Irrational fear of houses is called domatophobia . It is a limiting fear that prevents sufferers from being alone inside a building or even simply entering it . It should not be confused with apprehension for closed spaces –which is called claustrophobia–, since those who suffer domatophobia fear the house as a whole, not to feel locked up in certain small rooms. It is a type of panic or phobia that is rarely discussed, although since its inception horror literature , such as The Fall of the House of Usher , by Edgar Allan Poe, and many stories by Lovecraft, has dealt with this disturbing uneasiness about certain buildings. We can assume that it is a fear that is still present, because many recent films of the genre deal with the subject . Among them we can mention the Warren File: The Conjuring or It follows . As with most phobias, the most common cause is twofold. It begins with feeling uneasy at some stage of life and then that anxiety is associated with a certain home . Later, in a second phase, the affected person begins to avoid houses in general , and that makes them increasingly afraid of them. In few occasions, domatophobia comes from a specific traumatic experience.
But domatophobia is not the only type of psychological disorder related to houses . There is also the so-called oicophobia , which is the irrational and sick fear of the home and everything that has to do with the home. Another very strange “architectural” fear is nostophobia, which is the irrational and unhealthy panic to return home .
On the opposite side is the fear of crossing the door of the house, going out and facing the outside world , which is one of the most common phobias. This is a terror associated with anxiety. It is known as agoraphobia, and it manifests itself through recurrent panic attacks when the individual who suffers from it is exposed to everything they fear, that is, the outside world. It is usually accompanied by fear of crowds, bridges, or being alone in outdoor spaces . The root of all these fears derives from the insecurity of not being able to control a situation that we fear. When we go outside we can control our behavior, but it is impossible to have control over all the other elements that surround us, such as traffic, other pedestrians or environmental or weather factors among other things. All these situations can add extra fear to someone who already suffers from a pathological fear or an anxiety disorder.
