What Is Agyrophobia?
Agyrophobia (from the Greek “a”, not or avoid, “gyrus”, turning or whirling and the Greek “phobos”, fear) is the abnormal and persistent fear of crossing road, streets, and highways; or fear of the streets themselves. Sufferers experience anxiety even though they realize that roads, streets, or highways pose no threat that justify their fear.

Agyrophobia

Agyrophobia (or Dromophobia) is a case of specific phobia, an exaggerated and irrational fear that crossing roads and streets will cause bodily harm to oneself, even if no actual threat is posed. It includes a fear of being attacked on the street or being unable to defend oneself while crossing the road.

Agyrophobiacs believe that they might be crushed or hit to death by some vehicle while they are on road or street. This fear sometimes take extreme state and the person starts getting afraid by just mentioning of street names.This phobia is considered independent from the fear of cars, as even crossing a deserted intersection still initiates the fear reaction.

Causes Of Agyrophobia
Agyrophobia is attributed to some previous road accident either experienced by the patient, someone the patient care about, or to a stranger. It may also result from patient observation of road accidents, even if only from television.

Symptoms Of Agyrophobia
The symptoms of Agyrophobia is similar to many other phobias, which include anxiety, nervousness, shortness of breathing, heavy breathing, excessive sweating, nausea, mouth dryness, heart palpitations, and inability to speak or think clearly.

Agyrophobia may cause sufferers to being unable to move when faced with road intersection, or run unexpectedly when crossing street and thus pose danger to themselves and to other street users.

Treatments For Agyrophobia
Generally, agyrophobiac are treated with combination of hypnotherapy and anti-anxiety drugs.

Related posts:

  1. Dromophobia: Fear Of Crossing Roads