Trypophobia

Last updated

The holes in lotus seed heads elicit feelings of discomfort or repulsion in some people. Nelumbo Nucifera fruit - botanic garden Adelaide.jpg
The holes in lotus seed heads elicit feelings of discomfort or repulsion in some people.

Trypophobia is an aversion to the sight of repetitive patterns or clusters of small holes or bumps. [3] [4] [5] Although not clinically recognized as a mental or emotional disorder, it may nonetheless be diagnosed as a specific phobia in habitually occurring cases of excessive fear or distress. [1] [4] Most sufferers normally experience mainly disgust when they see trypophobic imagery, although some experience equal levels of fear and disgust. [4]

Contents

As of 2021, trypophobia is poorly understood by the scientific community. [3] [4] In the few studies that have taken place, several researchers hypothesized that it is the result of a biological revulsion, causing the afflicted to associate trypophobic shapes with danger or disease, and may therefore have some evolutionary basis, [1] [4] and that exposure therapy may be a possible treatment. [1]

The term trypophobia was coined by a nameless participant posting to an online forum in 2005. [6] It has since become a common topic on social networking sites. [7]

Classification

Trypophobia is not recognized by as a mental disorder and thus is not associated with a specific diagnosis in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). However, it may fall under the broad category of specific phobias when it involves excessive, persistent and possibly irrational fear, and is associated with significant distress or even impairment. [1]

Whether trypophobia can be accurately defined as a specific phobia may depend on whether the person suffering responds mainly with fear or with disgust. Because phobias involve fear, a response to trypophobic imagery that is based mostly or solely on disgust renders its status as a specific phobia questionable. [4] In one study, most of the participants with trypophobia met the DSM-5 criteria for a specific phobia, even though they experienced disgust with an absence of fear when shown imagery of clusters of holes; however, they did not meet the distress or impairment criteria. [4]

Signs and symptoms

Trypophobia often presents with an autonomic nervous system response, for example, a cringe. [4] Shapes that elicit a trypophobic reaction usually include clustered holes in innocuous contexts, such as fruit and bubbles, as well as in contexts associated with danger, such as holes made by insects or holes caused by wounds and diseased tissue—for example, caused by mango flies in animals, especially dogs. Upon seeing these shapes, some people said they shuddered, felt their skin crawl, experienced panic attacks, sweated, palpitated, or felt nauseated or itchy. [1] [8] Other reported symptoms include goose bumps, body shakes (i.e., cringing), nosebleeds, emotional or visual discomfort (e.g., eyestrain, distortions, illusions.) [4] Trypophobia may manifest also with reactions of fear, disgust or both. [4] Disgust is usually the stronger emotion in those who suffer. [4]

Causes

The understanding of trypophobia is limited. [4] Several possible causes have been proposed. [4] Geoff Cole and Arnold Wilkins believe the reaction is an "unconscious [sic] reflex reaction" based on a biological revulsion, rather than a learned cultural fear. [8] Various venomous animals (for example, certain types of snakes, insects, and spiders) have visual characteristics similar to trypophobic imagery. Furthermore, other animals such as the frog Pipa pipa have been known to be a trypophobia trigger. Because of this, it is hypothesized that trypophobia has an evolutionary basis meant to alert humans of dangerous organisms. [1] [9] [10] Can et al., however, believe the connection between trypophobia and evolution as a result of a threat from deadly creatures to be weak and that, if a connection does exist, it manifests later in life rather than in childhood. [4] [11]

Martínez-Aguayo et al. described trypophobia as usually involving "an intense and disproportionate fear towards holes, repetitive patterns, protrusions, etc., and, in general, images that present high-contrast energy at low and mid-range spatial frequencies." [4] Cole and Wilkins also stated the imagery has high spatial frequency with greater energy at mid-range. [1] [4] Whether together or separate, it appears that low and mid-range spatial frequencies are necessary for inducing trypophobic reactions. Based on the imagery's visual cues, An Trong Dinh Le, Cole, and Wilkins developed a symptom questionnaire that they believe can be used to identify trypophobia. [4]

Researchers have also speculated that trypophobic reactions could be perceived as cues to infectious disease, which could be alerts that give one a survival advantage. In a study by Kupfer and Le, trypophobic and non-trypophobic participants showed significant aversion to disease-relevant cluster images, but only trypophobic participants displayed a significant aversion to disease-irrelevant cluster images. Martínez-Aguayo et al. stated that, because the reactions could not be attributed to different sensitivity levels or neuroticism differences, Kupfer and Le believe it supports their hypothesis that trypophobia is "an overgeneralized aversion towards cluster stimuli that indicates a parasitic and infectious disease threat". [4] Yamada and Sasaki also propose that trypophobic reactions are due to the imagery's visual similarities to skin diseases. [4]

Whether trypophobia is associated with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) has also been studied. A significant minority of those with trypophobia meet the DSM-5 criteria for an obsessive-compulsive disorder. [4] Martínez-Aguayo et al. stated that other findings refer to trypophobia having common comorbid psychiatric diagnosis, such as major depressive disorder or generalized anxiety disorder, although Le et al. felt that general anxiety does not cause trypophobia. [4]

Treatment

There are no known treatments for trypophobia, but exposure therapy, which has been used to treat phobias, is likely to be an effective treatment. [1]

Epidemiology

The extent to which trypophobia exists is unknown, [1] but the available data suggests that having an aversion to trypophobic imagery is relatively common. [1] [2] [4] 16% of a sample of 286 participants in a 2013 study reported discomfort or repulsion when presented with an image of a lotus seed pod and its authors found that non-trypophobic individuals also experienced more discomfort when viewing trypophobic imagery than when viewing neutral images. [1] Trypophobia appears to be more prevalent in women. [4]

Etymology

The term trypophobia is believed to have been coined by a participant in an online forum in 2005 [7] from the Ancient Greek : τρῦπα, trŷpa, meaning "hole" and φόβος, phóbos, meaning "fear". [7]

Society and culture

Groups on social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram exist for self-identified trypophobics to share and discuss images that they say induce the reaction. [7] [12]

Because trypophobia is not well known to the general public, many people with the condition do not know the name for it and believe that they are alone in their trypophobic reactions and thoughts until they find an online community to share them with. [13] This has led to an increase in trypophobic images on social media; in some cases, people seek to intentionally induce trypophobia in those who have it by showing them trypophobic images, with the most trypophobic response-inducing images being holes and clusters (especially the lotus seed-head) photoshopped onto human skin. [13] Cole and Wilkins also stated that the level of disgust with trypophobia increases if the holes are on human skin. [13] Writing in Popular Science , Jennifer Abbasi argues that emotional contagion within such social media groups may be responsible for some of the averse reactions to such images. [7]

In 2017, trypophobia received media attention when American Horror Story featured a trypophobic character [14] and trypophobic response-inducing advertisements promoting the storyline; some people were disturbed by the imagery, [13] [15] and criticized the show for "insensitivity towards sufferers of trypophobia". [15] Although there was sentiment that the increased media attention could lead to people trying to induce trypophobia, there were also opinions that it might help people understand trypophobia and encourage more research on the matter. [13] Some users responded to the September 2019 release of Apple's iPhone 11 Pro, which features three closely spaced camera lenses, with comments that it triggered their trypophobia. [16]

Writer and editor Kathleen McAuliffe suggested that trypophobia is yet to be extensively studied because researchers have not given as much attention to topics of disgust as they have to other areas of research, and because of the revulsion viewing the images could incite in researchers. [17]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phobia</span> Anxiety disorder classified by a persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation

A phobia is an anxiety disorder, defined by an irrational, unrealistic, persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. Phobias typically result in a rapid onset of fear and are usually present for more than six months. Those affected go to great lengths to avoid the situation or object, to a degree greater than the actual danger posed. If the object or situation cannot be avoided, they experience significant distress. Other symptoms can include fainting, which may occur in blood or injury phobia, and panic attacks, often found in agoraphobia and emetophobia. Around 75% of those with phobias have multiple phobias.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anxiety disorder</span> Cognitive disorder with an excessive, irrational dread of everyday situations

Anxiety disorders are a group of mental disorders characterized by significant and uncontrollable feelings of anxiety and fear such that a person's social, occupational, and personal functions are significantly impaired. Anxiety may cause physical and cognitive symptoms, such as restlessness, irritability, easy fatigue, difficulty concentrating, increased heart rate, chest pain, abdominal pain, and a variety of other symptoms that may vary based on the individual.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agoraphobia</span> Anxiety disorder

Agoraphobia is a mental and behavioral disorder, specifically an anxiety disorder characterized by symptoms of anxiety in situations where the person perceives their environment to be unsafe with no easy way to escape. These situations can include public transit, shopping centers, crowds and queues, or simply being outside their home on their own. Being in these situations may result in a panic attack. Those affected will go to great lengths to avoid these situations. In severe cases, people may become completely unable to leave their homes.

Specific phobia is an anxiety disorder, characterized by an extreme, unreasonable, and irrational fear associated with a specific object, situation, or concept which poses little or no actual danger. Specific phobia can lead to avoidance of the object or situation, persistence of the fear, and significant distress or problems functioning associated with the fear. A phobia can be the fear of anything.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claustrophobia</span> Fear of small spaces

Claustrophobia is a fear of confined spaces. It is triggered by many situations or stimuli, including elevators, especially when crowded to capacity, windowless rooms, and hotel rooms with closed doors and sealed windows. Even bedrooms with a lock on the outside, small cars, and tight-necked clothing can induce a response in those with claustrophobia. It is typically classified as an anxiety disorder, which often results in panic attacks. The onset of claustrophobia has been attributed to many factors, including a reduction in the size of the amygdala, classical conditioning, or a genetic predisposition to fear small spaces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Avoidant personality disorder</span> Personality disorder

Avoidant personality disorder (AvPD) or anxious personality disorder is a Cluster C personality disorder characterized by excessive social anxiety and inhibition, fear of intimacy, severe feelings of inadequacy and inferiority, and an overreliance on avoidance of feared stimuli as a maladaptive coping method. Those affected typically display a pattern of extreme sensitivity to negative evaluation and rejection, a belief that one is socially inept or personally unappealing to others, and avoidance of social interaction despite a strong desire for it. It appears to affect an approximately equal number of men and women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panphobia</span> Vague and persistent dread of some unknown evil

Panphobia, omniphobia, pantophobia, or panophobia is a vague and persistent dread of some unknown evil. Panphobia is not registered as a type of phobia in medical references.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder</span> Medical condition

Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD) is a non-psychotic disorder in which a person experiences apparent lasting or persistent visual hallucinations or perceptual distortions after using drugs, including but not limited to psychedelics, dissociatives, entactogens, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and SSRIs. Despite being designated as a hallucinogen-specific disorder, the specific contributory role of psychedelic drugs is unknown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fear of bees</span> Specific phobia towards bees

The fear of bees, also known as apiophobia, apiphobia, or melissophobia, is a specific phobia triggered by the presence or apprehension of bees. It is a variation of entomophobia, a fear of insects. The phobia arises primarily from a fear of bee stings. Fear of bees often coincides with a fear of wasps, another stinging insect, and the two are sometimes conflated by people with bee phobias. A fear of bees can affect quality of life with anxiety around outdoor activities, and people with a bee phobia may experience symptoms of panic upon seeing a bee. Negative attitudes toward bees can also have negative effects on beekeeping and conservation efforts. Exposure therapy is an effective treatment for fear of bees and other specific phobias. Fear of bees may also occur in people who risk life-threatening reactions to stings, but this is considered a rational fear instead of a phobia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cynophobia</span> Fear of dogs and canines

Cynophobia is the fear of dogs and canines in general. Cynophobia is classified as a specific phobia, under the subtype "animal phobias". According to Timothy O. Rentz of the Laboratory for the Study of Anxiety Disorders at the University of Texas, animal phobias are among the most common of the specific phobias and 36% of patients who seek treatment report being afraid of dogs or afraid of cats. Although ophidiophobia or arachnophobia are more common animal phobias, cynophobia is especially debilitating because of the high prevalence of dogs and the general ignorance of dog owners to the phobia. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) reports that only 12% to 30% of those with a specific phobia will seek treatment.

Blood phobia is an extreme irrational fear of blood, a type of specific phobia. Severe cases of this fear can cause physical reactions that are uncommon in most other fears, specifically vasovagal syncope (fainting). Similar reactions can also occur with trypanophobia and traumatophobia. For this reason, these phobias are categorized as blood-injection-injury phobia by the DSM-IV. Some early texts refer to this category as "blood-injury-illness phobia."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thalassophobia</span> Fear of the sea or large open water

Thalassophobia is the persistent and intense fear of deep bodies of water, such as the ocean, seas, or lakes. Though related, thalassophobia should not be confused with aquaphobia, which is classified as the fear of water itself. Thalassophobia can include fears of being in deep bodies of water, the vastness of the sea, sea waves, aquatic animals, and great distance from land.

According to the DSM-IV classification of mental disorders, the injury phobia is a specific phobia of blood/injection/injury type. It is an abnormal, pathological fear of having an injury.

Blood-injection-injury (BII) type phobia is a type of specific phobia characterized by the display of excessive, irrational fear in response to the sight of blood, injury, or injection, or in anticipation of an injection, injury, or exposure to blood. Blood-like stimuli may also cause a reaction. This is a common phobia with an estimated 3-4% prevalence in the general population, though it has been found to occur more often in younger and less educated groups. Prevalence of fear of needles which does not meet the BII phobia criteria is higher. A proper name for BII has yet to be created.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disgust</span> Basic emotion

Disgust is an emotional response of rejection or revulsion to something potentially contagious or something considered offensive, distasteful or unpleasant. In The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Charles Darwin wrote that disgust is a sensation that refers to something revolting. Disgust is experienced primarily in relation to the sense of taste, and secondarily to anything which causes a similar feeling by sense of smell, touch, or vision. Musically sensitive people may even be disgusted by the cacophony of inharmonious sounds. Research has continually proven a relationship between disgust and anxiety disorders such as arachnophobia, blood-injection-injury type phobias, and contamination fear related obsessive–compulsive disorder.

Guided imagery is a mind-body intervention by which a trained practitioner or teacher helps a participant or patient to evoke and generate mental images that simulate or recreate the sensory perception of sights, sounds, tastes, smells, movements, and images associated with touch, such as texture, temperature, and pressure, as well as imaginative or mental content that the participant or patient experiences as defying conventional sensory categories, and that may precipitate strong emotions or feelings in the absence of the stimuli to which correlating sensory receptors are receptive.

Autophobia, also called monophobia, isolophobia, or eremophobia, is the specific phobia or a morbid fear or dread of oneself or of being alone, isolated, abandoned, and ignored. This specific phobia is associated with the idea of being alone, often causing severe anxiety.

Fear-potentiated startle (FPS) is a reflexive physiological reaction to a presented stimulus, and is an indicator of the fear reaction in an organism. The FPS response can be elicited in the face of any threatening stimulus, but it can also be elicited by a neutral stimulus as a result of fear conditioning, a process that occurs when a benign stimulus comes to evoke fear and anxiety upon being paired with a traumatic or fear-provoking event. The stimulus in question is usually of auditory or visual nature, and startle response measures include eyeblink rates and pulse/heart rate. The negative impact of heightened FPS in the face of neutral stimuli can be treated pharmacologically, using psychotropic medications that are typically used to reduce anxiety in humans. Recent literature, moreover, has implicated increased FPS responses as a correlate in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other anxiety disorders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hole</span> Opening in the surface of an object

A hole is an opening in or through a particular medium, usually a solid body. Holes occur through natural and artificial processes, and may be useful for various purposes, or may represent a problem needing to be addressed in many fields of engineering. Depending on the material and the placement, a hole may be an indentation in a surface, or may pass completely through that surface.

Ommetaphobia, ommatophobia is an irrational fear of eyes.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Milosevic, Irena; McCabe, Randi E. (2015). Phobias: The Psychology of Irrational Fear. ABC-CLIO. pp. 401–402. ISBN   978-1610695763 . Retrieved October 25, 2017.
  2. 1 2 Schacter, Daniel; Gilbert, Daniel; Wegner, Daniel; Hood, Bruce (2015). Psychology: Second European Edition. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 1391. ISBN   978-1137406750 . Retrieved October 25, 2017.
  3. 1 2 "Trypophobia: What Is It, Triggers, Symptoms, Diagnosis & Treatment". Cleveland Clinic. August 11, 2021. Retrieved November 7, 2024.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Martínez-Aguayo, Juan Carlos; Lanfranco, Renzo C.; Arancibia, Marcelo; Sepúlveda, Elisa; Madrid, Eva (2018). "Trypophobia: What Do We Know So Far? A Case Report and Comprehensive Review of the Literature". Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9: 15. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00015 . ISSN   1664-0640. PMC   5811467 . PMID   29479321.
  5. ↑ Le, An T. D.; Cole, Geoff G.; Wilkins, Arnold J. (January 30, 2015). "Assessment of trypophobia and an analysis of its visual precipitation". Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology . 68 (11): 2304–22. doi:10.1080/17470218.2015.1013970. PMID   25635930. S2CID   42086559.
  6. ↑ Skaggs, William (March 1, 2014). "Are You Afraid of Holes?". Scientific American . Retrieved August 18, 2022.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Abbasi, Jennifer (July 25, 2011). "Is Trypophobia a Real Phobia?". Popular Science . Retrieved October 2, 2012.
  8. 1 2 Cole, Geoff G.; Wilkins, Arnold J. (October 2013). "Fear of Holes" (PDF). Psychological Science . 24 (10): 1980–1985. doi:10.1177/0956797613484937. PMID   23982244. S2CID   206586831. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 26, 2019.
  9. ↑ Hockenbury, Don; Hockenbury, Sandra E. (2016). Discovering Psychology. Macmillan Higher Education. p. xxxii (sidebar). ISBN   978-1464176968.
  10. ↑ Kupfer, T. R.; Fessler, D. M. T. (July 19, 2018). "Ectoparasite defence in humans: relationships to pathogen avoidance and clinical implications". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences. 373 (1751): 20170207. doi:10.1098/rstb.2017.0207. PMC   6000138 . PMID   29866920.
  11. ↑ Can, W.; Zhuoran, Z.; Zheng, J. (2017). "Is Trypophobia a Phobia?". Psychological Reports. 120 (2): 206–218. doi:10.1177/0033294116687298. PMID   28558623. S2CID   206427223.
  12. ↑ Doucleff, Michaeleen. "Fear Of Cantaloupes And Crumpets? A 'Phobia' Rises From The Web". NPR . Retrieved April 10, 2016.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 LaMottef, Sandee (September 14, 2017). "TV show triggers little-known phobia". CNN . Retrieved October 26, 2017.
  14. ↑ King, Eric (September 6, 2017). "American Horror Story: Cult: Why is Ally afraid of small holes?". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved October 26, 2017.
  15. 1 2 Pavey, Harriet (September 5, 2017). "What is trypophobia? Bizarre fear of small holes featured in new American Horror Story series". London Evening Standard . Retrieved October 26, 2017.
  16. ↑ "Apple's iPhone 11 Pro 'triggering' fear of holes". BBC News. September 11, 2019. Retrieved September 11, 2019.
  17. ↑ McAuliffe, Kathleen (2016). This Is Your Brain on Parasites: How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behavior. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 154. ISBN   978-0544193222 . Retrieved October 25, 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.