Daniel-J
30-08-07, 05:43 AM
Hi, I'm Dan. I signed up for this forum several months ago and posted a few messages and then vanished. Now, I am back to post a few more!
I have necrophobia (fear of death and/or dead bodies) and had my first attack nearly 30 years ago at the age of 8 years old when I found my cat frozen solid outside on the front lawn. From that moment on, I have never been able to withstand the sight of anything dead...in real life or on television. I have always felt that the dead thing (animal or person) was angry and was following me around. Being alone in an empty house even during the day is impossible for me when I'm having an attack. I feel that just around the corner is the dead body of whatever it was I saw earlier.
The phobia started (as best as I can piece together) when I was an infant and my extremely abusive father killed the cat because it scratched me in the face. The cat I found when I was 8 was most likely a trigger and the first of many phobic experiences. I've tried EMDR, but found no success. I actually didn't like what it did to me. But now, I've been prescribed prozac and have been on it for three weeks. It takes four to six weeks to fully take effect, but I have already seen improvements. The phychiatrist told me that in order to eliminate the phobia, we have to expose myself to it. He asked if I could handle seeing images of dead things. Of course I said no. Then he prescribed this medicine to me and said we'll let it do its work and then I'll be exposed to images of death. Just tonight, I decided to google images of dead cats, dogs, and people. I feel that I've been okay so far. Hope this method helps!
I have necrophobia (fear of death and/or dead bodies) and had my first attack nearly 30 years ago at the age of 8 years old when I found my cat frozen solid outside on the front lawn. From that moment on, I have never been able to withstand the sight of anything dead...in real life or on television. I have always felt that the dead thing (animal or person) was angry and was following me around. Being alone in an empty house even during the day is impossible for me when I'm having an attack. I feel that just around the corner is the dead body of whatever it was I saw earlier.
The phobia started (as best as I can piece together) when I was an infant and my extremely abusive father killed the cat because it scratched me in the face. The cat I found when I was 8 was most likely a trigger and the first of many phobic experiences. I've tried EMDR, but found no success. I actually didn't like what it did to me. But now, I've been prescribed prozac and have been on it for three weeks. It takes four to six weeks to fully take effect, but I have already seen improvements. The phychiatrist told me that in order to eliminate the phobia, we have to expose myself to it. He asked if I could handle seeing images of dead things. Of course I said no. Then he prescribed this medicine to me and said we'll let it do its work and then I'll be exposed to images of death. Just tonight, I decided to google images of dead cats, dogs, and people. I feel that I've been okay so far. Hope this method helps!
