Phobias are irrational and psychopathological fears that some people develop in the face of certain very diverse situations: fear of the dark, fear of flying, fear of closed spaces, fear of needles, insects, etc. What all of these experiences have in common is that there is no element that poses an objective danger to the person who has developed the phobia.
Dog phobia is one of the most common animal phobias in our society, but luckily today we have a set of very useful therapeutic strategies to overcome it successfully and not let it affect us and condition our daily routines.
The phobia of dogs or cynophobia (from the Greek “kynós”, that is, “dog”) is an anxiety disorder corresponding to the category of specific phobias that consists of an irrational fear experienced towards this animal in any situation in which the person is in front of these canids, or even when thinking about them.
It is one of the most common phobias associated with animals in our society and one of the most problematic, since the dog is one of the two most common pets in all human societies and it is difficult not to come across one on the street in any country.
This type of specific phobia may have as its main cause a negative or traumatic experience in childhood related to a dog attack, but there is not always a very defined triggering event in the person’s past; Sometimes, this disorder simply arises without it being possible to establish a specific situation that gave rise to it. The fact of having had excessively protective parents during childhood who have warned excessively about the dangers posed by one of these pets can also facilitate the appearance of a phobia, generating an intense and unjustified fear that the person internalizes from the very beginning. years of life.
Like any other phobia, dog phobia decisively affects the life of the person who suffers from it, even affecting their way of life, their mental health and their way of relating to the people around them. especially if they are dog owners. Specifically, it is worth highlighting a pattern of behavior based on avoiding situations in which the person believes they may encounter these animals.
For example, you can try to take very long detours to avoid passing through streets where houses with gardens predominate, simply to avoid encountering one that barks at you or even tries to jump over the fence (something that these animals very rarely do, although the mentality that the person with a phobia adopts has a clear pessimistic bias that exaggerates the probabilities of something bad happening).
This disorder It generates a series of symptoms of discomfort in the person, both physically and emotionally all of them always triggered by the sight of any type of dog or by the simple fact of anticipating that one may approach.
Symptoms
The symptoms we find in dog phobia are similar to those of most specific phobias triggered by any other animal and Its symptoms appear both physically and cognitively and behaviorally.
Among the physical changes we can highlight: excessive sweating, difficulty breathing, heart palpitations, excessive agitation, dry mouth, tightness in the chest and tremors.
Some of the symptoms associated with cognitive changes are: intense fear, anxiety, panic, the feeling of helplessness, nervousness or stress.
Finally, among the main behavioral symptoms we find evasive behavior, the desire to flee from the source that generates fear or the desire to cry.
Main strategies that we can follow to overcome dog phobia
Of course, the most effective and safest way to overcome a phobia is to go to psychotherapy, and in fact in most cases this should be the priority of the person with a phobia. But beyond the therapeutic context, there are certain strategies that can be taken into account by the person as general advice. Let’s see what they are.
One of the many therapeutic habits that we can put into practice in our daily lives, in addition to going to the consultation of a qualified professional, is to write a diary in which we write down everything we feel during the day, in relation to the phobia of dogs.
The emotions diary is one of the most useful tools that exist to know ourselves and helps us work in detail on any psychological problem that we want to overcome. This is because through what is known as “emotional labeling”, it is known that putting our fears and concerns into words allows us to relativize their importance and delimit the objective and real effects that these forms of discomfort have on us.
Thus, writing down daily the emotions and experiences we have lived will help us better understand what we feel at each moment and will allow us to distinguish experiences such as anxiety from certain similar feelings that we may experience; and also, They will get us out of that loop of fear of thinking about the phobia, seeing it as a problem which is a first step to overcome it.
2. Set short-term goals when facing fear
Establishing short-term goals is another strategy that we can follow to gradually overcome our fears, and it consists of facing our fears whenever possible, leaving aside avoidance strategies.
This means, for example, committing not to take the longest route to work just to avoid passing a house where there is a dog that barks at us every day. Of course, it is important not to set very difficult challenges as your first goals; We must follow an ascending difficulty curve adjusted to our level of fear in each part of this process.
3. Sleep well
Maintain a consistent sleep schedule in our daily lives that allows us to sleep enough hours to rest. Going to bed and waking up at around the same time will also help us improve our mental health and feel better about ourselves, while not getting enough sleep makes us much more vulnerable to stress and anxiety.
Resting the necessary hours at night will also help us have the strength to overcome any daily challenge and will make us less vulnerable to the anxiety and stress that our phobia may cause us. In this way, we will be in the best possible conditions to face the fear of dogs and not become discouraged from the beginning.
4. Share our feelings
Another good way to overcome the fear of dogs can be to share our feelings with someone you trust, something that is always a great help when someone is going through a bad time.
Talking frequently with close friends and family is of great therapeutic help (once again, it is related to emotional labeling) and in many cases we can obtain valuable advice on how to overcome our problem. In addition, this will predispose other people to be interested in our progress in overcoming fear, which will provide us with more sources of motivation by having regular reminders that we have set out to overcome the phobia.
5. It is important that you know when to seek professional help
If after a couple of weeks trying to overcome your dog phobia you don’t notice any progress, It is important that you do not delay and go to psychotherapy. The sooner you provide solutions to your problem, the more time you will enjoy a good quality of life.
Are you looking for psychotherapeutic support services?
If you want to attend psychological therapy to learn to face and overcome your most irrational fears, I invite you to contact me.
Am Ignacio Garcia Clinical Psychologist with a consultation in Almería, and I work from cognitive-behavioral therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help adults, adolescents and families in person or online.
