Ommetaphobia (Fear of Eyes): Symptoms, Treatments, & How to Cope

What Is Ommetaphobia?

Ommetaphobia leaves people preoccupied with their eyes. Like other specific phobias, it can be debilitating. Some may feel like something is always in their eyes and may be afraid to try to remove it. They may avoid wearing contact lenses and always wear glasses or sunglasses for protection. Any vision-related problem can trigger fear and anxiety, leading them into a downward spiral of negative thoughts.

Due to this phobia being rooted in fear and anxiety, it’s important to consider those elements when understanding the depth of ommetaphobia. It can be triggered by someone staring or glaring at you, and those who have severe ommetaphobia will likely have a panic attack as a result. They may try to look away or avoid eye contact to soothe themselves.¹

Symptoms of Ommetaphobia

There can be varying degrees of symptoms of this phobia, depending on the severity; however, there are basic symptoms that everyone may experience, including anxiety, avoiding eye contact, restlessness, and fast heart beat.

Symptoms of ommetaphobia include:

• Anxiety
• Avoidance of eye contact
• Restlessness
• Fast heart rate
• Hyperventilation
• Muscle tightness
• Swearing
• Feeling jittery
• Increase blood pressure
• Nausea
• Dry mouth
• Feeling unable to speak or move

Complications of Ommetaphobia

Ommetaphobia can cause a lot of social and professional barriers. Vision and eye contact are central to the human experience and connecting to one another, so this phobia presents a series of obstacles and can leave people feeling isolated.

Ommetaphobia can impact all areas of life, such as romantic relationships, family, professional networks, coworker relationships, and parent-child relationships. Those with this phobia may avoid family gatherings, dating, having children, attempting to try new jobs or new opportunities, and receiving any kind of public attention.

Your phobia may also prevent you from pursuing necessary vision-related medical treatment, which could give you a poor quality of life. You may completely avoid places where you could get something in your eyes, like the pool, beach, and snowy places.

What Causes Fear of Eyes?

The fear of eyes can be caused by:

• Experiencing eye trauma: An eye phobia is typically based on a fear response related to trauma around the eyes or vision. You may have had physical trauma to your eye that left you feeling fearful about further trauma.
• Vicarious trauma: It could also be vicarious trauma if you saw something traumatic happen to a loved one’s eyes.
• Fear of hurting your eyes: Ommetaphobia may also be related to fear of hurting your eyes despite having no prior eye trauma. That specific fear is a subset of its own particular phobia.
• Social anxiety: Social anxiety can trigger this phobia as well, as many social situations require you to maintain eye contact.²
• Genetics: Having close family members with high stress or anxiety disorders could trigger a specific phobia in you.
• Learned response to media portrayals: Seeing depictions of eye injuries or scary events involving the eyes could sensitize you towards this phobia.

How to Cope With Ommetaphobia

There are many things you can try to overcome a phobia of eyes; however, not all of these methods and tips work for everyone, so it’s important to manage your expectations.

Here are practical tips to overcome ommetaphobia:

• Meditation: this helps individuals reclaim and slow their mind and work on being present and mindful
• Yoga: this helps us practice mindfulness as we engage other senses besides sight to come to a place of peace. Yoga is also helpful for reducing stress.
• Exercise: this helps with managing anxious thoughts. Exercise also helps to reduce stress and some of the symptoms of ommetaphobia.
• Journaling: this helps by allowing your mind to off-load your thoughts onto paper and think about them in a new way. Journaling also allows you to rewrite the narrative you may have about eyes.
• Talk to friends and family: connecting with loved ones who can give you a safe space to talk can be helpful. Their company may also give you comfort if you are looking for a friend to join you at an event.
• Limit caffeine and other stimulants: Caffeine and other stimulating substances are linked to higher levels of stress and anxiety. Limiting these can drop your baseline level of anxiety to make your phobia more manageable.
• Join a support group: Attending a support group is a wonderful way to add a sense of community to your condition. Even better, group members may have helpful resources and suggestions to help your condition.

When to Talk to a Doctor About Your Symptoms

It’s never too early or too late to speak to your doctor, therapist, or other professional about your symptoms of ommetaphobia. The symptoms of a specific phobia may not simply go away on their own, so you will need some level of treatment to mitigate the symptoms you’re experiencing. Your doctor can recommend a variety of options and point you in a helpful direction.

Getting an Ommetaphobia Diagnosis

Although you might be tempted to use online diagnosis tools, you can only truly receive an ommetaphobia diagnosis from a mental health or medical health professional. They will complete a thorough evaluation to determine if you have enough symptoms. If you do, you will qualify for a specific phobia diagnosis.

Ommetaphobia Treatment

There are a number of treatment options for ommetaphobia, including exposure therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR), dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), and medication for anxiety related phobias. While some treatment options may not work for everyone, it’s important to keep your options open.

Exposure Therapy

Exposure therapy can help desensitize the fear of eyes through a calculated method of exposure to this fear in a controlled setting. This helps create a safeguard, including a trained professional to help if the exposure experience does not go well. Exposure may include looking at photos of eyes, videos of eyes, and using a mirror to look at one’s own eyes.

CBT

CBT for anxiety is another great way to cope with and treat ommetaphobia. It may help you understand where the phobia came from and why. It can also help you deal with other issues since many conditions manifest themselves as the formation of phobias. CBT can give you the tools to examine where your fear comes from in a safe setting.

MBSR

Mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) is an 8-week program aimed at mindfulness training for those dealing with stress and anxiety. Given that a phobia of eyes is based on fear and anxiety, which causes stress, MBSR can be very helpful. It teaches individuals methods to cope and manage their severe anxiety around the subject of their phobia.

DBT

Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) is a subset of CBT, which is also helpful for treating ommetaphobia. It helps people regulate their emotions and cope with severe symptoms. DBT group therapy can be powerful as it teaches skills for social situations. In general, DBT has a lot of unique techniques specifically for phobias that involve retraining your mind to associate the subject of the phobia with something positive.³

Medication

Depending on your symptoms and clinical recommendations, anxiety medication can also help manage symptoms associated with this phobia. It helps establish a new baseline for coping. Once we know what this baseline looks like, many people tend to have more mental and emotional space to really work through issues to address anything contributing to the phobia.

If you’re ready to pursue treatment for your specific phobia, search an online therapist directory to find a therapist who specializes in this condition. Set up an initial call to see if this therapist will be a good fit for you.

Final Thoughts

Having a phobia of eyes is definitely challenging, but you are not alone. There are a lot of others dealing with this, as well as many treatment options and self-help techniques to help you cope. If you feel like ommetaphobia is impacting your quality of life, talking to a therapist can make a big difference in how you feel.