Close your eyes and imagine images of strawberries, honeycomb, and bubbly pancake batter. Do I think of delicious late summer meals, or do you have hallucinations of horror movies running through your head? If you're one of the thousands of people who suffer from trypophobia, these three images may have just thrown you over the edge.
Simply put, trypophobia is the fear or aversion to densely packed holes. Those dealing with this problem may feel sick at the sight of something like the densely packed head of a lotus pod, or feel nauseated, sweaty, or panicked at the sight of a bathtub filled with bubbles. While by definition this aversion to bugs is some kind of deep-seated, psychologically based fear, there's some debate as to whether it qualifies as a true "phobia" since it's not officially recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ( DSM).
What is trypophobia?
"Trypophobia is different from other phobias," writes Arnold Wilkins, emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Essex, via email. He is one of the world's leading researchers on the subject of visual stress. "People were not affected in any way and there was no obvious explanation. It was more of a disgust reaction than a phobia."
While phobias are often characterized by the hallmark symptoms of fear, Trypophobia seems to revolve around the hallmark symptoms of disgust. What these people seem to hate is seeing things like coral, lotus seed pods, or even bubbles in their coffee. Basically anything that might have a bunch of holes in it.
According to a 2018 review, women appear to be more likely to suffer from trypophobia, with the most common comorbidities being major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. Other symptoms may include:
Helplessness, disgust, or fear
Goosebumps, itchy skin, or a feeling that the skin is crawling
Dizziness, tremors, shortness of breath
Sweating, body trembling, rapid heartbeat
Headache
Nausea or vomiting
The topic of trypophobia takes on an unexpected came into Wilkins' life: His colleague Dr. Jeff Cole brought it to his attention by describing his experiences with trypophobia that began at age 13 (beginning with a disgusting metal shop project involving Drill small holes in coins).
"I have been exploring visual discomfort in images and found that discomfort can be mathematically measured to predict how differently an image will differ from a natural scene," Wilkins said. "Then I was visited by Dr. Geoff Cole, who told me about trypophobia and claimed to have trypophobia himself. I thought trypophobic images might be related to other uncomfortable and unnatural images. Statistics – so it proves it ”
In 2013, Wilkins and Cole published a paper suggesting that trypophobia may be a specific vision found in venomous animals. The result of a trait that triggers certain evolved parts of the brain to go crazy. They found that approximately 16% of participants reported trypophobic reactions.
"My interest in trypophobia began in 2013 after reading Cole and Wilkins' paper 'The Fear of Holes,'" R. Nathan Pipitone, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Florida Gulf Coast University, via email writes. “This topic is related to my interest in *** causing evolutionarily relevant responses in humans. After mentioning it to a student who was interested in conducting research with me, we decided to conduct a study together in 2015 *** Project."
In 2017, Pipitone published the paper "Physiological responses to trypophobic images and further scale validity of the trypophobia questionnaire," which supports Wilkins and Cole's interpretation. , including "Overall, negative reactions were seen among participants who viewed trypophobic images. As Cole and Wilkins (2013) showed, these images had a similar spatial frequency distribution to that of dangerous animals."
"The most surprising finding to me was the broad range of responses to trypophobia***," Pipitone said. "Our pattern of visual perception is highly conservative, and there is usually a lot of agreement on what we all find uncomfortable or pleasurable. People with full-blown trypophobia experience extreme discomfort when viewing these images (I have seen several of them), but to a non-trypophobic person they look almost pleasant."
But why the pattern of holes?
In 2017, researchers at the University of Kent proposed an alternative theory to explain the unpleasant *** sensations some people experience when observing hole patterns. The authors propose that "an aversion to swarming is an evolutionarily primed response to a class of parasites that resemble parasites and clues to the presence of infectious diseases." In other words, trypophobia aversions to parasites and causes round swarming diseases such as measles, rubella, scarlet fever, smallpox, ticks, and scabies.
While researchers say this reaction is a common adaptive response, people with trypophobia experience "exaggerated and overgeneralized versions" of natural tendencies.
Regardless of what actually causes a person's trypophobia, Pipitone said he believes the diversity of trypophobic reactions is a concrete example of human personality and even the need for more empathy and respect for others Sensitivity of perception.
"Just because you don't have an adverse reaction to these images doesn't mean other people will have the same reaction," he said. "Since most people do not have trypophobia, they may feel that the reactions they see in some people are unreasonable. In today's world, we need to be more aware that other people's subjective realities may differ from our own. This will help us in many ways ”
Treating trypophobia
There is no specific treatment for trypophobia, although there are ways to help people with it. People, this may help reduce symptoms of trypophobia.
Exposure therapy allows people to "expose" what they fear most in the hope that over time, the fear will decrease.
Cognitive behavioral therapy involves patients working with a therapist to "change" their thoughts and behaviors that may be contributing to their trypophobia.
Relaxation techniques, such as deep breathing, may also help reduce the disgust, fear, or anxiety caused by trypophobia.
Medications to treat depression or anxiety can also reduce symptoms.
Now this is fun
Some of the more common trypophobia triggers include: Bubble Wrap, insect eyes, pomegranates, and sponges.