Myrmecophobia (ant phobia): symptoms and treatment

This anxiety disorder belongs to the category of specific animal phobias.

Ants are very common insects and easy to find in our daily life, even in a city. It is enough to go to a park to be able to find an anthill or a line of these beings collecting food. Contrary to what happens with other insects such as cockroaches, ants are generally not viewed with excessive displeasure by the majority of the population. by the majority of the population. In fact, many even appear in fables and stories as an example of tenacity, effort and organization.

However, for many people, the mere thought of seeing one of these creatures causes extreme panic and anxiety, along with the need to flee from it and avoid the places where they may be. It is what happens to those people with myrmecophobia..

Myrmecophobia: the phobia of ants.

Myrmecophobia is understood as a phobia of ants, ie, a variant of anxiety disorder. It is one of the specific phobias linked to the presence of some type of animal, being this type of phobia relatively frequent in the population.

As a phobia it supposes the existence of an irrational or disproportionate fear linked to the appearance of a stimulus or situation, in this case ants.in this case ants. This fear or dread appears consistently every time the organism is exposed to the presence of ants, giving rise to an urgent need to flee or avoid being in their presence or maintaining contact with them. This need usually leads to the actual avoidance of both ants and places where they frequently appear. If it cannot be avoided, the sufferer may remain in front of the stimulation, but experience a very high level of anxiety and discomfort.

For those with this phobia Seeing a line of ants or even a single ant is an ordeal for those with this phobia.. The same happens at the sight of an anthill, even if there is no visible presence of its inhabitants in the vicinity. The panic felt generates a high sensation of physiological activation, with sweating, trembling, tachycardia, hyperventilation, muscular tension and even Gastrointestinal alterations such as nausea and vomiting. An anxiety crisis or panic attack may occur. In addition, it is not uncommon that when visualizing an ant they may experience tingling or the sensation that it is crawling on their body.

Myrmecophobia may cause the person to avoid places such as the countryside, parks or green areas. This can cause an interruption or limitation in the patient's life, avoiding for example taking the children to play in the park, playing outdoor sports or visiting rural areas. However, in general, it does not usually affect most areas of life, because although it is relatively easy to find ants, they are not present and visible in most places we frequent.

Although it is not a condition that is dangerous per se for health, the truth is that in some cases it can lead to potentially dangerous behavior. can lead to potentially dangerous behavior. There are documented cases of people who have set themselves on fire because of panic when they noticed that they had ants on their bodies.

• Article related: "Types of Anxiety Disorders and their characteristics".

Causes: a phobia of adaptive origin?

The causes of myrmecophobia and other specific phobias are not entirely clear and depend to a great extent on each case. There are different hypotheses in this regard, most of them linking biological aspects and the events and learning experienced by the subject.

In the case of phobias related to animals and especially to insects, such as the case at hand, one of the most viable and considered hypotheses is Seligman's priming theory. This theory stipulates that fear or panic of certain animals is a product of evolution: throughout our development as a species, human beings learned that the bite of many insects was dangerous, and those subjects with a natural tendency to avoid them survived to a greater extent. Thus, the panic response that leads to avoidance of the animal in question (in this case ants) would be a product of the inheritance transmitted by our ancestors.

Learning from the experience of aversive situations linked to ants is also another linked to ants is also another of the hypotheses put forward, associating the figure of the ant to negative elements through conditioning.

Treatment

Myrmecophobia is a phobic disorder that can be treated by therapy.. The method that has been shown to be most effective in combating and solving it is, although it may seem cruel, exposure therapy.

This therapy is based on the patient being exposed to the feared stimulus, in this case ants, without performing avoidance behaviors. Generally, a gradual approach is required to carry out exposure therapy: before the exposure itself, patient and therapist jointly construct a hierarchy of anxiety-generating situations or stimuli, ordering them according to the degree of anxiety and panic generated. For example, seeing an anthill is not going to generate the same level of anxiety as seeing ants moving aroundor it is not the same to see an ant as to let it wander through our hand.

It is recommended to start with medium intensity stimuli, although it will depend on what the patient is able to withstand. The subject will have to remain in the situation until the anxiety generated has largely disappeared and the need to avoid the situation no longer appears. The same stimulus will be continued until there are at least two exposures with a minimum level of anxiety, before moving on to the next stimulus in the hierarchy. You can allow yourself a temporary escape if anxiety gets the better of him/her, provided he/she commits to return.

Generally the most widely used and most highly rated version of exposure is live exposure (i.e. with real stimuli), but virtual reality can also be used (especially in the present case) so that the therapist can control the stimulation received by the patient to a greater extent. Imaginal exposure can also be used in cases of very high initial anxiety, sometimes as a preamble to live exposure.

It may also be useful to use relaxation techniques to reduce the anxiety felt by the patient. to reduce the anxiety felt by the patient, both when facing the stimulus or as a way of preparing for the exposure. However, this technique should be used to relax, and it is important that it is not used as a mental avoidance or escape from the feared stimulus. Sometimes it may be necessary to apply cognitive restructuring, in order to combat dysfunctional beliefs that may be the origin or maintenance factor of panic (for example, belief in incompetence or inability to cope with their fear).

Bibliographic references

• American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Fifth edition. DSM-V. Masson, Barcelona.