Coulrophobia

[Link]

I hate living with this. I have a son and he just had his second birthday and my wife wanted to hire a clown. Until that period of time no one knew about my fear of clowns. I decided to be strong and told my wife that I agreed with it. Anyways, the clown came early that day. I remember I was making myself some coffee and then BANG! He was behind me. I started sweating alot then fainted I've tried to overcome my fears but I can't. Are there any tips on what I can do?

 

[Panic57]

Clowns creep me out even though I don't have Coulrophobia.  It was brave of you to let your wife get one.  I would have told her to get someone dressed up like a dinosaur or power ranger os something.  I think the only way you can deal with the fear is to remember that it's just paint, It's a man under a thick layer of paint and baggy clothes, with tissues stuffed in his oversized shoes.  Focus on the human aspect and less on the clown as a whole.  Then breathe and try to make it through.

 

[Aree Wongwanlee]

I am not sure if this will help but you can give it a try. How about dressing up as a clown yourself? Don't go whole hog all of a sudden. Start with something small and simple like, say, painting your nose red. Do that a few times. When you feel comfortable with it, add a bit more make-up like, say, painting your face white. Eventually, you would be able to dress up as a clown. By that time, I think you would have overcome your fear of clowns.

 

[tinnie]

I've never quite understood this fear. I don't think I've ever seen a clown in real life, so even though some of them can be creepy it's just one of those things that I've never thought I should be scared of. 


But it does seem to be a rather common fear for many people. Are clowns more frequently seen in other countries of the world and is that why people are more scared of them? 

 

[Laneorexorcist]

I've never quite understood this fear. I don't think I've ever seen a clown in real life, so even though some of them can be creepy it's just one of those things that I've never thought I should be scared of. 


But it does seem to be a rather common fear for many people. Are clowns more frequently seen in other countries of the world and is that why people are more scared of them? 

You have a really interesting point right here. We don't have fear towards the things that we haven't been exposed to. 


I'm not sure about other countries, but when it comes to North and Latin America clowns are a big thing. You see them on the street, trying to make people laugh about themselves, you see them on kids birthdays and sometimes even on family reunions with a lot of kids. I have been in some of them and I'm not scared to clowns and I also don't really understand this fear... but I think that's related with all the culture that surrounds clowns, there are a lot of movies and even books based on clowns. And there's actually in a lot of cities there are clowns in the middle of the street from 2 - 6 am trying to scare people out. 

 

[amy88]

@LaneorexorcistI've seen that too, especially in the last few weeks there seems to have been a bunch of cases out in the news of people dressed as clowns deliberately scaring people - it's no wonder people develop a fear when there's people out there doing that kind of stuff and thinking it's funny

 

[Laneorexorcist]

@LaneorexorcistI've seen that too, especially in the last few weeks there seems to have been a bunch of cases out in the news of people dressed as clowns deliberately scaring people - it's no wonder people develop a fear when there's people out there doing that kind of stuff and thinking it's funny

I know right? There have been a few of those cases on my city but instead of scaring little children, the clowns actually have weapons and I've heard that some people have been hurted by them... There's actually a small movement of people willing to stop clowns but their way to stop them is with more violence... And this makes everything way more scary. 

 

[Padre]

It is kind of funny;  I've never really been afraid of clowns, but some people, including my parents, accused me of being so.  I just always found them stupid, not frightening.  Ironically, it wasn't until later in life that I read of some real life clowns who did some pretty horrific things (e.g., John Wayne Gacy) and read the fictional book It by Stephen King.


All that said, it is a real phobia, and I can understand why someone, young or old, would be "weirded out" by clowns.  As to tips, I can't think of any solid ones from a scientific standpoint, but looking at their eyes is an easy reminder that they are just a regular human being.  Albeit dressed in a crazy fashion.

 

[kgord]

I am not afraid of clowns but I A think my son may have been for awhile. He saw the movie IT when he was little and he found it very scary. so he might have a bit of a clown phobia.

 

[sidney]

I think you can try to make yourself immune to it bit by bit by watching those scary clown-themed movies like The Dark Knight, perhaps? I firmly believe that the more you expose yourself to your fear, the more desensitized you will be to it. Lucky for me, I never had those kinds of fears.

 

[TheKnight]

I saw this video where they helped a woman with an extreme case of coulrophobia of clowns by putting one in a well-lit room with other people. They hugged her as well while the clown got closer and they kept asking her what will happen? Her answer was that nothing will happen then she eventually lost her fear.  


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h3Dh5QAD7w

 

[janemariesayed]

When I used to go to the circus when I was a child, I thought that the clowns were scary. Fun fairs too were scary to me but I don't know why. My mum had a good idea. What she did was give me a present of a toy clown. It was quite big and cuddly. I took him to bed with me at night and cuddled it most nights. Soon after I found that I hadn't even thought of my fear of clowns as I began to see them as something cute instead.