Heliophobia â Fear of the sun
From the beginning of time, the sun has been worshipped as being the most powerful god, source of power, as well as being a great mystery. The sun has be recognised as being absolutely necessary for life to exist on earth. However, with something so necessary and powerful, there will always be people who fear it. This is not helped by disaster films which depict solar flares launched from the sun destroying life on earth. People who suffer with a fear of the sun are said to have Heliophobia.
Whilst most people see the sun as a necessary part of our lives, Heliophobes see the sun as dangerous, such as in the example above relating to disaster films. However, the sun can be dangerous, of course, people can get sunburn and more and more commonly melanoma from skin cancer. These are genuine concerns which people can take necessary precautions to keep themselves safe. However, when a person fears going out of doors due to the sun, this is when we would say a person is suffering with Heliophobia.
Treatment for this condition would include psycho-education in order to help the client to understand that respect and fear are not one in the same. Therapy should help the client to become able to recognise the advantages to the sun and to reduce the unnecessary fear that they attribute to it.
