Automatonophobia (fear of dolls): symptoms, causes and treatment

Popular culture has made it so that some toys and dolls can cause us real panic.

Many stories have been created around the idea of evil dolls, evil puppets and androids that threaten to wipe out the human race.. So the feeling of discomfort that many people feel around them is more than justified.

However, when this discomfort turns into terror or exaggerated anxiety responses we talk about automatonophobia. Throughout this article we will talk about this strange phobia, its causes and its treatment.

What is automatonophobia?

Among all the existing phobias, automatonophobia is perhaps one of the most curious, but at the same time one of the easiest to understand. This specific phobia consists of experiencing an exaggerated and irrational fear of anything that falsely symbolizes or personifies a sentient being.

That is to say, the person feels a great fear towards entities or objects, both animate and inanimate, that represent a living being.. These objects are usually dolls, mannequins, statues, etc.

When a person finds himself before one of these objects, a great response of anxiety and anguish is originated in him, which can lead the person to avoid at all costs to meet one of these objects in question.

• Within this category of specific phobia, other related phobias can be classified. These are:
• Pupaphobia or fear of puppets
• Pediophobia or fear of dolls.
• Coulrophobia or phobia of clowns and mimes.

Symptoms

As in the rest of phobias, the exacerbated fear of all kinds of objects that simulate or represent a living being, especially those that simulate people, originate a series of anxious symptoms in the person.

This symptomatology is distinguished by the fact that the individual manifests a great quantity of anxiety symptoms of a very accentuated intensity accompanied by a practically unbearable sensation of anguish and torment.. In spite of this, in very few occasions the person ends up suffering a panic attack.

Due to the intensity of the symptoms these are easily recognizable in the person, since the amount of changes and imbalances in the physical functioning are highly visible.

These physical changes of san before the appearance of the feared stimulus and include:

• Increased Heart rate
• Increased respiratory rate
• Palpitations
• Tachycardia
• Muscle stiffness
• Choking sensation
• Headaches
• Pupil dilation
• Dizziness
• Nausea and/or vomiting

As for the cognitive and behavioral symptomatology of automatonophobia, it is related to irrational negative thoughts about the feared elements and the need to avoid or escape from them..

Avoidance behaviors are all those behaviors or actions carried out by the person in order to avoid encountering these stimuli. While escape behaviors are all those acts that the person executes in order to flee or escape from the feared situation.

In summary, the signs or manifestations that indicate that a person suffers from automatonophobia are:

• Anxiety crises before the presence or appearance of objects that represent people such as dolls or statues.
• Nightmares with these objects
• Aversion to the objects or cartoons
• Physical symptoms such as tachycardia, sweating or muscle tension.

Causes

It has been observed that cases of automatonophobia are much more frequent in children and adolescents than in adults, in most of these cases the origin of the phobia is found in an unpleasant experience related to a movie or horror story that leaves a great mark in the psyche of the child.

It is hypothesized that the cause of these experiences intensifying or becoming more intense in children is the great imagination characteristic of this stage, by which they are able to extrapolate the fear felt during the movie to real life and to the appearance of one of these objects.

However, the specific causes of this phobia in children and adults are still unknown. As for the adult population, it is theorized that exposure to threatening figures or symbols with traumatic consequences could give rise to this type of phobia.

On the other hand, The role that the brain plays in this type of phobia has also been highlighted.. The idea is that it perceives this type of inanimate but human-like objects as disturbing and therefore dangerous.

What is certain is that, like the rest of phobias, automatonophobia can have its origin in a genetic predisposition, as well as in a series of personality traits that can make the person susceptible to develop some type of phobia.

Diagnosis

There are a series of diagnostic guidelines when evaluating a person with a possible auto-matronophobia. Although these guidelines are more or less the same for all phobias, the central phobic stimulus changes from one to another.

These diagnostic requirements are:

• Fear and feelings of intense anxiety before inanimate objects in human form.
• Sensation of fear or intense anxiety before the phobic stimulus.
• Avoidance or escape behaviors at the appearance of the phobic stimulus.
• The sensations of fear are considered disproportionate to the actual threat posed by the stimulus.
• The symptomatology is present for more than six months.
• The symptomatology and its consequences cause clinically significant discomfort and interfere with some of the patient's contexts.
• The symptomatology is not explained by any other mental disturbance or anxiety.

Treatment

As with the rest of specific phobias, the most effective treatment or intervention consists of psychotherapy. Specifically, systematic desensitization provided by the cognitive-behavioral current has the highest success rate.

This intervention consists of progressive exposure to the feared elements accompanied by relaxation training to calm the anxiety response. and to accustom the patient to the presence of such stimulus.

In addition, cognitive therapy sessions are added in order to put an end to the irrational thoughts and beliefs that the person associates with all those objects at the center of his phobia.