BELLY BUTTON FEAR CAN BE FOUGHT, NO NEED TO BE AFRAID!
Are you afraid of seeing or touching belly buttons? Don’t worry you can get it in control. Omphalophobia is the official title given to belly-button-fears. Yeah! It has got a name too.
Originated from the Greek language, phobia comes from ‘Phobos as you know; fear. The other half of the term is omphalos, which means navel or umbilicus.
The colloquial term for this is a belly button. So, what is the belly button? It is a part of the human body situated in the abdominal area below the diaphragm. It can either be protruding, flat, or hollow depending on the cut produced after the fetus is removed.
Many people are of the view that belly buttons are not significant. However, that’s not the case.
Females upon giving birth are connected to their babies with an umbilical cord. This cord is responsible for the transfer of nutrients from the mother to the baby.
The cord originates from the belly button. Upon delivery, this cord is cut down and the baby is removed from the mother’s womb. After 10-12 days, the belly button is healed.
What is Omphalophobia?
About Omphalophobia, usually, people who have gone through some childhood traumas or being too obsessed with the navels suffer from it. Victims find it unpleasant looking or touching the belly button whether it’s their own or someone else’s.
Some children like to ask questions about belly buttons, how they are evolved, what their role is, and whether they will be gone after a few evolutions.
Science students are usually the ones asking these questions since they are intrigued by how nature changes and how we have come so far. But it’s the acknowledged fact that excess of everything is bad, sometimes this curiosity leads to addiction and children end up getting hurt.
Fun Fact: Other times, children think of it as a knot that is holding whatever’s inside of the abdomen and if someone unties it, everything will come out.
This fear also results in phobia and people suffering from it can have severe anxiety attacks upon belly button touch, which can be lethal if not treated or handled properly. Luckily, it’s not one of the phobias that include multiple factors because that is hard to figure out and treat.
Omphalophobia is a specific fear that occurs due to or focuses on one factor, in our case, the fear of belly buttons. Such sorts of phobias are although extreme and tenacious but can be cured in many ways.
Some Important Points To Note
There are three important aspects you need to understand before we go any further.
- The first one is that Omphalophobia is nothing but another irrational and groundless state of mind. But one thing to note is that no matter how groundless it looks or feels like, it’s not your fault and not in your control if you suffer from belly buttons fear or belly button touching.
- Secondly, Omphalophobia is one of the many anxiety disorders. That means the result of every such attack or interaction is anxiety. The symptoms at the early stage can be stressful and may lead to physical symptoms if the phobia is severe.
- Similarly, some patients may have to be hospitalized because of the severity.
Causes of Omphalophobia
One interesting thing to note here is that phobias can be genetic. Thanks to family studies, it has now been proved that if a family member of yours has Omphalophobia, it is more likely that you or any other family member will get it. The transfer of genes, however, must be direct. Indirect gene transfers may show results in two-three generations later.
But how genes? Technically, when a person develops Omphalophobia, the structure of nerve signals within his brain changes. This change, if not treated, becomes permanent and corresponds to a change in gene makeup.
Remember that at this point, when the genetic makeup is altered, it cannot be treated. It is, however, very rare that phobias alter the genetic chemistry.
Statistically speaking, the risk of Omphalophobia increases three times if you have a genetic link. But on the broader spectrum, phobias including Omphalophobia are environmentally controlled and result due to traumas, either childhood or other. And in that scenario, if genetics is not involved, it is quite possible to overcome the fear in the traditional manner.
Are Phobias a Disease?
Medically speaking, phobias are nothing but psychic malfunctions. They are not termed as diseases because they don’t have any solid outcomes, severe cases are exceptional. And hysterically enough, naïve people even compare a small fear with a phobia.
Just like anxiety is usually mistaken with depression, similar is the case here.
It can happen at any age and due to any interaction. For instance, a person that has never tried bungee jumping may get scared of it on his first try and if something traumatic happens on the course, it may get severe.
All mental issues including Omphalophobia vary a great deal in symptoms, treatments, and post-traumatic care depending upon its intensity.
How to Identify Omphalophobia
The most common problem all phobias face is that people don’t identify it sooner. Only when things get out of hand to do people realize that they are phobic of something. Many reasons contribute to this ignorance.
The foremost being considering it a taboo. If a person or child is afraid of belly buttons, it will be really hard for his/her parents to tell the family members that their kid is phobic.
Sadly, the fear of psychologists and psychiatrists storm our societies more than the actual phobia. People don’t like to tell the world that they are consulting a doctor for something they are afraid of.
They find it feasible to die of an anxiety attack rather than facing the truth and seeing a doctor. So, before we come to anything material, it weighs down on us to understand how crucial phobias are and what our role is in identifying its symptoms and treating it before it gets out of hand.
Omphalophobia Symptoms (Identifying Fear of Belly Button)
- Talking about symptoms, the first and most important signal of a phobia is given by anxiety.
- If your kid, friend, or relative panics at the sight of the belly button, you need to make a deduction and develop a hypothesis. Further diagnosis is only possible afterward.
- Anxieties are common to all mental disorders and are the elemental characteristics that one is obsessively afraid of something.
- Apart from anxiety attacks, visual symptoms of Omphalophobia include the sight of a person finding it difficult to a beach.
- Such areas, like pool parties, are perfect spots where you can identify people with this phobia. If you suspect someone is uniquely afraid of belly buttons, take them to such areas.
- They will resist going and may get anxiety attacks, confirming the case. But it’s never useful to go too far.
- Sometimes victims can get convulsions, depression attacks, or nervous breakdowns that may result in coma, epilepsy, paralysis, or even death.
So, you need to very keen on the intensity of threat you are willing to expose your suspects to. If the level of the phobia is extreme, you may witness that the person wears a shirt even in the shower. This is when he/she does not want to see his/her belly button.
Apart from these characteristic symptoms, others may include being anti or a-social. People having a fear of belly buttons avoid social gatherings, especially where there is a chance to accidentally see belly buttons. Sweating, shakiness, depression, muscular pain due to tension, temporary stammering also inculcates the symptoms of this fear.
How To Identify A Person Who Fears Belly Button?
If we come down to simpler terms, if you have experienced the following, you may have the fear of navels.
- If you can’t stand the thought or sight of belly buttons
- You avoid going to places where people may be showing off their umbilical
- On the sight of a navel, you panic or are terrified
- Anxiety and panic attacks
Apart from these mental and visual signs, some corporal symptoms include
- Drying of the mouth
- Shortness of breath
- Feeling congested
- Tightness of chest
- Heartbeat rising
- Excessive sweating.
If the people suffering from Omphalophobia find it gross rather than terrifying looking at the belly buttons they may experience nausea and an upset stomach on its sight.
Can It Be Prevented?
One simple answer to this question is probably. However, phobias are not a kind of disease that shouldn’t be afraid of. These occur suddenly after a trauma or other environmental or genetic factors. You cannot even tell whether a person will ever develop a phobia or not if it’s not inherited. Hence, if you think you should take preventive measures for Omphalophobia or other related problems, you can.
Omphalophobia Cure
Unlike many other psychological problems, this phobia can easily be cured. Some people don’t even require a physician’s or psychiatrist’s help. Some people cure it simply by facing it daily. You may have heard that overcoming fears requires facing them. It is true, both psychologically and medically.
Science has proved that upon constant confrontations with things, nerve impulses change, and what you feel either becomes more permanent or shoves off. Neurons in the brain, especially from the limbic system of the temporal lobe carry electrical signals to and from the stimulus. These bring about the required change and, hence, Omphalophobia or belly button phobia can be fought off.
How To Overcome Belly Button Fear: Common Omphalophobia Cure & Remedies
Things can be controlled. And if you suffer from it, you don’t have to worry at all. As we have maintained throughout our discussion, Omphalophobia can be easily cured. Yes, you can get rid of this problem either by yourself or with proper guidance. Let’s get to some of the treatment alternatives to overcome this fear.
Exercise
As it’s all about anxiety, cardiovascular exercise, yoga, and other calming practices can help reduce panic attacks in the case of an untimely interaction. So, you can train your mind to cope with stressful situations by breathing slowly and significantly. Don’t let the tension get the better of you. Once you lose control of your breath, anxiety will take over. So aerobics is extremely helpful in treating phobias.
Yoga as said is equally powerful in treating Omphalophobia. Different yoga poses divert your attention from the real world and keeps you away from anxiety. Hatha yoga, hot yoga, and other styles can be effective, go for whatever suits you best. And if you are not familiar with it, you can consult a guide or practitioner.
Healthy Diet
You may be unaware that caffeine and nicotine activate human adrenaline, specifically the fight and flight response. Consumption of caffeine and its related products turns on your nervous system and hence the anxiety. It makes you stressful even in normal conditions and, hence, when you see a belly button, it gets bigger and out of control. Therefore, the first thing you need to do when you realize that you are afraid of navels is to cut coffee, tea, and other related sources.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
It is a type of cognitive-behavioral therapy and works like the riddikulus charm. If you are not aware of what riddikulus is, what are you doing with your life mate? It is one of the spells from the great series, Harry Potter.
Coming back to the point, doctors when performing DBT or CBT allows you to think of belly buttons from different perspectives, the friendlier ones. The riddikulus charm changes the things that you are afraid of into things that you find funny, hence, relieving your stress. CBT also tricks your mind the same way.
Exposure therapy is another type, where the patient is exposed to belly buttons slowly. The time of exposure increases as you regain control of your consciousness, allowing you to control your fear.
Medications
Lastly, anti-depressants and anti-anxiety pills can be taken to relieve stress. However, this is the least recommended treatment because it is more harmful than healthful. You may be addicted to the medicines or develop an allergic reaction to it. If addicted, a nervous breakdown can also result in the absence of these medicines and, therefore, doctors don’t recommend it.
5 Latest Tips to Overcome Fears Like Omphalophobia
Fear is a natural emotion, and almost everyone has faced it once or more times in their lives. Phobia is only a severer form of fear that can lead to some physical and health concerns. People can have phobias of different things. One such type of phobia is omphalophobia, which is the fear of belly buttons. This may be among the rarest of phobias, but it surely does exist whether or not you know someone who suffers from it. If you have, or continue to experience anxiety, fear, or a phobia, be it omphalophobia or any other, here are some new tips that can be used to overcome these fears.
Tips to Walk Through and Overcome Your Fear
Many ways have been devised to tackle and overcome the fear that you experience. One such fear is omphalophobia, but the way to overcome it is much like overcoming other such fears. Here are five modern tips that you need to know to overcome your fear.
- Give yourself 2-3 minutes to sit with your fear at one time.
One tip that modern specialists suggest is to breathe with your fear and tell yourself that it is okay. Emotions are like an ocean; they have ebb and flow. After spending these 2 to 3 minutes, give yourself some time to nurture; call a friend who wanted to hear from you, engage in an enjoyable and interesting activity.
- Write down what you are grateful for
One way to overcome your fear to look around and be grateful for the things that you have. This helps you divert your attention to what you have instead of the fear itself. Every time you feel bad, make sure to look at the list and add to it.
- Benefit from peer pressure.
Peer pressure, much like fear, can either be negative or positive based on how it is used. One way to help you through your fear is to surround yourself with such people who help push you towards overcoming that fear. It is very important to have a good company that helps you get over your fear and look at it in the face.
- Reframing the fear
One more way to overcome the fear is to form a comparison in your mind that will make your fear look trivial. For example, telling yourself that there are so many people who fear what they eat and how they? Against that, what is my fear? Am I afraid of this? Seriously? With greater fears insight, your fear will seem trivial and therefore less important.
- Encourage yourself by appreciating your courage.
Whenever you think about your fear, and try to brush it away, appreciate the hard efforts that you did to fight that fear. While you fight and tackle your fear, make sure to encourage yourself all the way.
While these tips are important, the most important thing is being kind to yourself through the process of fighting your fear.
Most Frequent Asked Question About Belly Button Fear
[toggle title=”What is the fear of belly buttons called?” state=”open”]The fear of belly button including the belly button touching or seeing is known as Omphalophobia. [/toggle]
[toggle title=”Why don’t I like my belly button being touched” state=”open”]You may have a fear of belly button touh which is common in multiple ages. It is also known as Omphalophobia and it is a Greek term. [/toggle]
[toggle title=”How do I get over my fear of belly buttons?” state=”open”]The phobia of belly buttons can be treated with some remedies and cure. It includes relaxing exercises and dealing with anxiety. However, for severe cases, medications may also be needed.[/toggle]
[toggle title=”Why touching my belly button makes me nauseous?” state=”open”]The navel is the endpoint and may contain my nerves. These nerves connect with the brain and stomach. When a person touches the belly button, the nerves are stimulated resulting in anxiety and depression. [/toggle]
Emily Smith is a talented content writer, wielding words to create captivating stories and informative articles across a wide range of topics. With a passion for effective communication and a love for research, Emily consistently produces engaging and valuable content. She’s dedicated to conveying ideas clearly and compellingly, making her a sought-after voice in the digital sphere. When not writing, Emily enjoys immersing herself in art, nature, and culinary adventures for fresh bursts of creativity.
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