What is Lilapsophobia?
Lilapsophobia is the fear of tornadoes and hurricanes. It is an even more aggravated form of astraphobia or fear of thunder & lightning.
The fact that you suffer from lilapsophobia, makes you more anxious and fearful of storms turning severe and resulting in a hurricane or tornado. This is a relatively common type of phobia.
Know Lilapsophobia Causes
Just like other phobias, fear of tornadoes & hurricanes is often associated with a negative experience. It can have its root in a past event of severe weather that affected you or caused property damage or personal injury to self or to someone you know.
You may have escaped a tornado that resulted in extensive damage to your neighborhood. Such experience, which is among lilapsophobia causes, may leave you shaken & fearful and possibly result in survivor guilt too.
It is also possible that you have experienced a truly devastating storm, which would make it necessary for you to seek professional advice.
Fear of tornadoes and hurricanes can also be a result of learned experiences. If someone in your family or relatives have lilapsophobia, you are more likely to pick up a similar fear.
Identify Lilapsophobia Symptoms
People with lilapsophobia often think that their life is controlled by the weather. You may expend much of your time looking out for weather alerts & reject any suggestion about venturing outside on days when weather reports predict a storm.
If a storm alert is reported, you may start behaving curiously and display lilapsophobia symptoms. You may hide under the bed or below a table or even prepare a full tornado plan when it starts to rain.
You may at the height of anxiety, try to muffle the sounds of a storm by loudly playing your audio system.
Being alone can really worsen your lilapsophobia. You may start to panic, call on your friends or prefer to stay with a group of people so that you are not left alone.
Lilapsophobia Treatment
As with many other phobias, lilapsophobia can be treated with cognitive-behavioral therapy. In case your phobia results from post-traumatic stress disorder, lilapsophobia treatment involves other therapy options that can prove more helpful.
A therapist will try to diagnose your root cause of phobia. He may then prescribe an appropriate course of action. It is important to find a good therapist, one you trust to overcome your fears.
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