Good question “I can’t get into the subway”: How do people with transport phobias live?

Statistics say that approximately 5–10% of the world's population suffer from various phobias. Any object that we encounter in life can be the cause of a phobia. These could be insects, dogs, snakes, spiders, mice, germs, heights, darkness, fear of leaving your home, elevators, escalators, etc.

The fear of escalators is called escalophobia and refers to specific phobias, such as fear of heights, elevators, flying, etc.

This is an uncontrollable fear of a specific object or situation. This phobia is less common than others, but it darkens the lives of many people. And although patients understand the absurdity of their fear, they cannot cope with it on their own. Here you need the help of specialists.

Fear of escalators - escalophobia

Symptoms

The main symptom of a phobia is a panicky fear of taking a step on a moving step. A person tries by any means to avoid riding an escalator. A person suffering from a phobia reacts inappropriately to the escalator, his behavior becomes uncontrollable, and other symptoms may also appear, such as:

• labored breathing;
• heavy sweating;
• tension and trembling in the body;
• horror, desire to run away;
• cardiopalmus;
• feeling of “cotton legs”, numbness;
• abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting;
• dizziness or fainting;
• convulsions;
• chills;
• darkening of the eyes;
• the person does not understand where he is.

It is not necessary that all of these symptoms appear together; only a few may be present.

Fears of a metrophobe

There are several things that a metrophobe is afraid of. What a person with a phobia fears: they are afraid of the ceiling collapsing and are afraid of being buried underground. Metrophobes also fear:

• terrorist attacks and the possibility of becoming a hostage;
• explosions, which are often reported in the press and on TV;
• accidents occurring due to a vehicle malfunction;
• the likelihood of being stuck in a subway car for a long time;
• darkness if the light suddenly turns off;
• robberies.

Causes

There are many different hypotheses regarding the causes of fear. Among them, scientists identify the most common:

• A stressful situation in the past that you participated in or witnessed.
• Perhaps, once upon a time, you saw an accident or had an accident involving an escalator, and now, faced with the need to go up or down on this moving structure, you involuntarily remember the situation that frightened you and “try it on” for yourself. And you are sure that the escalator under you will certainly break, collapse, etc.

Consequences of unsafe escalator use

• Strongly developed instinct of self-preservation. Many fears are based on a sense of self-preservation (fear of snakes, heights, darkness, etc.), which is not bad at all - sometimes it can save a life. But in people with weak psyches, such a feeling often develops into a phobia. A person experiences uncontrollable fear even in situations where there is no danger. In sensitive people, the fear of escalators, like a phobia, may appear after scary stories from friends or watching disaster films negatively associated with the subway and escalators. Just by looking at the escalator, the wild imagination of such people already paints a terrible picture, like in a movie, only they themselves are the main characters.
• Burdened heredity. American scientists claim that if one of the parents suffers from a phobia, then the probability of the child’s illness is 25%, and if both, then 50%, although this is highly controversial.

Unfortunately, it can be difficult to understand the causes of fear and correctly assess the current situation on your own, so you need to contact a specialist.

The help of a psychiatrist may be required in the following situations:

• The patient persistently avoids certain places and situations. In our case, a person categorically does not want to go down to the subway or travel on an escalator in shopping centers. If you are afraid of the escalator in the subway, you may not get to work on time.
• A person tries to find any other means of transportation, but this takes a lot of time. Some people suffering from this phobia have problems finding employment - it is not always possible to find work near home.
• Fear is unreasonable and very strong; it causes panic, which prevents a person from controlling his behavior. He understands that it is stupid to be afraid, but he cannot help himself, he behaves extremely inappropriately.
• This condition lasts more than 6 months and causes severe discomfort.

If you notice these signs, don't be afraid to admit that there is a problem. Accepting and understanding the problem will make treatment easier.

Seek help from professionals

Fear of the escalator in the subway treatment. Fear of escalators (escalophobia): treatment methods

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In the modern world, every person has encountered an escalator at least once. This happened in a shopping center, or on the subway, or while going to some other public place. But no one thinks about the fact that many people are worried about the fear of this design. After all, it is the fear of escalators that causes many citizens around the world to suffer. In psychology, this phobia is called escalophobia. If at least once in your life you have had a strong feeling of fear before taking a step on the escalator, then you need to seek help from a specialist.

The fear of escalators is called escalophobia

Signs of escalophobia

A person who suffers from a fear of escalators will experience the following symptoms:

• dizziness;
• nausea;
• labored breathing;
• increased heart rate and much more.

How to get rid of escalophobia

If we talk about treatment methods, here we can highlight the following most rational methods:

Changing habits.

• Look forward, but not down. If you are traveling on an escalator in the subway, you should not look down at the moving surfaces of the steps. You should simply look ahead, this will help you stay calm, get rid of the feeling of fear and get to your destination. It will also help reduce dizziness that may occur when traveling on lifts.
• Use of handrails or human hand. It is best to travel on an escalator with a person who can hold your hand or support you. This will help not only to maintain your balance in the subway, but also to feel the balance of your body. Many people who suffer from this condition recommend wearing comfortable and heavy-duty shoes that give them a feeling of security.
• Empty escalator. Many people suffering from this disease are afraid to stand on this moving structure when there is a large crowd riding on it. This creates a feeling of isolation and constriction in their soul. What to do? You just have to wait for the empty escalator and continue on your way in complete peace.

Treatment of phobia

A phobia can become uncontrollable, ruining a person’s life for a long time. How to get rid of the persistent fear of escalators? It is impossible to imagine large cities without a metro. The metro saves us time. This is an indispensable form of transport for most residents of megacities, therefore, it is not possible to avoid the escalator in the metro. The fear of going up or down an escalator undoubtedly makes life much more difficult.

To help yourself, you need to choose the right treatment.

Related Fears

An anxious state arises due to pre-existing psychological abnormalities in which the patient fears something.

Claustrophobia

The fear of enclosed spaces often overlaps with the fear of riding the subway. Psychologists connect this very simply: a person is afraid to move in the subway because he is afraid of getting stuck in a carriage without the ability to leave it.

A feeling of confinement, a feeling that “the walls are pressing in” can occur in a person suffering from claustrophobia when entering the carriage.

Achluophobia

The fear of the dark, known to many, forces the sufferer to abandon the thought of the subway. The patient is not only afraid of being in a dark subway tunnel, but also of the fact that at some point the electricity may turn off.

Social phobia

People suffering from social phobia feel uncomfortable, so they try to avoid crowds. This is almost impossible in the metro, since this type of transport is one of the most popular.

Self-medication

If your fear of moving on an escalator does not entail panic attacks, you can try to overcome your fear on your own. To do this, you need to distract yourself from the subject of the phobia. Try to associate riding an escalator with something good and enjoyable for you. For example, you love sweets, and every time you step onto the escalator, allow yourself some candy or chocolate. Or, while standing on an escalator, look not at the feet of people moving towards you, but at the photographs of your loved ones. Thus, you will associate your trip on the subway with something pleasant for yourself.

At first you will have to force yourself, use willpower. You need to do this several times, then you will feel a pleasant sensation and step onto the escalator without fear. If you constantly avoid your fears, you can only worsen the situation, the disease will progress.

The main thing is not to avoid traveling. The more often you take the subway, ignore the stairs at the mall, and force yourself to ride the escalator, the faster you will stop being afraid of it. Be sure to praise yourself for every such action.

Riding an escalator as a treatment method

Or another way of self-medication: draw an object of fear as you imagine it in your imagination. Then tear the drawing into small pieces. You need to do this several times. This will also help get rid of the phobia.

You can write down your fear in detail point by point on a piece of paper. Describe the smallest details of your condition, mentally go the whole way. Try to analyze this situation and make sure that everything ended well.

You need to try to force yourself to face your fear, try to hold such meetings more often. Over time, realizing that nothing terrible happened, a person will be able to overcome his fear.

You need to learn to control and get rid of negative thoughts, like “this escalator will definitely break or fall” or “I will definitely be pulled under the moving steps,” etc.

You need to try to really assess the situation, remember the moments when nothing bad happened, and convince yourself that negative thoughts are, in essence, impossible.

You can try to find as much information as possible about your phobia, people with the same fears and discuss your common problems with them.

Difficulties

This phobia is not life-threatening, but it causes a lot of inconvenience to the patient. Life is complicated by the fact that you have to give up fast and convenient transport due to obsessive thoughts about danger: a metrophobe is late for important meetings, events and meetings, taking too long to get to the right place. If there is no alternative to the metro, the patient is forced to abandon a planned event or communication with friends simply because he cannot get to the specified place in any other way.

He is forced to look for alternatives, making life more difficult for himself and his loved ones.

Phytotherapy

Herbal medicine is based on the use of various medicinal plants. Peppermint is used to produce essential oils that have a calming effect. It is better to use valerian, peony, hawthorn or motherwort in the form of alcohol tinctures, and it is better to brew lemon balm and oregano.

Sedative drug Novo-Passit

Combination herbal preparations based on herbs are available for sale, such as Novo-Passit, Afobazol, Persen. Medicines based on medicinal herbs are good because they have almost no side effects and are sold in pharmacies without a prescription. Their disadvantages: long-term use, cumulative effect, they will not help urgently. And also, do not forget that these are still medications, and they can become addictive, and the desire to enhance the effect will lead to an overdose. For example, hawthorn can cause a drop in blood pressure, and valerian can cause a slowdown in reactions and drowsiness. Read the instructions carefully.

Of course, these drugs do not cure, but they help to relax and reduce anxiety.

Escalaphobia. Fear of the escalator in the subway

Fear of an escalator in the subway is much less common than phobias associated with the subway itself, but on the Internet you can find many “cries from the heart” from people suffering from this illness. Some of them are afraid that the escalator will suddenly break, others are afraid of falling back, others do not trust any moving mechanisms at all, and even in ordinary houses they prefer stairs to elevators.

Interestingly, small children, who have a well-developed instinct of self-preservation, are also afraid of escalators. Seeing such a structure for the first time, a child may burst into tears and flatly refuse to step on a moving staircase. Sometimes this fear is reinforced and carried even into adulthood.

The reasons for escalophobia are the same as for the fear of the subway:

1. Negative incidents related specifically to the escalator (for example, the patient himself or someone in front of his eyes was injured or fainted).
2. A high level of anxiety, which is transmitted genetically, and then the development of phobias will only be a matter of time and place.
3. Chronic stress and nervous tension.

Manifestations of fear of escalators will also be typical - from a fit of terror to a panic attack at the sight of a moving staircase in the subway. If possible, the escalophobe will try by all means to avoid the need to stand on the escalator.

At the same time, most patients believe that their problem is too strange and stupid to see a doctor about, but in fact it is no different from hundreds of other phobias and can be treated quite successfully.

Medication

In the treatment of anxiety-phobic disorders, which include escalophobia, different groups of medications are used:

Antidepressants

Thanks to these drugs, anxiety and excessive emotional stress, apathy and lethargy are reduced. The advantage of antidepressants is that they are not addictive and do not require special prescriptions. But these drugs have their drawbacks: they are not fast-acting and cannot help in an emergency. There are also many side effects, such as tremors, gastrointestinal dysfunction, nausea, dry mouth, etc. The effect of the drugs is cumulative and occurs after about 5–10 days. You can buy such antidepressants without a prescription as: Maprotiline, Prozac, Paxil, Deprim, Mianserin, etc.

Beta blockers

The drugs block excess adrenaline. This hormone is produced when a person feels worried, worried or afraid. Beta blockers help control physiological symptoms such as trembling hands, legs or voice, excessive sweating and rapid heartbeat, but do not affect the emotional symptoms of anxiety. Beta blockers include Anaprilin, Bisoprolol, Atenolol, etc.

Tranquilizers

Indications for the use of tranquilizers are various anxiety conditions; tranquilizers are especially effective for eliminating acute stress (in this case they are taken in a short course). Unlike antidepressants, tranquilizers do not improve mood, but reduce the expression of emotions, both negative and positive. Due to the high likelihood of addiction, tranquilizers can be taken in short courses. This group of drugs includes: Phenazepam, Afobazol, Grandaxin, Rudotel, Phenibut, etc. In most cases, the withdrawal of tranquilizers is accompanied by an exacerbation or resumption of phobias. The effectiveness of tranquilizers was not as high as expected.

Medicines as prescribed

Neuroleptics or antipsychotics

Drugs in this group are intended for the correction of mental disorders of various origins and severity. They act directly on the human brain, therefore they affect the entire body. Neuroleptics have a peculiar calming effect, which is accompanied by a slowdown or complete removal of reactions to external stimuli, weakening of psychomotor agitation, and suppression of fear. These include the following drugs: Etaperazine, Triftazin, Teralen, Fluanxol, etc.

Many people suffering from phobias, including fear of escalators, begin to take tranquilizers, antidepressants and other drugs to slow down arousal and dull fear. This brings a little temporary relief and hope for a cure. But the problem remains. It has been clinically proven that after stopping taking medications, the phobia returns, and physical and psychological dependence on medications occurs, memory may deteriorate, depression and other side effects may occur. It must be remembered: drug treatment is prescribed and controlled only by a doctor. Do not self-medicate, it is dangerous to your health.

Subway phobia: what is it called? What is metrophobia

Despite fears and concerns, many contemporaries still use the services of underground transport. But there is also a fairly large group of people whose fear of the subway has reached the pathological proportions of a phobia. For them, the prospect of merging with the flow of passengers causes panic. It is unthinkable for them to enter the subway and go down the escalator. Even the anticipation of an upcoming trip on the subway rewards them with obsessive and insurmountable fear. This abnormal condition is scientifically called metrophobia.

No one is immune from metrophobia. An irrational and uncontrollable fear of the subway can arise in young children, respectable mature individuals, and experienced elderly people. Moreover, in the last decade, the ranks of patients with metrophobia have been rapidly increasing.

Very often, metrophobia is not a single independent fear, but coexists with other anxiety-phobic disorders. As a rule, a person who is terrified of riding the subway suffers from claustrophobia - an illogical fear of being in closed, limited-sized rooms. Often metrophobia is caused by or coexists with a total fear of premature death - thanatophobia.

The foundation of metrophobia is a person’s conviction and anticipation of possible catastrophic events that could potentially occur in the metro. Fear of the subway is based on the fact that the subject believes that it will be difficult for him to quickly leave the station area in the event of an emergency. The basis for metrophobia is also the individual’s confidence that he will certainly have serious and life-threatening health problems while traveling in a train carriage.

An abnormal, uncontrollable fear of the subway completely takes over the patient’s thoughts and makes significant adjustments to his usual life activities. Metrophobia forces a person to take preventive measures, the so-called protective behavior, the essence of which comes down to consciously avoiding the use of the subway.

Thus, the patient faces many new difficulties: he is late for work every day, which is why he is fired. He cannot get to the meeting place with partners, customers, and suppliers on time, so he fails in his own business. He refuses to meet with friends at distances from home, and, as a result, he is deprived of communication with many friends. A person with metrophobia does not attend events that take place far from his place of residence, and therefore does not receive enough pleasures in life.

Metrophobia causes considerable harm when life circumstances develop in such a way that it is necessary to get to the opposite part of the city as soon as possible. And a person who is terrified of the subway does not have time to arrive in time and promptly provide assistance to a lonely relative who has developed a heart attack. As a result, metrophobia instills in a person a feeling of helplessness, insolvency, and evokes ideas of one’s own worthlessness and guilt.

A special danger of metrophobia is that the irrational fear of the subway does not disappear or weaken over time, but, on the contrary, becomes stronger and uncontrollable. As the phobia progresses, cases of panic crises occur more often, and attacks pass with increasingly severe symptoms. That is why metrophobia must be stopped at the very beginning, as soon as the thought that riding the subway is scary and unsafe has crept into your head.

Psychotherapy

Psychological help

Despite the fact that specialists use different methods of psychological assistance, in any case the interaction between the doctor and the patient is important. Initially, psychological assistance consists of carefully examining and talking through the problem, simulating situations that frighten the patient. The main thing at this stage is that the doctor will teach the patient how to behave correctly in a critical situation and cope with the consequences of panic. The psychologist develops recommendations that will help control emotions in unusual circumstances, individually for a particular patient. A person suffering from a phobia, after talking with a psychotherapist, will be able to behave adequately in a critical situation without succumbing to panic. These recommendations will help normalize a person’s life.

Rational psychotherapy

This technique is based on the formation of common sense and the development of logical thinking in the patient. To a person suffering from a phobia, the doctor explains the true causes of the disease. The specialist forms in the patient a correct understanding of the symptoms of a phobic disorder so that vegetative signals are not perceived as signs of a disease of the internal organs. A person realizes that dizziness, sudden darkening of the eyes, “sticky” palms, nausea, vomiting, difficulty breathing are the consequences of fear, and not symptoms of some disease. This is connected precisely with a specific object or situation that frightens him. If a person understands this, his anxiety decreases. As soon as he gets rid of the object of fear, the symptoms disappear.

Neurolinguistic programming

NLP involves three stages of treatment:

1. The doctor collects all the information about the symptoms, causes and course of the disease.
2. A goal is set for the patient, and it is clarified and explained what exactly the treatment will be aimed at.
3. After passing this stage, the patient evaluates the effectiveness of the work. If he is satisfied with the result, the treatment moves to the next stage. If not, the doctor and patient go back a step and adjust the goals and objectives of treatment.

The basis of NLP is hypnotherapy.

The main means is speech influence. The doctor and patient study in detail the prerequisites and causes of the phobia and determine the resources that will be needed to achieve a positive treatment result.

Hypnotherapy is an effective method

NLP allows you to quickly collect and analyze the necessary information about the patient. Some NLP techniques can eliminate anxiety-phobic disorder in just one or two sessions. But this issue is very controversial; many scientists consider the NLP method to be pseudoscientific.

Cognitive behavioral therapy

According to numerous studies, CBT ranks first in terms of effectiveness in treating phobias.

CBT is aimed at correcting a person’s actions, thoughts and emotions in problematic situations that are destructive and cause anxiety.

The main task of a psychotherapist is to identify erroneous thinking that needs to be corrected or completely changed. The doctor helps the patient formulate and accept the correct thoughts and behavior patterns in a critical situation.

The psychotherapist helps the patient to adequately assess what is happening and change his incorrect beliefs. The doctor teaches you to identify “wrong thoughts” that are the basis for the emergence of fear, and with the help of logic and analysis to resist them. The specialist forces the patient to turn his thoughts into a positive direction and look for the positives in the current situation.

The psychotherapist immerses the patient in a situation that causes pathological fear. But at first only in the imagination. The doctor and the patient analyze all possible ways out of the current non-standard situation and make the only right decision. With each session, the doctor complicates the task, asking the patient to get out on his own. When the patient can calmly react to frightening circumstances, the doctor suggests moving on to reality - taking a ride on a real escalator. In the presence of a doctor, the patient steps onto a moving escalator. Under the supervision of a specialist, these exercises are repeated until the patient calmly responds to the moving staircase.

This method is good because after completion of treatment, patients can independently cope with their fears in critical circumstances.

Hypnosis

This method is used infrequently, but it is found to be very effective.

Hypnosis was discovered in 1958. It is recognized as a safe method of treating phobias, because it works on a subconscious level. This is a very difficult process. The hypnologist relaxes the patient as much as possible by putting him in a trance state. During the session, the doctor evaluates the patient’s facial expressions, gestures, and phrases and, based on the observations received, analyzes and influences the subconscious. It neutralizes the true cause of panic fear, eliminates the “wall” created by the patient to avoid frightening situations, and bypasses psychological defense mechanisms.

When treating with hypnosis, the specialist often simulates a situation where the patient is confronted with the object of his fear and instills the correct attitude to resolve the problem.

I'm afraid to go down the subway. “I’m afraid to go down the subway.” How to benefit from fear

In the first days after the explosion, the St. Petersburg metro was literally empty, while huge traffic jams formed on the roads. Some switched to land transport and personal cars. Some still went down into the subway with caution, carefully examining their fellow travelers in search of the source of danger. Fear and anxiety were literally physically felt in the atmosphere of the northern capital. The real purpose of terrorism is to cause fear and panic. But we won't give up!

What to do if fear haunts you on the street or in the subway, prevents you from living a peaceful life and constantly oppresses you? Are you trying to spot a terrorist in every subway passenger? Is it possible to overcome yourself and, despite everything, continue to live as before?

Find out the nature of the enemy

To defeat the enemy, you need to know as much as possible about him. What is the nature of fear? Fear is a normal human state, which is aimed at survival. In its deepest manifestation, fear is nothing more than the instinct of self-preservation. Is it necessary to get rid of fear altogether? Of course not! But you need to learn to work with it, you need to be able to overcome fear without panicking.

In everyday life, most of us cope calmly with various types of fear. We get behind the wheel of a car, cross the road, work in production, which is sometimes fraught with danger. Fear helps us avoid injury, motivates us to exercise the necessary caution and reasonable compliance with the rules. This fear does not turn into panic; panic is blocked by knowledge and experience.

There is a fear of social responsibility, a fear of losing one's status. This fear is generally very useful, as it forces a person to constantly move forward in his career, profession, and creativity. We don't even call it fear. This is a border that does not allow us to violate our moral and moral laws, which ultimately makes us human. Such social fear must be cultivated in oneself in every possible way.

But there are situations when fear crosses all boundaries and begins to control a person. It is accompanied by an increased emotional background: horror, anxiety, panic, aggression. These emotions block the rational functioning of the brain, and the person is no longer able to make sound decisions.

Often such panic fear is completely unfounded: there is no external real danger, but the person himself invents it and grows it within himself. Such unreasonable fear can also include fear associated with the threat of terrorism, because in fact the likelihood that you will be under attack is very small. Even when driving a car, we are exposed to much greater danger.

Fear is a normal human state. Photo: Shutterstock.com

Sometimes panic fear turns into a phobia, which a person is no longer able to consciously control. Then various depressive states, nervous tics, stuttering, etc. begin to arise, which can be dealt with if you find the cause - primary fear.

The most emotional reactions to events such as terrorist attacks or natural disasters are people who were once scared in the past and were unable to overcome the fear within themselves. The reason could be in deep childhood, when the child did not have the strength to resist fear, and adults were not around. Finding an event that gave rise to a feeling of insecurity and lack of support is not always easy. But this is within the capabilities of an experienced specialist - a rhythmologist. During consultations, he helps to “calculate” and “erase” the chain of negative events, to build a person’s self-confidence, the confidence that in any situation he is able to cope and protect himself.

It's better to listen than to look

What can you advise people who are prone to panic? First, try to listen to less news. Do not warm up, do not feed your fear with stories and memories of these events. Secondly, do not carry on conversations on this topic with friends and family. Most often in such conversations we only escalate the situation and aggravate our fear. Finally, and most importantly, try not to look

This is due to the peculiarities of our brain and memory. A color memory, like a photo album, contains everything a person has ever seen. These images remain on a person’s subconscious almost his entire life. From there, from the subconscious, they often control life.

Suppose a person has already seen photographs or video footage published in abundance after the tragedy in the St. Petersburg metro. Every time he goes down the subway, the images of the tragedy that he placed in his memory will come to life on a subconscious level. As a result, the passenger will feel at least discomfort, and a very impressionable person will generally begin to panic and may experience dizziness, nausea and other unpleasant physical manifestations of fear.