Selenophobia Symptoms, Causes and Treatments

The selenophobia It is the feeling of irrational fear or fear of the moon, dusk and its light. All the symptoms suffered by people with this phobia are intensified if they are on a full moon.

The problem can become so strong that the affected people, in addition to being terrified of observing it any night, are repulsed by the word moon or even simply images of it..

To understand what selenophobia is, I will begin by briefly describing the concept of phobia. Derived from the word phobos, which means panic. It is an intense and irrational fear of a pathological nature towards a person, a thing or a situation. A phobia is much more serious than a simple fear. Those who suffer from it have an irresistible need to refrain from everything that can trigger their anxiety.

Selenophy is within the so-called specific phobias. These are considered a type of anxiety disorder, in which a person may feel extreme symptoms of anxiety or have a panic attack when exposed to the object that produces their irrational fear..

In a person with selenophobia, the simple fact of having to go out at night and face the object that causes the discomfort (the moon, in our case), can cause severe physical and psychological feelings of anxiety and panic.

Selenophobia is within the specific phobias of the environmental type, in which fear refers to situations related to nature and atmospheric phenomena such as rain, storms, precipices or water.

Causes

The causes of specific phobias, such as selenophobia or phobia of the moon, generally develop when the child is between four and eight years old. In some cases, they may be the result of a traumatic event developed at an early age, which triggered the phobia.

Also, the phobia of a relative is a common cause for it to start during childhood, as they are learned through vicarious learning..

In the case of selenophobia, the causes that may have triggered it are really unknown. It is not clear that it is due to some past event or to vicarious learning, although it is true that environmental phobias, including selenophobia, usually develop in childhood.

Phobias that persist throughout adulthood rarely remit (it only occurs in 20% of cases).

Perhaps the causes may be due to the fact that, normally, when we think about the moon, we tend to reflect on its majesty, and consequently, on how great some of the natural events that occur on Earth are. This makes us think about how small we human beings feel in the face of all this. This, in some way, could explain this phobia.

For the diagnosis of specific phobias, it is necessary to take into account the various Diagnostic Criteria, set by the DSM:

• Sharp and persistent fear that is excessive or irrational, triggered by the presence or anticipation of a specific object or situation, in this case, the moon.
• Exposure to the moon almost spontaneously elicits an anxiety response. It should be borne in mind that anxiety in children usually manifests itself in the form of tantrums, crying, inhibition or hugging.
• The person recognizes that the fear of the moon is excessive or irrational. In children this recognition may not appear.
• Facing the moon is avoided or, if facing, it is endured with high anxiety or discomfort.
• Moon avoidance behaviors, anticipatory anxiety, or discomfort caused by the feared situation, interfere in a way that disrupts the normal rhythm of life of the person, in their work, social, and family relationships. In addition to the clinical symptoms that the person suffers.
• In case the phobia occurred in children under 18 years of age, the duration of the symptoms must have been in a minimum period of 6 months.

The healthcare professional, before diagnosing someone with a phobia, has to carry out a thorough evaluation of the patient by checking their medical history and performing a complete physical examination. In addition, various psychological tests will be carried out to rule out another pathology both physically and psychologically. All this in order to rule out that the symptoms presented are due to another disorder.

The therapist will always have to ensure that the symptoms of anxiety, anguish or the behavior of escape or avoidance towards the moon, are not caused by the presence of another mental disorder (OCD, post-traumatic stress disorder, separation anxiety disorder , social phobia, agoraphobic panic disorder or agoraphobia without history of panic disorder).

If the family doctor suspects or believes that the patient has a phobia, and it is serious enough to affect the functioning of a normal in his life, he should refer him to a psychiatrist or psychologist. The healthcare professional, through various assessment techniques and tools, such as psychological tests, will be able to assess the current situation of the patient and be able to start, if necessary, a follow-up treatment.

Consequences of a phobia

So that you can better understand the consequences that a phobia can have on the individual who suffers it, I will go on to describe what happens in their bodies:

• Increased vegetative activation: These reactions occur at the level of the physiological system. Some of the symptoms that may appear are tachycardia, sweating, redness, paleness, upset stomach, dry mouth, diarrhea, etc..
• Reactions in the motor system in the form of avoidance or escape behaviors: When the subject unexpectedly encounters the feared situation, and if he is forced to stay in said situation, then disturbances of motor performance at the vocal and / or verbal level may appear.
• Reactions at the level of the cognitive system: These are reactions such as the anticipation of both favorable and catastrophic consequences. They are produced obsessively. And actions occur at the compulsive level of escape or avoidance. At a physiological level, the amygdala is the one that has the greatest importance in the storage and recovery of dangerous events that humans suffer. Located in the brain, behind the pituitary gland, it triggers the release of “fight or flight” hormones in order to cope with states of alert or a situation of great stress. Thus, when in the future an event similar to the one experienced previously is experienced, that area recovers from its memory the actions carried out previously and the body reacts as if the same thing as the last time were happening. The person may experience this as if it happened again as it is for the first time, with the same symptoms.

It should also be noted that major alterations in a specific phobia, such as selenophobia, can cause the person to only be able to go out on new moon nights (when no moon is appreciated). This thus disturbs his normal life considerably, limiting him above all in regard to his social or work life, preventing him from carrying out night work.

 Treatment

To overcome selenophobia, a treatment or therapeutic accompaniment is necessary, for this there are various therapies. Next, I am going to explain each one of them:

• Psychological exposure techniques: in this technique, professionals confront the patient with the dreaded situation, in this case, the moon. Gradual and progressive exposure makes people gradually control their fears, also reducing the symptoms produced by anxiety. A person affected by selenophobia can undergo a gradual exposure treatment, starting with trying to go outside on nights with a waning or waxing moon without having to observe it so that, later in the last step of the exposure, they can face going out a full moon night and be able to observe it directly.

• Systematic desensitization: In this technique, instead of facing the moon live, the patient's imagination or a gradual exposure is used, which projects the feared stimulus in his mind. In both treatment examples, the exposure or imagination of the stimulus is stopped when the patient cannot control his anxiety, and is resumed when anxiety levels decrease. Gradually, the subject manages to resist longer and longer periods and thus the fear is lost.

• Cognitive therapy: With this technique, an attempt is made to give the patient all the possible contrasted information, in order to cancel the beliefs that the subject has about that situation or object that he or she fears. In this way, you want to go looking for confidence and gradually become familiar with it, with the objective that the person does not see this stimulus as something to be afraid of and can confront that their fear is irrational and exaggerated.

• Shock methods: They are therapies that are within the behavioral approach, where a forced exposure to the stimulus occurs, until the subject's anxiety decreases and it can be controlled. It differs from systematic desensitization in that in this method the subject would face the moon directly without any kind of escalation of situations.

• Neuro-Linguistic Programming: Nowadays it is a treatment that is widely used for certain phobias, but the results of it have not yet been scientifically proven.

Other alternative treatments include Bach flower therapies, self-help books and groups, and hypnosis. The use of psychotropic drugs is not usually recommended in the treatment of phobias, because, although it can alleviate anxiety symptoms, it does not eliminate the problem. In any case, if necessary to reduce anxiety symptoms, the most useful pharmacological treatment to be able to face this phobia is serotonin reuptake inhibitors..

Some treatments manage to make modifications in the brain, replacing memory and previously had reactions with a more adaptive behavior. Phobias are irrational phenomena, the brain overreacts to a stimulus.

If you feel identified, you have an irrational fear, fear of something, situation, or person, and this fear prevents you from leading a normal life affecting you in your day-to-day life, from here we advise you to consult a specialist to be able to enjoy a full life.

References

1. Edmund J. Bourne, The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook, 4th ed. New Harbinger Publications. 2005. ISBN 1-57224-413-5.
2. Kessler et al., "Prevalence, Severity, and Comorbidity of 12-Month DSM-IV Disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication", June 2005. Archive of General Psychiatry, Vol. 20.