Motephobia (phobia Of Moths): Symptoms, Causes And Treatment
For many, butterflies are one of the most beautiful insects we can find, however, there are many who experience an unpleasant feeling, a fear so excessive and intense that it makes it impossible for them to lead a normal life if they see one of these approaching. insects.
Butterflies provoke as many philias as they do phobias, especially moths. Of all the fears of bugs that exist, motephobia is one of the most common.even though what causes it may seem like a very pretty animal to most.
This fear of moths and everything similar, including butterflies and sphinxes, is what we are going to talk about today, a specific phobia that is extremely curious as well as limiting for those who suffer from it.
Motephobia, from the German “motte” (moth) and the Greek “phobia” (fear) is the irrational, persistent and unjustified fear of moths, although it also applies to daytime butterflies.
Their flight, erratic and unpredictable, together with their size, the colors of their wings and the fur that some species have are some of the reasons why people who suffer from this phobia have a pathological aversion to moths. The fear of moths is a type of specific phobia, specifically of the animal type (zoophobia).
One should not think that motephobia is a simple disgust towards these animals. It is common to feel repulsion towards some species of insects, the case of moths being justified considering that they can lay their eggs in our food and damage our clothes.
Motephobia goes one step further, causing real fear, anxiety and great discomfort to the person who suffers from it. The daily actions of patients suffering from motephobia are greatly affected by the presence of mothsmaking them unable to face their fear without help from others.
Motephobia is a type of specific phobia, based on extreme repulsion and pathological fear of moths. Although disgust towards moths is relatively common, motephobia implies a high, unjustified fear that can greatly limit the person who suffers from it.. Many people who are afraid of moths are also afraid of similar insects, such as butterflies, sphinxes or peacocks, which is why some prefer to use the term lepidopterophobia, which would be the fear of insects of the order Lepidoptera in the that we find precisely moths and the like.
As with the rest of specific phobias, both for animals and for other phobic situations and objects, People with motephobia experience one type of symptoms or others depending on the severity of their condition. Among the most notable symptoms we find:
Causes
The causes behind the appearance of motephobia are very varied, as it will depend on the life history of each patient. The reasons that have led a person to feel real panic when faced with the appearance of a moth are very varied. Specific phobias can arise without a specific apparent cause, although they usually appear during a specific moment in life and due to the experience of a highly stressful and even traumatic situation.
In many cases, motephobia originates in childhood. Normally, small boys and girls are not afraid of insects and can even play with them without any qualms. However, it may happen that having overprotective parents, worried about their child playing with a poisonous bug, tells them to stop playing with those little animals and the little one associates the idea that any insect or small animal can harm him, including moths.
It may also be the case that the little one was playing in the field and, suddenly, a moth appeared and scared him with its erratic and unpredictable flight. Since sometimes these insects fly towards us and do not want to leave us alone, the child experienced the experience as an attack and given his little knowledge of the world and not knowing if that animal was dangerous or not, he associated the figure of the moth with that of that very dangerous animal, which will go for it if it encounters one of them.
Some species of moths can cause allergic reactions, something that if experienced will undoubtedly remain a bad memory. The person who experienced this reaction, whether they were a child or an adult, may begin to develop a pathological fear of these insects.a fear that actually has its reason because the presence of this insect truly poses a health problem and that is why you must flee from the moths, protect yourself from them, to avoid suffering the unpleasant effects of rubbing with the animal.
The treatment of motephobia is the same that we can find to treat other types of specific phobias related to animals. Among the most common techniques that we find in the treatment of animal phobias we have:
1. Cognitive-behavioral therapy
The basis of cognitive-behavioral therapy applied in phobic disorders is restructuring negative thinking about what you are afraid ofin this case, moths and other lepidopterans.
The aim will be to modify thoughts, emotions and behaviors towards these animals through tolerance to the anxiety they cause and the acquisition of relaxation techniques for when the patient encounters a moth in their daily life.
2. Exposure therapy
Exposure therapy is a classic in the treatment of specific phobias. This technique It consists of exposing the patient to their phobic object, in this case moths, doing it gradually and ensuring that each phase that the individual passes through gets accustomed to the stimulus. that is presented to you. The goal of therapy is for the patient to tolerate the presence of the moths and become familiar with them.
It is a long process, which requires a lot of perseverance, and is also considered somewhat invasive since at some point in the therapy the presence of real moths will be required so that the patient gets used to them. However, if this is achieved, the patient will have acquired a real experience to control your fears, an experience that you can apply in the real world.
Related article: “Exposure therapy with response prevention: what it is and how it is used”
3. Medications
Finally, we have drugs as a therapeutic option. This is a rarely used alternative for this specific option, since it focuses more on the symptoms than on the root of the problem. It is only recommended in the most extreme cases, where the patient suffers so much anxiety that they cannot lead a normal life at all, have severe reactions or suffer very intense panic attacks.
Among the medications used to treat motephobia and other animal phobias, we have the use of antidepressants, anxiolytics or anticonvulsants to calm the patient’s sense of danger, although, like all drugs, these can bring annoying side effects.
You may be interested: “Types of psychotropic drugs: uses and side effects”
Curiosities about this phobia
Apparently, motephobia is a fairly common specific phobia, so much so that there are quite a few blogs that deal with cases of this fear. In fact, there is a community in cyberspace called “I hate Butterflies,” which brings together people who fear, hate, or are disturbed by both moths and lepidopterans in general. In this community, its users share their unfortunate stories with these insects, the traumas they have caused them and the discomfort that seeing a moth causes them.
Nicole Kidman, the famous Australian actress who participated in films such as “Batman Forever” (1995), “Moulin rouge!” (2001) or “Australia” (2008) suffers from motephobia. She herself has stated in some interviews that The fear that this type of insect causes her affects her so much that, if she sees one outside her house, it makes it impossible for her to leave it..
The fear of moths is just one of the many fears of bugs that exist. There are many phobias in which the protagonist is these little animals, usually belonging to the phylum of arthropods (insects, arachnids, myriapods and crustaceans). The fear of moths competes with other common phobias such as the fear of spiders and scorpions (arachnophobia) or cockroaches (catsaridaphobia). The fear of insects in general, although it also applies to arachnids and myriapods, is called entomophobia.
