Phobia of Monks??

[sequeena]

I have no idea why I have this phobia, I have never met a monk in my life! I am absolutely terrified of them, I especially hate it when they have the hood of their habits up and I cannot listen to the chanting.

Anyone know what this is and have anything similar? :huh:

[Anxious_gal]

well you can have a phobia of anything really.
can you remember the very first time you noticed this fear?

[sequeena]

No I can't pinpoint it. I've had it for as long as I remember :huh:

[ziggy]

What sort of monks are you fearful of? As in buddhist monks, or catholic monks? Not that that should really matter though, and I don't think buddhist monks wear hoods, although they do chant..

ANYWAY, my point - because I do have one - was that catholic monks were in quite a few horror movies back in the day (omen etc) especially the chanting.. maybe you have made some association with this?? it would help (I think) if you can manage to figure out where the fear came from...

I guess though, moving forward, the best thing to do would be to do exposure therapy, starting by writing an 'exposure' list starting at the easiest, least fear-invoking task and end with the absolute worst-of-the-worst... i.e.
1. Read a (good) story/article about monks
2. Look at pictures of monks
3. Look at a video with monks in it (on silent)
4. etc etc

Once you've established your list slowly (and preferably with a support person who can help you along) work your way up the list. Once you're starting to get comfortable with one of the tasks progress to the next one, until eventually you're actually talking face-to-face with a monk, or having them chant to you (whatever is your worst-case scenario). It's tough, but it's a great feeling moving up a step =)

Good luck!!

[Martin Burridge]

Phobias are illogical by nature. Sometimes through therapy you find out what caused them. Often the original fear was not from the current trigger. For example a friend of mine treated a lady with a fear of a particular famous statue. In therapy it emerged that she had fainted (for illness reasons) near this statue. The embarrassment and horrible feeling of fainting had become associated with this statue and the mere sight of it even on TV would cause her to have a panic reaction.
However with phobias sometimes you never find out the cause but this doesn't matter. The talking therapies (hypnotherapy and cognitive behavioural therapy) can desensitise you to your fear quite quickly. Everybody is different of course but it is not unusual to overcome a phobia in just a few sessions.

[sequeena]

Thank you both, sorry it's taken so long for me to reply x

It may have been because of a movie but of course I can't remember!

I don't remember anything bad happening to me when I was at a monastary (I've been to a few, I love them - bit hypocritcal right?). It's very strange.

[Ribenaberry]

I have the exact same phobia!!!! I thought I was the only 1. I panic and start to cry if I hear or see them. I've never known why I have the fear.

[speckles69uk]

Hi sequeena

As others have said, you can have a phobia of anything. I watched a programme last night called the science of fear where they did a small experiment showing that how you could become afraid of just a blue square. It's all to do with your learned experiences of a particular situation and recalling that fear when you see or feel it again. If it's really troublesome to you, maybe you could discuss it with your doctor who maybe able to suggest or direct you to some therapy.

It's intereating that you mention that ribenaberry, although I'm not completely fearful of monks, the singing makes me really emotional and so sad and I cry like mad. That maybe a religious association thing for me though, because I get like that with anything religious. It's my crying and sadness that freaks me out more than the thing itself. Weird hey.

Take care

Rebecca

---------- Post added at 06:25 ---------- Previous post was at 06:20 ----------

Hi again.

I've just realised, the original post was quite a while.ago. How are you getting on with your phobia?

Rebecca

[Annie0904]

I must admit I love the chanting and music of monks and have no fear of them but this post reminded me of the reason I won't go to Turkey...When I was only about 7 year old I watched a film (black and white in those days) and there were some whirling dirvishes on and they absolutely terrified me!