Chionophobia (from Greek chiōn, "snow" & phobos, "fear") is the fear of snow. The cause of this phobia is commonly the result of a traumatic childhood experience involving snow, like getting injured while playing in the snow. For adults, this fear is often caused by traffic accident when driving through snow. Another, more physiological cause is looking at bright white snow causing eye pain. Chionophobia can even be developed from aquaphobia (fear of water), since snow is frozen water. It is considered a branch of pagophobia (fear of ice or frost) since snow is a form of ice.
Common symptoms of chionophobia include sweating, trembling, dread or panic, fast heartrate, difficulty breathing, crying, screaming, fainting, sensing mind loss, and urging to flee or hide. Claustrophobia and taphophobia, fear of being trapped or buried alive, are phobia symptoms of chionophobia because people can get trapped in the car during the accident or buried in the snow caused by avalanche or even deliberately buried by playmates. Other phobias associated with chionophobia are fear of falling down, fear of injury, and frigoriphobia (fear of cold weather).
Sufferers of chionophobia would try to stay indoors at all times throughout the winter, let alone avoid driving, sledding, skiing, building snowman and snowcastle, and snowfight. Some would even avoid seeing snow falling or on the ground by having their window shades closed. Many sufferers would check the weather forecast for any upcoming snowstorm.
Chionophobia can be treated by themselves by realizing that snow is water, a common winter occurrence and is part of the life, and often beautiful and not scary to see. If a person couldn't conquer fear themselves, they should seek professional help.
In the 2006 film First Snow, Jimmy Starks (Guy Pearce) got chionophobia after learning that a fortune teller can only predict his future until the first snowfall of winter. As a result, he panicked after prediction was right and was killed soon after death anxiety kicked in.
See also[]
- Chionothyellaphobia – fear of blizzards
- Nivisphobia – fear of avalanches
- Frigoriphobia – fear of cold weather
| Weather phobias |
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| Aestophobia (fear of hot weather) · Agripyrophobia (fear of wildfires) · Anemophobia (fear of winds) · Antlophobia (fear of flooding) · Ariditaphobia (fear of droughts) · Catastrophobia (fear of any natural disaster) · Ceraunophobia (fear of thunder and lightning) · Chionophobia (fear of snow) · Chionothyellaphobia (fear of blizzards) · Cyclonophobia (fear of tropical cyclones) · Cymophobia (fear of waves) · Frigoriphobia (fear of cold weather) · Grandophobia (fear of hail) · Homichlophobia (fear of fog) · Humidophobia (fear of humidity) · Nephophobia (fear of clouds) · Nivisphobia (fear of avalanches) · Ombrophobia (fear of rain) · Pluvifrigophobia (fear of freezing rain) · Tempestaphobia (fear of storms) · Serenophobia (fear of fair weather) · Turbophobia (fear of tornadoes) |