Do you feel anxious when you are near clowns? Do you not know the cause? Could we help you? Read more in this article about the symptoms of phobia of clowns and even possible treatment forms to treat your phobia of clowns. Phobia of clowns is a phobia which does not occur often. Sometimes you feel misunderstood when you respond in an anxious way when you see a clown. Still, this is a phobia which you should take seriously.

Phobia of clowns: symptoms

The main symptom of a phobia of clowns is that you have a panicky anxiety caused by clowns. Each time you are confronted with clowns, you will notice that you have an anxious response. This can be so intense that you cannot stay near the clown, so that you will often have avoidance behaviour caused by the anxiety. If you get this reaction, you might start hyperventilating, or get a panic attack. You know that this anxiety is unreal, but still you become anxious every time you are near a clown. If you get an anxious response, your heart will beat faster, your breathing becomes shallow, and you start sweating without any physical performance. Your pupils will reduce in size and you feel the need to get away as quickly as you can. In some cases this can lead to hyperventilation or dizziness, and even to fainting. After a while you will also notice that you start to fear the fear. This means that you become anxious when you worry about your anxiety symptoms. So you are anxious before actually being confronted with clowns. Your phobia of clowns is thus not limited to interaction with clowns anymore, but it spreads. You will sometimes notice that you find it difficult to fall asleep because you lie away about your symptoms or your worry about having to interact with a clown. You will thus see that a phobia of clowns can have large consequences on your daily functioning.

Phobia of clowns: treatment

Like any type of phobia, it can be treated by following a certain type of therapy which reduces your anxiety. 15Minutes4Me is an online self-help program which has been developed to treat anxiety, and it thus guides you to reduce your anxiety. You can reduce or overcome your phobia of clowns by following this program.

Phobia of clowns: do the anxiety test

If you want to know if you have a phobia of clowns or if you show anxiety characteristics when interacting with a clown, or even if you experience fear of fear, you can do the free online anxiety test!