A cynophobia is a specific phobia, characterized by irrational and disproportionate fear of dogs In general, this phobia develops after traumatic experiences with dog attacks.

This fear of dogs is so intense that the person cannot handle any situation involving dogs. It takes over their thoughts, to the point that they go around their everyday life in order not to encounter the animal.

Know that we all have fears, it is innate to the human being, an instinctive means of self-defense. However, fear becomes a phobia when it becomes compulsive, causing intense anxiety. This fear is paralyzing, where the person, at all costs, spends his life bypassing daily situations to avoid any phobic stimulus.

What is cynophobia?

Cynophobia, a word that comes from ancient Greek κύων kýōn which means "dog", plus φόβος phóbos, equals "fear". In other words, it is the disproportionate fear of dogs, even though they pose no danger to you. A any indication of the presence of dogs The dread is so intense that it becomes paralyzing.

The fear of dogs, especially large ones, is natural, because we know that they can attack us, for example, for the protection of their owner. However, when facing a small and harmless dog, the person manifests an uncontrollable and terrifying fear, possibly the case of cynophobia .

What are the main causes of dog phobia?

Mostly, cynophobia is linked to some trauma related to a dog attack, mainly in childhood. As a result, the person develops a generalized phobia of dogs. However, other factors can trigger this phobia, which can be manifestations of our unconscious mind which we cannot understand in the conscious state.

In this sense, dog phobia can be related to indirect traumas. Thus, in order to discover its cause and, consequently, have an adequate treatment, it is necessary to seek professional help.

Moreover, it is common for this phobia to have been developed by children's education, where parents, out of excessive zeal, end up exaggerating about the risks that a dog can present. Thus, with frequent warnings about the danger of bites and/or diseases, the child can develop cynophobia, even during his adult life.

What are the symptoms of cynophobia?

Who suffers from cynophobia manifests several symptoms when facing a dog or, in the most severe cases, just thinking about the possibility of this encounter, presents phobic symptoms. most common symptoms of people with cynophobia are:

• constant state of alert;
• irritability and aggressiveness;
• feeling that one is always in imminent threat of life;
• shivers;
• without self-control;
• muscle tension;
• increased heart rate;
• sweating;
• panic attack.

Treatment for fear of dogs

In advance, you should know that many people who suffer from phobias, regardless of their type, end up living with the disease without seeking professional help. This can be due to ignorance of the fact that it is an illness, or even due to embarrassment at having to expose their greatest fears.

In this sense, if you present some of the symptoms of cynophobia If you know someone, or even if you know someone, understand that you are facing an illness, and help from a mental health professional is needed.

There is many ways to lessen or cure dog phobia A therapist will use techniques to discover the cause of the disease, in an individualized way, according to people's experiences, and thus give the appropriate treatment.

For example, in therapy sessions with a psychoanalyst, the aim will be to find the causes of your phobia by accessing your unconscious mind, bringing up deep information that will explain the causes of the phobia. In this way, the treatment will focus on this information, looking for ways to interpret it and decrease or eliminate the phobia.

Even more, for the most severe cases, you may need to take medication, such as antidepressants and anxiolytics, as prescribed by a psychiatrist.

What are phobias?

As we said before, it is natural to be afraid, because our mind identifies dangerous situations, resulting in self-defensive behavior. However, these instinctive fears become phobias when they become disproportionate, irrational, and involuntary.

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In this way, the phobic person lives in a constant state of alert, and this fear becomes frequent, conditioning situations in his or her daily life, thus affecting his or her social relations, since the fear of facing the phobic stimulus begins to affect his or her life. Then, the phobic person acts in a minimally planned way, even in the simplest routine situations.

In other words, it must be clear that fear and phobia are totally different Fear is that basic emotion, a survival instinct of the person when he is in a situation of imminent danger, where his body will develop behaviors for self-defense.

Whereas phobias are characterized by an intense and unreasonable fear, which, under the view of others, is totally incoherent, but which, for the phobic, is enough to have sensations of extreme terror.

In general, what are the most common causes for phobias?

One cannot list the causes that trigger phobias, since they are related to subjective criteria. Among the most common causes of phobias are traumatic events experienced, especially in childhood or adolescence, which, if not treated correctly, can manifest into adulthood.

In other words, you will only know what it is to feel fear if you have experienced it in your life. In other words, you will only feel fear if you have lived with it and created it at that moment in time.

And although you know that it may be incoherent, you relive it in your mind, causing it to grow in great proportion, thus resulting in the development of the phobia.

About the causes for phobias, experts and scholars show that the most common examples are:

• genetic factors;
• traumatic experiences;
• family history;
• beliefs and superstitions;
• subjective experiences of their intrauterine life.
• anxious and catastrophic thoughts;
• archetypes;
• lack of information.

How can psychoanalysis help overcome cynophobia?

For Freud, considered the father of Psychoanalysis, human behavior results, above all, from issues related to our unconscious mind Thus, in order to analyze phobias, it is necessary to understand human instincts, desires and impulses.

Thus, in therapy sessions with a psychoanalyst, he will use his theoretical and practical studies to investigate the implicit meanings of the unconscious mind, not only the external aspect of the person.

However, the patient will be able to release the traumatic experiences that he or she was repressing. The psychoanalyst will be able to bring out important information about the person that was hidden in the unconscious. Thus, he or she will be able to understand themselves and overcome their mental disorders, developing self-knowledge.

However, if you have reached the end of this article about cynophobia If you are interested in the study of the human mind, then we invite you to learn about our training course in psychoanalysis. In addition to self-knowledge, it will improve your interpersonal relations, because understanding how the mind works can provide a better relationship with family and work members. The course is a tool that helps the student to understand thoughts,feelings, emotions, pains, desires, and motivations of other people.

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