AILUROPHOBIA or PHOBIA to CATS: Meaning, Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

Fear is a basic emotion that we need to survive, as it protects us against threats and It helps us to protect ourselves or withdraw from situations that may put our own risk life. However, sometimes that fear becomes irrational and the dreaded phobias appear. One of the most curious and unknown is the ailurophobia or phobia of cats, some animals that have been with us since time immemorial and whose company we enjoy, but that can also be the protagonists of our worst fears.

In this Psychology-Online article we explain what is and what is the meaning of ailurophobia, its causes, the most common symptoms and the indicated treatment.

Index

1. Meaning of ailurophobia
2. Causes of ailurophobia
3. Symptoms of ailurophobia
4. Treatment of ailurophobia

Ailurophobia is the name given to the intense and irrational fear of cats. This feeling of fear is strong enough to cause the person symptoms of anxiety and even panic

People with ailurophobia find that their fear of cats is not rational, but they cannot avoid the anxiety reaction. They may fear not only scratches or bites, but also all the mystique around cats that is depicted in literary works, as in Edgan Allan Poe's "The Black Cat", for example.

There are several possible explanations for the fear of cats. Let's look at some of the causes or factors that influence the development of ailurophobia:

• Traumatic experience The most common way to develop a phobia is usually to have a negative experience with the feared object. For example, when a child is scratched by a cat, he can generalize this behavior to other cats, which ultimately triggers ailurophobia. The mechanism involved in this associative learning is classical conditioning (popularized by the famous psychologist Ivan Pavlov).
• Vicarious conditioning. A common trigger for ailurophobia is observing anxiety and fear reactions in other people when they approach cats. For example, children can develop this fear when they see their parents or caretakers (or even cartoon characters) act in fear of these animals. This is what is known as vicarious conditioning (by observation).
• Popular beliefs. Cats are predators by nature. Traditionally, these animals have been associated with witchcraft rites, folklore and superstitions in those that present cats as evil (the legend of the black cat and bad luck, for example). These false beliefs can cause certain people to suggest themselves and end up developing ailurophobia.
• Personal predisposition. It has been suggested that certain people may have a certain genetic predisposition to acquire some phobias more easily. Personality also seems to play an important role, as individuals with anxiogenic traits may be more prone to developing intense fear of these felines.

People with ailurophobia usually develop the following symptoms:

• A irrational fear and an extreme apprehension of cats (which can be triggered even by a thought or image)
• Fight or flight response: when the person is confronted with a cat, his response is to run away immediately or to try to defend himself.
• Avoidance of the dreaded stimulus: completely avoid places or situations where cats may be present (such as a friend's house or a neighbor who has this pet)
• Hypervigilance, anxiety and extreme nervousness when thinking or anticipating the presence of a cat.
• Psychosomatic symptoms: nausea, dizziness and general malaise.
• Fear awareness irrational and anguish at not being able to control the fear response.
• Panic attacks: choking sensation, cold sweats, tachycardia, agitation, etc. In the following article you will find more information about panic attacks.

The indicated treatment for ailurophobia consists of a combination of psychotherapies and medication. The exposure therapy It is an effective therapy for this type of phobias; the therapist guides the person through regular exposures involving the appearance of cats (in imagination or in person, depending on the intensity of the emotional reactions of the patient). The therapist will assess the intensity of the fear and the objective will be teach the person to relax and control your breathing while dealing with the feared stimulus, in this case cats. As the person becomes accustomed to the presence of animals, over time ends up controlling the symptoms of anxiety.

Another way to approach ailurophobia is cognitive restructuring, a technique used in cognitive behavioral psychotherapy. The objective of this therapeutic procedure is modify thoughts and beliefs irrational that lead the person to behave as she does. The therapist, through Socratic dialogue and confrontation, helps the patient to replace negative thoughts with more realistic and positive ones (p. ex. disprove the false belief that black cats are bad luck).

Finally, drugs can be used in the most serious cases, when the person suffering ailurophobia presents panic attacks and extreme anxiety reactions that incapacitate you in your day to day. Antidepressant and anxiolytic drugs are commonly used. In the following article you will find the drug treatment for panic attacks.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Ailurophobia or phobia of cats: meaning, causes, symptoms and treatment, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.

• González Guerrero, L. J., Lamus Rodríguez, L. T., & Moreno Nieto, D. M. (2013). Manual of intervention techniques in specific phobias (Bachelor's thesis).
• Idris, R. G., & Education, K. OR. (2016). Ailurophobia: The curative, abnormal and irrational fear of felines (cats). On Proceedings of the International Conference on Education towards Global Peace.