Ommetaphobia is the irritational fear of the eyes. The word Ommetaphobia is gotten from two Greek words “ommeta” meaning eyes and “phobia” which means fear or deep aversion.
People who have this type of phobia are scared of eyes and are also extra concern about their own eyes.
Popularly known as Ommetaphobia, this phobia goes by another name also called ommetaphobia. This type of phobia is usually common among people though it’s hard to notice. People from age, race, social status, religion, and family have this phobia.
Ommetaphobe’s are triggered by seeing-eye diagrams, looking straight up at the people’s eyes when they speak, being looked in the eyes directly, astigmatism, or getting things like sand or dirt in the eyes.
At some point, a major fraction of people around the globe suffers from ommetaphobia.
People with ommetaphobia are extremely concerned about their eyes that they avoid touching them, plucking their eyelid, or applying eye drop to their eyes an alight issue with their eyes and a visit to an ophthalmologist will trigger a panic attack in their mind.
Symptoms of Ommetaphobia
One of the common symptoms of people with one phobia or the other is a panic attack and anxiety. Though the symptoms they experience depends on their level of fear, and it varies from one person to another.
Some Physical symptoms are unsteady feelings, dizziness, excessive trembling and shaking, sweaty hands, anxiety when thinking of eyes, palpitations, obsessive thought of eyes, hot or cold flashes, shortness of breath, numbness, elevated blood pressure, and inability to speak.
Aside from these physical symptoms, there are also some psychological symptoms experienced by ommetaphobe amongst which are: Embarrassment, disconnection from reality, fear of death, and isolation.
Ommetaphobe sometimes may suffer from depression and social anxieties. It is very difficult to talk about one’s fear, and if not taken care of properly may affect our relationship with others and our career.
It is pertinent to note that there is no guaranteed cure for Ommetaphobia your ability to get over the fear solely depends on the severity of the phobia.
Causes of Ommetaphobia
There is no definite cause of this phobia. People who are ommetaphobic may not even have a simple explanation for this phobia.
However, these phobias arise from external events, internal predispositions, genetics, hereditary, brain chemistry, and movies.
- External events: Traumatic experience at an early age can trigger this kind of phobia.
- Genetics: Having a family with specific phobias and anxiety disorder can increase one’s risk of having ommetaphobia due to a genetic disposition. With such genetic traits, once they experience some traumatic event, they develop full-blown ommetaphobia.
- Learned response: Ommetaphobe may have been around someone with such fear, and they pick it up from the person. It may be their parents, older siblings, grandparents, or other relatives who are constantly anxious and worried about their eyes.
- Movies: movies with ghosts, villains, horror with terrifying eyes can trigger this phobia.
How to deal with fear of the eyes phobia
There are no prescribed medications that can stop this phobia. Drugs taken can only help suppress your fear a little but won’t eradicate it completely. Thankfully there are ways to deal with this phobia preventing it from affecting our personal and social life totally.
Talk to a friend or family that you can trust about your phobia. It is extremely difficult to expose our fears to others but talking to someone helps a lot. Explaining how you feel and what makes you feel that way enables the person to decide how to help you out. It may be your parents, older siblings, relatives, or even your friends.
Therapy
One of the popular therapy people use in overcoming their phobias is cognitive behavioural therapy. This therapy involves understanding and finding the connection between your feelings, behaviour, and panic attacks.
There are different variations of cognitive behavioural therapy, and one of them is desensitization.
Desensitization is also known as exposure. In this therapy, you are exposed to your fears slowly repeatedly. Through this exposure, they realize that though this phobia may be unpleasant, it isn’t harmful. Constant exposure gives you a sense of control over your fear.
Self adoption
There are a couple of things that you can do yourself to help you manage your phobia. Try learning techniques that can help you cope with anxiety symptoms and panic attacks. Techniques like taking deep breaths, writing down your fears, visualizing and affirmation help reprogram your mind to overcome fear.
Join support groups online. You can find people suffering from Ommetaphobia online. Ask your physician to help you join such groups, especially a peer group.
Self-help books and online programs
Equipping yourself with adequate knowledge on Ommetaphobia goes a long way in helping you face your fears. Read books based on the principles of cognitive-behavioural therapy makes it easier to know the cause of your fear and face them. You can get these books in libraries or online.
