Batophobia: (fear of depth): symptoms, causes, diagnosis and treatment

This phobia manifests itself in situations where there is a sensation of depth downwards.

Are you completely unable to swim in deep water? Do you feel great distress only at the thought of putting your feet in a deep well? Although these reactions are usually completely normal in most cases, they perfectly describe how a person with bathophobia feels.

Throughout this article we will discuss this anxiety disorder known as bathophobia.. We will describe its symptoms, its causes and which are the techniques and professional interventions to treat it.

• Article related: "Types of phobias: exploring the disorders of the fear".

What does the batophobia consist of?

As the rest of phobias, the batophobia is a disorder of anxiety in which the person experiences an intense terror of the deep or of situations in which you cannot see the lower part of your body due to depth or darkness. due to the depth or darkness.

Those spaces or situations in which the person may experience this fear can be swimming pools, the sea, the bottom of a well, etc. That is to say, spaces that transmit a sensation of depth.

It is necessary to specify that the fear or fear to deep spaces is completely habitual, natural and fulfills an adaptive function. Therefore, a person who suffers from this type of restlessness does not always have to suffer from a phobia. However, in cases in which the person experiences a disabling anxiety incapacitating anxiety, that cannot be controlled and that has no rational basis, it would be considered as ait would be considered as batophobia.

What are the symptoms of bathophobia?

As discussed above, bathophobia is classified as an anxiety disorder, so that exposure to the phobic situation or stimulus will trigger an extreme anxiety response..

Like the rest of phobias, the symptomatology is divided into three sets: physical symptoms, cognitive symptoms and behavioral symptoms. However, although most people experience the same symptoms, this phobia presents a great variability among individuals.

The main symptoms include those discussed below.

Physical symptoms

• Accelerated heart rate.
• Increased respiration rate.
• Hyperhidrosis.
• High Blood pressure.
• elevated muscle tone
• nausea and vomiting.
• stomach pain
• chills
• Choking sensation.

Cognitive symptoms

• Catastrophic thoughts
• Feeling of lack of control.

Behavioral symptoms

• Escape behaviors.
• Avoidance behaviors.

Usually, the symptoms subside once the phobic stimulus has disappeared. However, this will depend on the intensity with which the this will depend on the intensity with which the living person experiences bathophobia, since in some cases the anxiety level increases only at the thought of these very deep places.In some cases, the level of anxiety increases only at the thought of these very deep places.

What causes bathophobia?

There is no completely reliable way to determine the origin of a phobia. In most cases, a genetic predisposition combined with a traumatic or emotionally charged experience eventually gives rise to a phobia of one of the elements involved in the experience.

For example, a person who has lived through a shipwreck or a traumatic experience in some deep place, is susceptible to develop batophobia. However, this does not always have to be the case, since there are many factors such as personality or even the environment, which facilitate the appearance of this phobia.

How is this phobia diagnosed?

In most cases, photophobia remains undiagnosed, since sufferers do not usually encounter these situations, so the phobia does not interfere too much in their daily life.

However, in cases in which the person suffering from photophobia does have to face these situations, it is necessary to carry out an appropriate assessment that meets the established diagnostic criteria.

Given the large number of phobias that currently exist, it has not been possible to establish a specific diagnostic protocol for each one of them. However, there are a number of diagnostic criteria for the diagnosis of phobias, there are a number of diagnostic criteria common to all of these specific anxiety disorders..

When the professional prepares to evaluate the patient, the following aspects of the diagnosis should be taken into account:

• Sensation of fear and immediate anxiety response to the appearance of the phobic stimulus. In this case the depths.
• The person performs avoidance or escape behaviors when confronted with the feared stimulus or situation.
• The experience of fear is appraised as disproportionate to the actual danger.
• The fear appears for more than six months each time the person is exposed.
• The symptoms and their consequences generate clinically significant discomfort.
• The phobia and its symptoms interfere with the patient's life.
• The symptomatology cannot be better explained by any other disease or mental disorder.

Is there a treatment?

With proper diagnosis and treatment, both bathophobia and any other type of anxiety disorder can remit almost completely.

Usually, the treatment of choice to help people with this type of disorder is the following is based on the intervention by means of psychotherapy, always of the hand of a professional in psychology..

Within these psychotherapies, cognitive-behavioral treatment is the one that has stood out for its greater efficacy and speed in the remission of symptoms. However, there are a large number of interventions and therapies interventions and therapies that, carried out correctly and always in the hands of an expert, can also offer satisfactory results.can also offer satisfactory results.

Within the treatment with cognitive behavioral therapy the following actions can be carried out.

1. Live exposure

The avoidance carried out by people with bathophobia, or with any type of anxiety disorder, is the first reason why it is maintained over time. Therefore, through live exposure, the patient is confronted with the feared situation or the phobic stimulus. or phobic stimulus.

However, it is necessary that this exposure is always conducted by a professional.

2. Systematic desensitization

When the anxiety response is so extreme that a live exposure cannot be carried out, an intervention by means of systematic desensitization will be carried out. With this technique the patient is the patient is gradually exposed to the phobic stimulus..

3. Relaxation techniques

It is essential that both the live exposure intervention and the systematic desensitization be accompanied by relaxation techniques training that decreases the patient's alertness and facilitates the patient's approach to the phobic stimulus. and facilitates their approach to the feared stimulus.

4. Cognitive therapy

Since an essential component of phobias is the distorted thoughts that exist about the phobic stimulus, it is essential to use cognitive therapy to help eliminate them, the use of cognitive therapy is essential to help eliminate them..