Health - Psychology. Why do some phobias worsen in summer? Six revealing examples

In summer, your phobias don't take time off! They tend to exacerbate themselves when faced with situations that are more likely to occur at this time of year. This is particularly the case for:

– Heliophobia or the morbid fear of the sun and its light. This disorder is often associated with severe anxiety when exposed to daylight. ", we read on the website of the psychologists of Walloon Brabant;

– Entomophobia . It is characterized by an irrepressible fear of insects. Whether on the ground or in the air, in the summer, you may easily feel like these little creatures are everywhere. To the point where you may refuse to sit in a green space or on the beach to enjoy the moment or contemplate a landscape.

This entomophobia can even be expressed if your fear specifically targets certain insects. For example, bees or wasps (melissophobia or apiphobia), ants (myrmecophobia), and even butterflies (lepidophobia)!

– Ablutophobia which corresponds to the fear of swimming, refers above all to that of drowning. In the same way as thalassophobia or fear of the sea and its depths. As a result, the ablutophobe does not approach water, any more than the cymophobe who fears the waves;

– Nudophobia (or gymnophobia) or the extreme fear of nudity. The patients in question – since " it is a mental disorder " as psychotherapist and psychoanalyst Rodolphe Oppenheimer reports on his website, " fear seeing other people naked or being confronted with their own nudity » ;

– Astraphobia , in other words the fear of storms, lightning and thunder. It is synonymous with a strong surge of anxiety in those affected when a storm is announced by the weather services;

– Travel phobia : How can you go on vacation if the slightest thought of traveling by car, train, or plane is accompanied by an uncontrollable surge of stress? There's even hodophobia, which is a fear of traveling!

Source : Rodolphe Oppenheimer's website (https://psy-92.net/), website of psychologists in Walloon Brabant (https://psychologue-brabant-wallon.be/). Consulted on July 10, 2025