Nephophobia

Nephophobia (from Greek nephos, "clouds", and phobos, "fear") is the fear of clouds. Presence of clouds or even taking pictures of clouds can cause anxiety. The fear maybe developed from traumatic events in the past, or even due to heredity or genetics.

An important cause of nephophobia is that clouds can potentially bring storms that can cause damage, destruction, injuries, or deaths. People who is ombrophobic (fearing rain), astraphobic (fearing lightning and thunder), lilapsophobic (fearing tornadoes or hurricanes), chionophobic (fearing snow), or nebulaphobic (fearing fog) can also suffer from nephophobia because clouds can produce those fearful things.

Sufferers of nephophobia may have lack of breath, dry mouth, nausea, rapid heartbeat, trembling, anxiety, worry, feeling of panic, terror, or dread, and extreme avoidance. Many sufferers are eager to look at the clouds frequently, and when in panic will not go outside with clouds in the sky. Many nephophobic people may want to move to areas where there is less cloud cover. Some nephophobic people believe that clouds are the building blocks of doom, causing panic.

This phobia is treated in the similar way as most other phobias, including exposure therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, psychotherapy, relaxation therapy, and anti-anxiety meditation. One of the best self-treatment method is learning more about the cloud behavior, including that most clouds do not bring danger and the right conditions needed for the development of storms. When dark clouds approach, they can manage fear by interacting with each other in the support group.