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

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

Fear of cats has several names that are synonymous with each other - galeofobiya, gatofobiya. But most often this mental disorder is called ylorophobia - from the Greek “α? λουοος - cat. The second part of the word is represented by the word “phobia” - it is a pathological fear.

Cats, cats and kittens cause a genuine horror in Iilofoba, which a person cannot control himself. It is possible the onset of a panic attack, in which the patient can harm himself, lose consciousness, balance. The name of this phobia is listed in reference books on psychiatry as one of the varieties of zoophobia (animal fear). This is a mental disorder within which inadequate avoidant behavior is formed, as well as somatic reactions, disproportionate degrees of danger.

At the sight of a cat (not necessarily black), the true galeophob loses control over its actions. At the same time, he preserves 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 is worried that he only intensifies panic manifestations.

Aylurofobiya known for a long time. There is no doubt about the historical fact that Napoleon Bonaparte suffered from panic fear of cats. His contemporaries left memories, in their memoirs and letters, in which they stated that "Napoleon was able to defeat a lion if necessary, but he would never defeat a cat." The commander had a fear of them since childhood, at the very tender age a cat just jumped on it, which seemed to the kid a huge creature.

Throughout his life, Napoleon was sweating terribly and began to shake at the sight of a cat. In a battle with the British, Nelson, who knew about the weakness of Bonaparte, sent several dozen cats ahead of his soldiers. Napoleon immediately asked his assistant to take command of the battle, since he simply could not think of anything but the nightmare of his childhood dreams. Needless to say that this battle Napoleon lost with a bang. Then the British joked that it was the cats that had won the great Bonaparte.

Other "koshkonaenavistnikov" include the commander Alexander the Great, the dictator Benito Mussolini, the German politician of the time of the Third Reich Joseph Goebbels, the Soviet party leader and revolutionary Lavrenti 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, the basis of such a phobia is children's experience. It is believed that pathological phobia can develop under several circumstances.

The 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, the attack or other aggressive actions on the part of the cat may seem to him a threat to life. Children often indifferently treat domestic cats - they torture, drag their ears, mustache and tail, and therefore aggression from a pet towards the child is not always groundless. But the child cannot understand this and rationally comprehend it.

If the fear originated and was associated with an episode of panic, then it is possible that the image of the cat will firmly entrench in the children's subconscious as threatening, dangerous, scary. It is not necessary that the animal had any attacks, bites or scratches. Sometimes panic fear causes the sudden appearance of a cat that can jump onto a child to caress (as was the case with Napoleon).

Impressive and vulnerable children with an alarming temper of character may be overly impressed by an experience that they personally did not even experience. For example, to see the hands of another person badly scratched, the consequences of injuries caused by a cat, watching a movie or a news release, where the cat is presented as an aggressor and a 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 Iylofob is somewhat exaggerated at an unconscious level.

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

Some parents take excessive care in the welfare of their children, categorically forbidding them to stroke cats on the street. (“They can be sick, contagious!”), Keep such an animal at home (“a cat can scratch, bite”). At the same time, the child gradually forms an imposed irrational fear of animals, which, in fact, has done nothing wrong with him and his relatives.

Well, the child played with a kitten, well, his pet scratched. You can take it easy. Some mothers and grandmothers scream heart-rendingly, chasing a kitten around the house with a sneaker, and then grab a frightened child and immediately drag it to scratch it with alcohol, although this treatment itself causes the child more suffering than scratches. But the deed is done - a painful interconnection between the image of the cat and the subsequent unpleasant and terrible consequences breaks in the mind.

Sometimes fear is mystical, although officially Iylofobiya does not apply to thematic mystical phobias. A person can be afraid of cats, if he since childhood believes in their paranormal abilities and magical skills. A cat in the understanding of such a person can be both a guide for spirits, and an evil demon, and a witch’s assistant. There are a great many superstitions around these animals.

Fear can manifest itself in different ways. Islurophobia is very rich in symptoms, or rather, their variability. There are people who are afraid of cats in principle - as those who may at any time be in close proximity, and all others existing in the world. There are galleophobes who fear a cat only at the moment when they see signs of a possible threat or attack in it - the cat bristles, arches its back, arches, hisses and in other ways shows its readiness to defend itself.

There are particular forms of Ailophobia, when panic and anxiety are caused by the purr of a cat, someone is afraid only of meowing or wool. There are people who claim that they are afraid of cats only on the street, domestic cats do not cause them to panic. And there are those who are very afraid to run into a cat in the dark. Also described are cases where fear caused images (photos and videos) of cats, as well as toy animals.

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

• Ailofobob pales, his pupils dilate;

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

• cold sweat, tremor of hands and lips may appear;

• blood 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 a test - to run or fight);

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

• nausea, dizziness may occur;

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

Suffering from a pathological dread is not crazy. He understands perfectly well and logically correctly thinks that his fear has no basis, he is ridiculous, and at times ridiculous. He is ashamed of him, but he cannot control himself at the start of a panic attack.

In order to minimize the attacks of horror and panic, Ilurophobes choose, like other fobs, avoiding 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 going out on the street, the situation becomes uncontrollable to him - at any moment from the corner the most terrible creature on the planet can go, and then a public panic attack cannot be avoided.

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

First of all, a psychiatrist or psychotherapist finds out the causes of fear. Even if the person himself does not remember why he is afraid of cats (was small), then the diagnosis of hypnosis will help to know the true reason. After the doctor compiles a detailed list of all situations and images that frighten a person, he proceeds to cognitive-behavioral therapy.

The objective of this method is to help a person reconsider installations that provide an abnormal brain response to non-existent or exaggerated danger.

Gradually, as the beliefs are replaced, the doctor immerses the patient in a situation where he has to contact with this animal and see its images. What used to be a nightmare becomes habitual and is perceived by the psyche less painful.

Hypnotherapy is allowed, meditation and other relaxation techniques are encouraged. The treatment is considered to be completed if yesterday’s ilophobic may not fall in love with fluffy quadrupeds, then at least it will learn to observe them calmly.

Sometimes medications may 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 can be recommended. When insomnia - sleeping pills. Tranquilizers are not used to treat ailophobia.

Much depends on whether the phobia is independent or whether it is just a single symptom of another mental illness. So, in some forms of schizophrenia, neurotic states, psychosis, symptoms of phobias can be traced. And in this case, it is not illuobhobia that is treated, but the underlying disease.

About Ilurophobia you can see the video below.