How to Treat Suriphobia

Suriphobia (also know as musophobia) is a fear of mice or other small rodents, from the French "souris" meaning mouse and the Greek "phobia" meaning fear. It is a specific phobia, as opposed to social phobias or agoraphobia, and like all phobias, the fear must be intense, irrational and persistent to be considered a true clinical phobia. The following steps will help you treat this common phobia.

Instructions

• 1

  Realize that a fear of mice may be merely a socially conditioned response and/or a startle response instead of a real disorder. Suriphobia is a fear that is out of proportion to the perceived threat from the mouse. A sufferer will feel extremely anxious just by seeing a mouse on television.

• 2

  Know that suriphobia is a protective mechanism that is usually caused by a traumatic experience with a mouse. A diagnosis of suriphobia must include the elimination of other mental disorders.

• 3

  Understand that suriphobia has a basis in fact like many phobias. Mice can deliver a painful bite and many do carry disease. The choice of mice as the phobic object may therefore be logical because they do represent a real threat. On the other hand, the phobia may be symbolic or random.

• 4

  Seek professional help for suriphobia. The underlying cause of a clinical phobia will seldom resolve itself. Desensitization therapy, more formally known as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), is the most common treatment and is successful 75 percent of the time, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Other treatments include insight, implosion and supportive therapy, drugs, hypnotic regression, modeling and reframing.