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Megalophobia is a phobia that causes persistent, irrational, and unwarranted fears of large things. This fear of large objects is overwhelming because the megalophobic person has a conscious understanding that in general these large things are nothing to be afraid of, yet the anxiety of being around or seeing a large object can paralyze the person with panic. The fear of big things such as planes, blimps, stadiums, statues, ships, and creatures from movies or comic books can cause some megalophobic people to be overcome with a full blown panic attack depending upon how severe, generalized, or specific their fear of large things is.
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Megalophobia is not a cut and dry fear of large things. Many with it can live productive lifestyles and be around large buildings and statues without hesitation; but those same people could experience a mirage of anxious symptoms by simply seeing a movie that has large creatures in it such as Jaws or Anaconda. It may seem like an odd phobia to have, but it didn’t make Top 10 List of Rare Phobias.
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What are the Symptoms of Megalophobia
As mentioned above, this phobia is not cut and dry in its definition nor in its symptoms. Read on and you will find the same reality for the causes of having a fear of large things. Symptoms of megalophobia can affect a person physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Some of the more popular physical symptoms of facing a large object include sweaty palms, shaking, palpitations, and upset stomach.
The mental symptoms can include obsessing over a large object and your fear of the huge object. Images in movies or memories of a large object can trigger anxiety and even panic attacks.
The emotional symptoms are similar to the mental symptoms of megalophobia. Anxiety, terror, and an overwhelming feeling of wanting to flee when you are faced with being around a large object are all characteristic of a megalophobic person.
Read more here about the Symptoms of Megalophobia and other phobias.
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What Causes a Person to Have a Fear of Large Objects
Like most any phobia the exact cause of the fear is generally something that occurred during the past, generally during your childhood. Oftentimes a person is not able to pinpoint the first time they started to notice they had fears of huge objects. For whatever reason, people with this phobia probably had a bad or negative experience that they later in life associated with large things.
The thinking pattern of a person with megalophobia (and most all phobias) is abnormal and is caused by a specific negative event that generally happened sometime in their childhood to early adulthood. Changing the thinking pattern is often the only way to overcome the fear of huge things; but this is complicated by the fact that megalophobics know their fear is irrational so trying to change their thought process may be futile.
If your fear of large objects is severe enough that you avoid activities or places where large things are, if you only have to think about the image of a large object to cause you panic, or if in anyway megalophobia is interrupting a normal lifestyle for you-you should seek psychiatric help. Megalophobia is one of the more unusual phobias but more people suffer from it than you think. The internet has several megalophobia support group forums and their are treatments available to help you take your life back from this irrational fear of large things.
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The definition of megalophobia
7 Extremely Unusual Phobias
Top 10 List of Rare Phobias