Astraphobia: Fear of Thunder and Lightning
July 17, 2011 § 3 Comments
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Right now it is monsoon season in Colorado and this is an unnerving time of the year for me because I have a serious fear of thunder and lightning. According to this website, the fear of thunder and lightning is called atraphobia. When people think of Colorado, I’m not sure the word monsoon comes to mind. We have an active monsoon season that can begin in late June and last through August. These storms begin in the late afternoon and can continue, off and on, through the evening. These storms usually include heavy rain, thunder, lightning and sometimes hail. It’s the thunder and lightning part that really gets to me.
I’ve been scared of thunder and lightning since I was a child. I don’t like loud noises and that is where this fear started. The louder the thunder would get, the more nervous I would become. Seeing lightning flash also makes me nervous because of the fear that loud thunder will sound. When I’m at home, I take a chair into my walk-in closet and I wait out the storm. My walk-in closet is in my bathroom so I turn on the bathroom fan and the noise from the fan helps the thunder to not sound so loud. When I’m at work, I go to the break room and sit in there until the storm passes. If I’m caught outside in a storm, my symptoms can be out of control. I’ll have “panic attacks” in which I’m shaking and crying. I’m also obsessed with checking the weather apps on my cellphone to make sure that no storms are near when I leave for work or go some place.
A lot of times I do feel embarrassed to have this fear and I’m not sure how to deal with it. So far, I don’t believe that this phobia affects my life too much. I’m not afraid to leave the house unless I see that a storm is coming and then I’ll wait for it to pass. I guess I just hope that this phobia doesn’t get worse and that I don’t get to the point where I’m not able to enjoy my life.
Thought it interesting that we both posted on the subject of Monsoons. I am at the opposite end of the fear spectrum, mainly because my Mom used to think nothing of having us outsde during a thunderstorm. I cringe a bit at a strke that raises the hair on my arms or when the thunder comes almost simultaneously with the lightning, but otherwise love watching and listening to storms, however do so from inside the house.
Fear does want us to hide, but that reinforces the fear. Better to do a reality check. Thirty-four people were killed and 253 injured by lightning strikes in the United States last year. One of those deaths occurred in Colorado. You probably have a better chance of winning the lottery than being hit by lightening, and you know the changes of picking the right Powerball number is very slim.
Sure you know this and that is the pain of a phobia, it keeps scaring you in the face of logic. There are very useful programs that can cure phobias and it sounds as if you have learned to accomodate to yours, so you aren’t too unhappy. If your unhappiness grows, I’d be happy to make some suggestions. Stay strong and I am posting yours and mine post on facebook along with mine.
Thank you very much for your comment. I think it’s amazing that you were raised to be outside during storms. I do envy people who are able to watch and listen to storms and not have fears. At this point, I don’t feel that my phobia affects the way that I live. I haven’t missed out on any part of my life but I think it would be nice to face this fear and overcome it.
I myself love to watch Mother Nature do her work. It’s a wake up call not to take nature for granted. Or anything else for that matter.