About Animal Phobias: Zoophobia

Please be aware, pictures of animals are displayed within the List of Common Animal Phobias links – though not for ‘Spiders’. Images are chosen to inform only.

Creature Courage is based around helping people to overcome their fears of animals. We run group and one-on-one therapy, to equip you with the skills to tame your fear of animals for good.

In this post we will discover what defines a phobia and, secondly, how treating it can make a profound difference to the way you live your life.

A Phobia is an overwhelming and debilitating fear of an object, place, situation, feeling or animal.

“Phobias are more pronounced than fears. They develop when a person has an exaggerated or unrealistic sense of danger about a situation or object. If a phobia becomes very severe, a person may organise their life around avoiding the thing that’s causing them anxiety. As well as restricting their day-to-day life, it can also cause a lot of distress.

 A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder. You may not experience any symptoms until you come into contact with the source of your phobia.

 However, in some cases, even thinking about the source of a phobia can make a person feel anxious or panicky. This is known as anticipatory anxiety.”

Overview – Phobias, NHS

Symptoms may include:

  • Unsteadiness, dizziness and light-headedness
  • Nausea
  • Sweating
  • Increased heart rate or palpitations
  • Shortness of breath
  • Trembling or shaking
  • An upset stomach

 

If you suffer from a fear of animals, it is called is called zoophobia and it covers all animal phobias. However, even if you are only afraid of one type of animal, for example, a fear of insects (entomophobia), it is still considered that you have zoophobia. Further still, a fear of just a single insect, such as a bee (apiphobia), is still housed under the umbrella term – zoophobia.

It can get complicated but on this page we have made a list of the most common animal phobias and their scientific names to help you understand where phobias come from and how to address them.

A Quick Overview of Phobia

So, why do you have a fear of animals? For many who love animals, it can be hard to relate to but for those of you who develop fear and anxiety around animals and it can severely limit many of life’s enjoyments, as many animals are unpredictable and hard to avoid.

I use the word develop because though some might think that people are simply born with a fear of animals, with spiders and snakes coming immediately to mind, it is actually not true.

There are only two fears we are born with, the fear of loud noises (phonophobia) and the fear of falling (basophobia). Everything else is learnt. We quickly learn signs of danger and our brains sometimes register things as dangerous by accident – after all, better safe than sorry.

Our instincts are to keep us safe first and if we encounter something we’re not sure of we reduce the risk, often with avoidance, which develops into fear.

We usually pick-up fear during childhood from one or two sources:

  1. if we have a parent, sibling, or other close relative that has a phobia it can be easily learnt through our interactions with that person. As children, we are incredibly absorbent in the first years of our lives and, unwittingly, our parents and other relatives pass on their understanding of the world around them – the good and the bad. If a family member acts afraid of an animal, we learn that to be a source of danger.
  2. The second way we learn phobias is to have an experience that frightens us. This could be as simple as walking through a spider’s web or having a mouse scurry across our path that makes us jump. It can be more obvious in the case of someone falling off a horse and now can’t stand to be around them. Traumatic events or those perceived as traumatic can create a subconscious trigger in our brain telling us to avoid the thing or the situation in the future. This trigger can become so embedded that many people can’t remember what happened to make them afraid in the first place but the fear is engrained.

In my work with people who have zoophobia, I notice that most have more than one phobia. It might not be a specific animal-related phobia, but it appears that a person with a phobic mindset can often suffer from anxiety in multiple areas of their lives. Very often, people with one sort of animal fear also have another.

For instance, when I was advertising for our Dog Courage Workshop many of those who signed up also had a fear of spiders and a few other animals, too.

How We Can Help You

The good news is that we find attending just one Creature Courage Workshop is sufficient for treating multiple phobias, as the techniques can be used across any anxiety or phobia.

Doing the Spider Courage Experience gives you the tools and techniques to conquer any phobia, however, each workshop comes with immersive therapy work that allows you to work through your phobia in our controlled environment that has been shown to provide even greater results.

We, also, offer you the opportunity to do one workshop and, then, arrange to do the immersive side of a different animal with us at a later date.

Contact us for more details and we’ll help put your mind at ease.

List of Common Animal Phobias

Ants: The fear of ants: Myrmecophobia READ MORE

Bats: The fear of bats: Chiroptophobia READ MORE

Bears: The fear of bears: Arkoudaphobia READ MORE

Bees: The fear of bees: Melissophobia and also Apiphobia READ MORE

Birds: The fear of birds: Ornithophobia READ MORE

Butterflies: The fear of butterflies: Lepidopterophobia READ MORE

Cats: The fear of cats: Ailurophobia READ MORE

Cockroaches: the fear of cockroaches: Katsaridaphobia READ MORE

Dogs: The fear of dogs: Cynophobia READ MORE

Flies: The fear of flies: Pteronarcophobia Read More

Frogs and Toads: The fear of frogs and toads: Batrachophobia and also Ranidaphobia           READ MORE

Fish: The fear of fish: Ichthyophobia READ MORE

Insects: The fear of insects: Entomophobia and Insectophobia READ MORE

Horses: The fear of horses: Equinophobia, Hippophobia READ MORE

Lizards: The fear of lizards: Herpetophobia READ MORE

Mice: The fear of mice: Musophobia READ MORE

Moths: The fear of moths: Mottephobia READ MORE

Rats: The fear of rats: Murophobia READ MORE

Reptiles and Amphibians: The fear of reptiles and amphibians: Herpetophobia READ MORE

Rodents: The fear of all rodents: Suriphobia READ MORE

Sharks: The fear of sharks: Selachophobia, Galeophobia READ MORE

Snakes: The fear of snakes: Ophidiophobia READ MORE

Spiders: The fear of spiders: Arachnophobia READ MORE

Wasp: The fear of wasp: Spheksophobia Read More

Wolves: The fear of wolves: Lupophobia READ MORE

Worms: The fear of worms: Helminthophobia, Scoleciphobia, READ MORE