logical connection is formed between the image of the cat and the degree of its real danger to humans. The danger of ailurofob is somewhat exaggerated at the unconscious level.

It is difficult to say whether the fear of cats is inherited, because such a gene has not yet been discovered. But we can definitely say that parents, who are themselves afraid of cats, form a similar model of behavior in the child, which gradually becomes part of him, his character.

Some parents are overly concerned about the welfare of their children, categorically forbidding them to pet cats on the street. ("They can be sick, infectious!"), Keep such an animal at home ("a cat can scratch, bite"). At the same time, the child gradually develops an imposed irrational fear of an animal, which, in fact, did nothing bad to him and his relatives.

Well, a child played with a kitten, well, his pet scratched. You can take it calmly.Some mothers and grandmothers start wailing heart-rendingly, chasing the kitten around the house with a slipper, and then grabbing the frightened child and immediately dragging the scratches with alcohol, although this treatment itself gives the baby more suffering than scratches. But the deed is done - a painful relationship between the image of the cat and the subsequent unpleasant and terrible consequences is breaking off in the mind.

Sometimes fear is mystical, although officially ailurophobia does not belong to thematic mystical phobias. A person can be afraid of cats if he believes in their paranormal abilities and magical skills from childhood. A cat in the understanding of such a person can be both a guide of spirits, and an evil devil, and a helper of witches. There are a great many superstitions around these animals.

Fear can manifest itself in different ways. Ailurophobia is very rich in symptoms, or rather, their variability. There are people who are afraid of cats in principle - both of those that can be in close proximity at any moment, and of everyone else in the world. There are galeophobes who are afraid of a cat only at the moment when they see signs of a possible threat or attack in it - the cat bristles, arches its back, hisses and in other ways shows its readiness to defend itself.

There are special forms of ailurophobia, when a cat purring causes panic fear and anxiety, someone is only afraid of meowing or fur. There are people who claim that they are afraid of cats only on the street, domestic cats do not cause them panic. And there are those who are very afraid to run into a cat in the dark. Cases are also described when images (photos and videos) of cats, as well as toy animals, caused fear.

In any case, a person, finding himself in a situation that his brain immediately regards as dangerous, experiences the strongest fear, turning into chilling horror. The level of adrenaline in the body rises, which causes numerous somatic manifestations:

• ailurophobe turns pale, his pupils dilate;

• the heart rate increases, and breathing becomes shallow and frequent;

• cold sweat, tremors of the hands and lips may appear;

• arterial pressure rises, blood "rushes" to the muscles (a reflex mechanism that activates the brain in case of danger, because it is possible that the muscles will have to be tested - to run or fight);

• a feeling of coldness, stomach or intestinal spasm appears in the abdomen;

• nausea, dizziness may appear;

• control over the situation around is lost, loss of consciousness is not excluded.

The one suffering from pathological anxiety is not crazy. He perfectly understands and logically correctly thinks that his fear has no grounds, it is absurd, and sometimes ridiculous. He is ashamed of him, but he cannot control himself at the beginning of a panic attack.

To minimize attacks of terror and anxiety, aylurophobes choose, like other phobes, avoidance behavior. They try to organize their lives in such a way that not a single cat is around. But if a person can create such conditions in his own apartment, then when he goes out into the street, the situation becomes beyond his control - at any moment the most terrible creature on the planet can come out of the corner, and then a public panic attack cannot be avoided.

In severe cases, a person completely shields himself from any situations in which he can see a cat or meet her in person - he does not go outside, does not watch TV (cats are frequent characters in films, commercials), does not watch images of these animals on the Internet. Needless to say, the quality of life of a person suffering from such a phobia is markedly reduced.

First of all, a psychiatrist or psychotherapist finds out the reasons for the fear. Even if the person himself does not remember why he is afraid of cats (he was small), then hypnosis diagnostics will help to find out the true reason. After the doctor draws up a detailed list of all the situations and images that frighten a person, he moves on to cognitive-behavioral therapy.

The purpose of this method is to help a person re-evaluate attitudes that provide an incorrect brain response to a non-existent or exaggerated danger.

Gradually, as beliefs change, the doctor immerses the patient in situations where he has to contact this animal, see his images. What seemed like a nightmare before becomes habitual and is perceived by the psyche as less painful.

Hypnotherapy is permitted, and teaching of meditation and other relaxation techniques is encouraged. The treatment is considered complete if yesterday's ailurophobe may not fall in love with fluffy four-legged animals, then at least he will learn to watch them calmly.

Sometimes medications can be used in the course of treatment, but their use separately from the course of psychotherapy is considered ineffective and unjustified. With high anxiety, antidepressants and sedatives may be recommended. For insomnia - sleeping pills. Tranquilizers are not used to treat ailurophobia.

Much depends on whether the phobia is on its own or just a separate symptom of another mental illness. So, with some forms of schizophrenia, neurotic conditions, psychosis, symptoms of phobias can be traced. And in this case, it is no longer ailurophobia that is treated, but the underlying disease.

You can watch the video below about ailurophobia.