People with phobia experience fire from all forms of routine use with it; They are afraid of the stove, and any heating elements in their homes.
What is fire phobia?
1- It is the constant fear of seeing the fire or its outbreak to the extent that it affects the person’s life and the daily tasks he carries out.
2- The condition worsens for those with this condition to the point of practicing obsessive rituals, such as continuous examination and making sure that the oven is constantly turned off and so on.
3.Some accidents get worse. For example, if the injured person is forced to flee from the house due to the outbreak of a fire, or the outbreak of the fire in his clothes unintentionally frightens him.
4- This phobia is higher in places where there are machines or equipment that bring out the fire, such as the kitchen where there is a stove or a chimney.
5- A person with this condition cannot endure safari trips, camp accommodation, or even see candles.
Causes of fire phobia:
Negative experiences:
One of the main causes of this type of phobia is that a person has had a bad experience in the past with fire. For example, if his house was exposed to a big fire, or if he himself was burned.
Heredity:
Mental illness can be transmitted from the generation of parents to the generation of children, so if the son notices that his father has fear of fire in the early childhood period, especially; This motivates him to adopt fire-fear behaviors as well.
Brain functions:
This is in the manner in which some receive their fear and warn them from the fire on behalf of others. As some people are more anxious about the fire than usual.
Symptoms of fire phobia:
Manifestations differ relatively between children and adults, so for children the most prominent signs of this condition are:
Crying.
Clinging to people and things.
Act with excessive anger.
Adherence to parents, and not to leave them.
Lack of desire to talk about fire, or even to approach it.
Adult physical symptoms:
Fast heart rate.
Problems with breathing.
Tightness in the chest.
Shivering.
Dry mouth.
Feeling sick.
Dizziness or fainting.
Psychological symptoms:
Feeling anxious when seeing simple dealing with fire, such as lighting candles, for example.
A sense of fear and confusion when any talk about fire or fires is mentioned.
Lack of ability to control, even if the owner realizes the unreality of the matter.
Keeping away from the places where the fire is lit for any reason.
Lack of or little daily interaction with everyone, and at work or study, as a result of fear of fire.
How to diagnose fire phobia?
When diagnosing the patient that he actually has this type of phobia, it should be ascertained at the outset that this fear has already developed into a phobia, and not just a slight discomfort or anxiety that can be controlled by avoiding what causes a disturbance.
When the influence rises to the point where many duties or work in the fields of study, work, or life in general are disrupted.
Only when fear is necessary to go to the doctor to check and evaluate the situation, and then determine the treatment plan.
The doctor collects information about the person’s physical and psychological treatment history, to find out if there are any medications that will conflict with the patient’s treatment plan, and the doctor may use the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, one of the most important diagnostic criteria.
How to treat fire phobia?
Exposure treatment:
This treatment is based on confronting the person's fears of exposure to the thing he is afraid of gradually, until the fear or phobia of fire begins to disappear, and that is when learning to control feelings during exposure to fire.
Other ways:
Such as talking about fire or thinking about it, seeing pictures or video clips, and approaching the fire, as if the victim runs or is near a fire for some time, and a period of time that increases with the passage of time is committed to treatment.
Cognitive behavioral therapy:
This treatment is usually followed in conjunction with exposure therapy, which helps the sufferer to become better acquainted with methods of confronting his fear of fire. Then he will begin work on replacing the thought patterns in fire, in order to eliminate appearances, and to reinforce the main idea that the goal of his fear does not affect him.
They will also be taught how to be calm, relaxation techniques, and to breathe properly when watching a fire or being exposed to any fire.
Both methods may help the person with this type of phobia, but there are some cases that need medication.