ANTHOPHOBIA: SYMPTOMS, CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES - ARTE - 2025

The antofobia is a disorder that is characterized by an irrational, excessive and uncontrollable fear of flowers. People who suffer from this disorder experience high feelings of anxiety whenever they are exposed to these types of elements. Likewise, they try to avoid contact with flowers whenever possible.

Anthophobia can be a very disabling disorder, especially in people who live or move through areas where flowers are frequently found. However, today it is a psychological alteration that can be reversed, since there are effective treatments that can reverse the phobic fear of flowers.

The main characteristic of the disorder is avoidance. The person with anthophobia will try to avoid contact with the flowers whenever possible in order to also avoid the discomfort that they cause.

On the other hand, people with anthophobia experience high feelings of anxiety whenever they are exposed to flowers, which is why the alteration is considered an anxiety disorder.

characteristics

Anthophobia is a psychological pathology. Specifically, it is an anxiety disorder and is included within the diagnostic category of specific phobias.

It is common for the feared elements in the most common specific phobias to be objects that can cause some harm such as animals, injections or heights.

However, to develop a phobic fear it is not necessary for the feared element to have negative properties. In fact, today it has been established that the phobic fear response can be given to practically any object or situation.

In this sense, anthophobia appears, a type of specific phobia in which the feared element is flowers. Today there are no specific data on the prevalence of anthophobia. However, it is argued that it is a very rare disorder in society.

However, anthophobia can be a very distressing and disabling pathology for the person who suffers from it. Especially in subjects who live in rural settings or in areas where the presence of flowers is frequent, anthophobia can greatly limit a person's day-to-day life.

Fear of flowers

To be able to speak of anthophobia it is necessary that the fear of flowers present a series of specific characteristics. Specifically, the fear of flowers should be characterized as phobic.

In this sense, the fear of these elements experienced by a person with anthophobia is characterized by being:

Excessive

The flowers do not pose any danger or any real threat to the person. However, the individual with anthophobia interprets these elements as highly threatening.

For this reason, the fear response of anthophobia is characterized by being excessive and disproportionate taking into account the real demands of the situation.

Irrational

The flowers do not constitute any real danger to people, yet the subject with anthophobia interprets them as highly threatening.

This happens because the phobic fear of flowers is irrational. This is not governed by congruent thought processes.

Uncontrollable

Although people with anthophobia are able to identify that their fear is irrational and disproportionate (they are not delusional), they are unable to avoid experiencing fear when exposed to flowers.

This happens because the experiences of fear appear in a totally uncontrollable way, without the person being able to do anything about it.

Permanent

Finally, the phobic fear of flowers is characterized by being permanent. Anthophobia is not a temporary or circumstantial disorder, but it is chronic if it is not intervened properly.

Symptoms

The typical manifestations of anthophobia are characterized by being anxious. The phobic fear of flowers is so intense and high that it generates a broad anxiety response.

The first symptoms to appear when an individual with this disorder comes into contact with flowers are changes in their physical functioning.

The increased activity of the peripheral nervous system that generates fear causes the appearance of manifestations such as increased heart rate, increased respiration, muscle tension, pupillary dilation, excessive sweating, nausea or vomiting.

Likewise, anthophobia is a disorder that affects the cognitive and behavioral level of the person. As regards the cognitive plane, individuals with this disorder generate a series of negative and irrational thoughts about flowers.

Finally, with regard to the behavioral plane, the most typical element of the disorder is avoidance. The person with anthophobia will avoid contact with flowers whenever possible and will develop the necessary behaviors to achieve it.

Causes

At present, the etiology of anthophobia is somewhat confusing. However, a large majority of authors agree that the development factors of the pathology could be the same as those of other types of specific phobias.

In this sense, direct conditioning, vicarious conditioning, genetic factors, cognitive styles, and anxious personality traits appear to be the most important factors that can lead to the development of anthophobia.

Treatments

The best news that anthophobia presents is that today it has treatments capable of extinguishing the phobic fear of flowers. Specifically, psychotherapy seems to be the therapeutic tool that can achieve these goals.

Cognitive behavioral treatment is a type of psychotherapy that is based on the subject's exposure to its feared elements and that has very high efficacy rates in the treatment of specific phobias.

Exposure to flowers in a gradual and controlled way allows the subject to get used to these elements, learn to control their anxiety response and gradually overcome their fear of flowers.

Likewise, these treatments can incorporate relaxation training to reduce the subject's state of anxiety and cognitive therapy to correct irrational thoughts about flowers.

References

1. American Psychiatric Association (2013). DSM-5 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Washington: American Psychiatric Publishing.
2. Barlow, DH (1988). Anxiety and its disorders: the nature and treatment of anxiety and panic. New York, Guilford.
3. Becker E, Rinck M, Tu¨ rke V, et al. Epidemiology of specific phobia types: findings from the Dresden Mental Health Study. Eur Psychiatry 2007; 22: 69–74.
4. Depla M, ten Have M, van Balkom A, de Graaf R. Specific fears and phobias in the general population: results from the Netherlands mental health survey and incidence study (NEMESIS). Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 2008; 43: 200–208.
5. Trumpf J, Becker ES, Vriends N, et al. Rates and predictors of remission among young women with specific phobia: a prospective community study. J Anxiety Disord 2009; 23: 958–964.