Symptoms
Ornithophobia can cause the following symptoms: breathlessness, dizziness, excessive sweating, nausea, dry mouth, feeling sick, shaking, heart palpitations, inability to speak or think clearly, a fear of dying, becoming mad or losing control, or a full-blown anxiety attack. When forced to confront a bird, the person might shake, cry or even freeze in place. They may then run away or attempt to hide. They might also experience anticipatory anxiety in the days before a likely confrontation with birds. In phobic individuals, the sight of a grey sky filled with cawing birds can be terrifying.
Most phobias trigger panic attack symptoms in the afflicted, and this is true of the Ornithophobia as well. Persons who become agitated when birds are near tend to stay away from situations where they will be present. As with many animal phobias, just the sight or sound of birds (or even a photo of a bird) can terrify people with this condition. It might also be a fear of being attacked by birds, although this rarely happens.
Read more about this topic: Ornithophobia
Famous quotes containing the word symptoms:
“Murderous desire, hatred, distrust are nowadays the accompanying signs of physical illness: so thoroughly have we embodied our moral prejudices.—Perhaps cowardice and pity appear as symptoms of illness in savage ages. Perhaps even virtues might be symptoms.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“In retirement, only money and symptoms are consequential.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“There is one great fact, characteristic of this our nineteenth century, a fact which no party dares deny. On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces which no epoch of former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman empire. In our days everything seems pregnant with its contrary.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)