Ommetaphobia is an irrational fear of eyes. The phobia may be related to

traumatophobia 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."Oxford Textbook of Psychopathology" by Theodore Millon, Pa ...

, the fear of having an injury.

Symptoms

* Avoidance of situations where eye contact, touching the eye, or having the eyes touched is likely or required. While this can work in short-term situations, long-term avoidance can worsen ommetaphobia by providing a justification for the fear. In some cases, an ommetaphobe may try to actively prevent a triggering situation from happening. * Periods of heightened

anxiety Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil and includes feelings of dread over anticipated events. Anxiety is different than fear in that the former is defined as the anticipation of a future threat wh ...

or panic attacks when ommetaphobia is triggered. This includes physical symptoms, such as

nausea Nausea is a diffuse sensation of unease and discomfort, sometimes perceived as an urge to vomit. While not painful, it can be a debilitating symptom if prolonged and has been described as placing discomfort on the chest, abdomen, or back of the ...

rapid breathing Tachypnea, also spelt tachypnoea, is a respiratory rate greater than normal, resulting in abnormally rapid and shallow breathing. In adult humans at rest, any respiratory rate of 1220 per minute is considered clinically normal, with tachypnea b ...

, and

sweating Perspiration, also known as sweating, is the production of fluids secreted by the sweat glands in the skin of mammals. Two types of sweat glands can be found in humans: eccrine glands and apocrine glands. The eccrine sweat glands are distr ...

, as well as mental symptoms, such as feelings of

panic Panic is a sudden sensation of fear, which is so strong as to dominate or prevent reason and logical thinking, replacing it with overwhelming feelings of anxiety and frantic agitation consistent with an animalistic fight-or-flight reactio ...

and lost control. Depending on the severity of the panic attack, the individual experiencing it may need to be hospitalised. These symptoms can last for several minutes after the affected individual is no longer near the triggering object or situation. * For some, ommetaphobia can manifest as the unrealistic fear that they are in danger of an eye injury. * For those with

comorbid In medicine, comorbidity - from Latin morbus ("sickness"), co ("together"), -ity (as if - several sicknesses together) - is the presence of one or more additional conditions often co-occurring (that is, concomitant or concurrent) with a primary c ...

social anxiety disorder, ommetaphobia triggered by eye contact can further worsen symptoms of social anxiety.

Triggers

* Eye contact and situations that may prompt or require it, such as

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

or face-to-face speech. * Touching the eye or having the eyes touched, such as eye examinations or the application of contact lenses or eye makeup. *Injury to the eye, or foreign substances (such as sand or shampoo) entering the eye. * The use of eye masks. * Fake eyes or images of eyes. * The thought of eyes or any of the above triggers. Not everyone with ommetaphobia is triggered by the same objects or situations. For example, an ommetaphobe can be triggered by having to touch their eyes, but not by eye contact with other people.

References

Body-related phobias {{abnormal-psych-stub

Symptoms

Triggers

See also

References