Catoptrophobia

Supernatural

Another common superstition is that mirrors are connected to the supernatural world. an individual with Catoptrophobia may feel that looking into a mirror will connect them to a supernatural world and make them vulnerable to the unknown. For example something coming out of the mirror coming to get them.

Superstitions

Catoptrophobia is often based off superstition. For example the superstition that if you break a mirror you will gain 7 years of bad luck. Someone with catoptrophobia might avoid mirrors in order to avoid getting bad luck. Or in other cases one might fear "losing" part of their soul when their reflection is "caught" in the mirror.

Common Misdiagnosis

Catoptrophobia is often misdiagnosed as Eisoptrophobia, which is the fear of seeing oneself in a mirror. Catoptrophobia is the fear of mirrors themselves, and not of a person seeing themselves in a mirror.

Symptoms

• Fear of dying or losing control
• The fear of seeing something other than what should be reflected
• Fear of being watched from inside the mirror
• Fear of something coming out of the mirror to get them

Catoptrophobia

- An exaggerated or irrational fear of mirrors

Treatments

Symptoms

• Feeling of terror
• Sweating
• Nausea
• Inability to think or speak clearly
• Rapid heartbeat
• Shortness of breath
• Trembling
• Anxiety
• Extreme avoidance measures taken

• Behavior therapy
• Anti-anxiety medication
• Psychotherapy
• Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)
• Exposure therapy
• Relaxation techniques - controlled breathing, visualisation
• Medications to treat anxiety may be utilised, but there are no studies that support the efficacy of medication in the treatment of specific phobias

Exposure Therapy

It involves putting yourself into increasingly stressful scenarios involving your particular phobia and overcoming your fear with new learning. The process usually has five steps:

• Evaluation. You describe your fear to your therapist and recall anything in your past that may have contributed to it.
• Feedback. Your therapist offers an evaluation of your phobia and proposes a treatment plan.
• Develop fear hierarchy. You and your therapist create a list of scenarios involving your fear, each more intense than the last.
• Exposure. You begin exposing yourself to the items on the list, starting with the least frightening situation. You start to realize that panic lessens within a few minutes of encountering your fear.
• Building. As you become comfortable at each stage, you move on to increasingly difficult situations.

Behavioral Therepy

Involves one-to-one sessions with a therapist trained in treating phobias. This approach involves exposing and gradually desensitizing catoptrophobia. During the sessions, you learn to tolerate the anxiety triggered by exposure with the help of relaxation techniques.

Catoptrophobia

By:Andrea Bejaran