Anatidaephobia - Fear of being watched by a Duck

The word phobia means an extreme kind of abnormal and unreasonable fear of something. People with anatidaephobia are said to believe that wherever they are, they are being watched by a duck every time somewhere around the world. People with this phobia also happens to have extreme panic attacks at a time when the thought of a duck watching them crosses their mind, even OCD (Obsessive compulsive disorder) which involve disturbing thoughts and images, merely the thought of it can cause anxiety attacks for them. This phobia is one of the rare ones around the world, amongst the many kinds of different phobias.

For people who have anatidaephobia, everyday life can be quite difficult for them as they are always paranoid by a duck which causes extreme anxiety in them and they can’t do anything normal in life. When people with this phobia get incredibly paranoid, they take measures as much as to completely isolate them from the outside world by staying all the time indoors. Sometimes, even staying indoors does not help people to control their anxiety attacks if people have extreme anatidaephobia, which makes day to day routine tasks harder for them.

Suffered people situation:

People with this phobia have anxiety attacks even by the mere thought of a duck watching them if, in a case of a real-life situation of a duck watching them, people with anatidaephobia experience extreme levels of anxiety and can even go into a fight or flight state. When such a thing happens, affected people experience high heartbeat, high breathing, muscle tension as well as perspiration; however, such conditions differ from person to person.

Symptoms

As like people with any other phobia, the main symptom of people with anatidaephobia is anxiety, higher or lower, depending on the level of a phobia. Another symptom of a person having this phobia is staying indoors all the time to avoid any duck watching them, as it is mentioned above. Such people do as such as to keep their curtains all closed all of the days to avoid any duck watching them from anywhere. Which is further a reason why people with this phobia have a hard time living a day to day life.

Anxiety as being the main symptom of a person with anatidaephobia, they may also experience a rush of extreme anxiety when they see a real duck in life. Isolating themselves is another practice a person with anatidaephobia does. These are the common symptoms that should be looked into if they are being checked for anatidaephobia or any kind of another phobia.

Social Life Affect:

People with anatidaephobia also avoid going out to parks and lakes because of the fear of seeing a duck or being watched from them even from afar, which is why they either isolate themselves totally or only go out to certain places and have no social life in general. Such people upon seeing a duck or even thinking of one can experience extreme anxiety, which will be out of control for them to handle. Extreme anxiety due to the irrational fear also causes people to sweat, shake and their muscles to get into a tense situation, which can cause pain in the body. As anxiety level varies from person to person with this phobia, a higher level of anxiety can cause panic attacks for people with higher level of anatidaephobia.

Treatment

There are no specific treatments that can be performed on individuals with anatidaephobia, or any that has ever worked for that matter. But some treatments may control some of the symptoms about those people who have a phobia at a lower level. Some of the treatments that can be performed on such people cognitive behavioral therapy CBT, medication, and some other treatments. These treatments can control a person’s symptoms, but they don’t entirely help a person get rid of the phobia or the manifestation.