History Main / Claustrophobia

[[folder:Film -- Animation]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': One of the perp's intended victims in "Blacklist" is a nurse who is severely claustrophobic. He uses remote technology to trap her in a hospital elevator and send her to a floor that's temporarily empty so screaming for help is in vain. Mac and Sheldon barely get to her before she passes out from hyperventilating.

* Charlie Cutter, in ''VideoGame/Uncharted3DrakesDeception'', is dangerously claustrophobic. [[spoiler: When he's affected by the mind-altering substance of the BigBad, his fear is much worse, and he responds with homicidal rage towards his friends, who he believes have betrayed him.]]

[[InvertedTrope The opposite, rarer]] (in reality and in fiction) phobia - where the character is afraid of wide-open spaces - is called ''agoraphobia'', though that often limits itself to being afraid of the outside world in general, and those suffering it often still feel comfortable remaining inside a firmly locked house.

* In ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'' book "[[Literature/DiagnosisMurderTheSilentPartner The Silent Partner]]", a SerialKiller known as The Reaper has this condition; consistent with this, he lived in a warehouse, worked in a job which kept him outdoors, and deposited the corpses of his victims in wide open spaces. Except Lydia Yates, which is what convinces Mark that The Reaper didn't kill her.

* The ''Series/UFO1970'' episode "Sub-Smash" has a female Shado crewmember who's morbidly claustrophobic. She's none too happy when she has to try escaping from the crashed submarine of the title through a narrow missile tube. She's even less happy when it fails to open, leaving her trapped inside. Her commanding officer also suffered from claustrophobia, and originally thought her crying for help was his own mind starting to crack up.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': [[MagnificentBastard Garak]] suffers from claustrophobia to a debilitating degree. It's hinted at earlier in the show, and sometimes even crops up as a SarcasticConfession before the show eventually reveals that he genuinely does have the condition and it hasn't been one of his many [[ConsummateLiar tall tales]]. As a result, it's been used as a plot point several times in the show (both before and after the reveal). This is a case of WrittenInInfirmity due to RealLifeWritesThePlot. Garak's actor is so claustrophobic that even wearing the Cardassian make-up could be a problem for him.
** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': Tom Paris apparently suffers from this subconsciously, causing him to frequently crawl out of a HumanPopsicle tube in "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E23One One]]", much to the annoyance of Seven of Nine, who has to keep putting him back in.
** ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'': Hoshi Sato suffers from this, making her very uncomfortable in her EV suit.
* Lister in ''Series/RedDwarf'' had a bout of this when performing an AirVentPassageway escape. Lampshaded the fact that it was the first time this had ever come up. He explains that he's fine so long as he knows he can get out. He developed the phobia [[spoiler: when the husband of a co-worker with whom he was having an affair locked him in a box and threatened to throw him into a river, then let him out on stage in the middle of a production of ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' (he was naked at the time)]].
* One of the many phobias of ''Series/{{Monk}}''. Subverted in the episode where he was [[spoiler: BuriedAlive, as the memory of Trudy kept him calm]].
* Barbara Bain's real life claustrophobia was written into an episode of ''Series/MissionImpossible'' in which her character (also claustrophobic) is tortured by being drugged and held in a small, enclosed space.
* In one episode of ''Series/NightCourt'', [[HandsomeLech Dan Fielding]] reveals his claustrophobia while trapped in a stuck elevator with two sumo wrestlers and bailiff Roz. She helps calm him by having his close his eyes and imagine he is standing in the middle of a football stadium, with lots of room all around him, and it's filled with happy, cheering people who are all looking at him... [[spoiler:and he's naked. That last detail elicits a grin from him.]]
* In season 10 of ''Series/{{ER}}'', it's revealed that Neela suffers from claustrophobia when she has to spend a few hours in a hyperbaric chamber with a baby with carbon monoxide poisoning.
* The ''Series/{{MASH}}'' episode "C*A*V*E" has Hawkeye having to deal with this when enemy shelling forces the 4077th to relocate to a nearby cave. The same episode has normally tough-as-nails Margaret Houlihan admitting to a deathly fear of [[FearOfThunder loud noises]].
* Anya from ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' was revealed as claustrophobic in the Season Six episode when the cast were trapped in Buffy's house.
* In ''Series/StargateUniverse'', the normally tough-as-nails Greer turns out to be claustrophobic, just before going into an underground tunnel network [[spoiler:which he ends up trapped in]].

* Vila Restal of ''Series/BlakesSeven'', though [[CompressedVice this was never mentioned again]]. As a thief he must have seen plenty of small hidey-holes, so he's likely just making this up to avoid volunteering for something dangerous.
-->'''Vila:''' I'd be glad to [crawl through the service shaft], it's just I've got this problem with enclosed spaces. There's a medical name for it.
-->'''Jenna:''' Cowardice?
* In the second ''Series/{{JAG}}'' episode ("Shadow"), Meg complains about this when [[SubStory aboard a submarine]].
* In ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'', Justin has it. Although he's never shown any signs of it, especially when he was in the caves of the Stone of Dreams.
* In ''Series/TheThickOfIt'', Nicola Murray (like actress Rebecca Front) is claustrophobic. Judging by his reaction to being locked in Peter Mannion's bathroom as the result of a prank in the Opposition special, Stewart Pearson may also be.
* ''Series/ICarly'' has Carly develop this when she, Sam, and Freddie are locked in a space pod to see how well they can handle space travel. Carly freaks out so much she breaks the glass to get out of the pod. This returns in a later episode when she is locked in a padded room with Sam and her mother. According to the [[Series/ICarly2021 2021 series]], it actually originated as a result of Carly being trapped in an MRI machine due to the technician forgetting about her.

* ''Series/HouseOfAnubis'': This is Alfie's big fear in the second season, revealed when he has to crawl through the tiny tunnel and gets panicked. He gets over it by hiding under his bed for hours at a time.
* ''Series/TokusouSentaiDekaranger'': [[TheSmartGuy Sen-chan]] is revealed to suffer from this as a result of falling into a well as a kid. During an episode, a criminal kidnaps him and locks him up in a room with closing walls to eventually crush him. With his [[TransformationTrinket SP License]] damaged an unable to transform, he has to try and keep calm until his friends can come to rescue him.

* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': One of the perp's intended victims in "Blacklist" is a nurse who is severely claustrophobic. He uses remote technology to trap her in a hospital elevator and send her to a floor that's temporarily empty so screaming for help is in vain. Mac and Sheldon barely get to her before she passes out from hyperventilating.

* Roleplay/DinoAttackRPG has Andrea Jackson Orange, who has developed a form of this after being forced to spend an unspecified period of time trapped in a makeshift bunker. As a result (in a homage to ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2''), when wearing a gas mask she has some... unusual hallucinations.

* In Entry #60 of ''WebVideo/MarbleHornets'', Jay ventures into a tunnel under an abandoned hospital. [[spoiler:Guess who apparently fits into small confined spaces?]]

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': Hawkgirl is claustrophobic, as shown in "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS2E5And6OnlyADream Only A Dream]]". She hyperventilates when trapped in a [[HardLight holographic box]] by [[MasterOfIllusion Luminus]], which foreshadows her nearly having a heart attack when Dr. Destiny traps her in a coffin [[NightmareWeaver in an inescapable dream]].

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* [[Characters/MarvelComicsStorm Storm]] of the ''ComicBook/XMen'' is traditionally claustrophobic, dating back to Creator/ChrisClaremont's work on the comic. A plane crash that killed her parents also left her buried in rubble for hours, right next to her mother's body. She keeps it under control except in similarly extreme situations. She also has this phobia in certain adaptations, particularly ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'' and ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution''. It's generally a bad idea to try to exploit this in battle nowadays, since it just makes her ''[[BerserkButton angry]]''. You don't want to make a person who is essentially a FisherKing everywhere she goes angry, something Doctor Doom can attest to.

* Shows up quite a bit in ''Series/TinMan'' fanfic. Justified there because the Tin Suit was pure hell for Cain, [=DG=] was trapped in a coffin during the series and came close to not surviving it, and Raw was about to face a nasty end trapped in a Papay cocoon.

* In ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4096894/1/YuGiOh_Soul_of_Silicon Yu-Gi-Oh! Soul of Silicon,]]'' Ebon Magician Curran has this, leading to her wanting revenge on her owner for keeping her card in a box.
* One of the [[BlessedWithSuck less good things]] that happens to John after he's transformed into a WingedHumanoid in ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'' is that he's rendered claustrophobic. It's really only an issue early on, just after he's been transformed and is miserably hiding in Lyndess's windowless spare room. Though he wants to stay there forever, he's driven out into the night by his feelings.
** John's claustrophobia becomes a ''much'' bigger issue in ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone: The Soft World''. At least once it prevents him from pulling off a heist—though ironically he'd taken a magical drug to subdue his claustrophobia, but it failed at the wrong moment.
* In the ''Fanfic/HorseshoesAndHandGrenades'' sidestory ''[[=SplitxEnd=]]'', Yayoi Tokuda reveals to have this due to an experience of bullies trapping her in a dark warehouse when she was younger. However, she's able to ignore her fear with enough focus.
* ''Fanfic/TheBridge'':
** Rodan is a pterodactyl-like Kaiju turned into a Griffon. He can barely handle being inside a building or a train, preferring the wide open spaces of Appleloosa. While comforting him, Applejack comments that it is a common problem for beings who can fly; many Pegasi have it too.
** Irys, a member of the pterodactyl/bat-like Gyaos, also has this. When in human form, she has a panic attack when she has to ride a car.
* [=SpongeTron=] of ''Fanfic/TimeFixersNicktoonsOfTheFuture'' has this, stemmed from being deactivated and locked in a basement for nine years. He freaks out at the thought of being deactivated and when trapped in a closet or box, he starts to hyperventilate.
* Almost universal for pegasi in the [[FanFic/TriptychContinuum Triptych Continuum]], to the point where it stands out if somepony ''doesn't'' have it. For Rainbow, it can start kicking in any time there isn't enough room for a full wingspan, with no clear route to the sky -- while Fluttershy has no trouble entering her own basement.

* [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys2 Jeremy Fitzgerald]] suffers from this in ''Fanfic/SomethingAlwaysRemains''. It not only makes hiding in the empty Freddy head more unbearable for him, it [[spoiler: exacerbates his anxiety when he's [[CruelAndUnusualDeath trapped inside the Spring Bonnie suit]], and the following panic attack [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice contributes to his death]]]].
* ''Fanfic/YesterdayUponTheStair:'' due a childhood incident in which Bakugou locked Izuku in a closet that had a vicious ghost in it, Izuku suffers from a terrible case of this to the point of only using stairs at the mall and begging and bribing Eijirou when the latter tries to pull him into an elevator. It makes being locked into Compress' containment orb a special form of hell.

* Lexi from ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'' suffers from claustrophobia due to having been stuck BuriedAlive within his own car ''for eight years''. The narration recalls the time he, Atticus and Chloe slept in a large dresser drawer, but he started freaking out when it closed shut and Chloe and Atticus had to push the drawer open during his panic attack.
* In ''Fanfic/FuturesFreakMeOut'', Asuka has developed a slight case of claustrophobia due to her former life as a mecha pilot. During a flight to Germany, she ponders how much she hates spending hours stuck in a metal box which she cannot get out of.
-->Lately, it's pretty much only if I'm super stressed or super drunk. Thanks to the in-flight drinks, I'm a little bit of both, but I know the craving is mostly from having just spent the entire day in a fucking tin box. First class be damned – I hate being in things I can't run away from, and there's no emergency exit when you're four miles over China.\\
Also, it reminds me a little too eerily of the other monstrous machine I used to sit in for hours at a time. Formerly proud memories, now only painful.

[[folder:Film]]

* The tunnel-digger in ''Film/TheGreatEscape'' was claustrophobic. At first it seems sort of weird or funny, but then we see this [[GentleGiant big tough guy]] curled up in the fetal position in a business suit, waiting for some Nazis to pass by... [[spoiler:so that he can hop a boat to Sweden.]]
* ''Film/TheDescent'' is all about invoking this in its viewers.
* In ''Film/{{Poseidon}}'', the survivors have to scramble through a flooding air vent, and one of them has severe claustrophobia, to the point where she has to be physically dragged inside, and has a panic attack when one of the others gets stuck. The music score for the sequence is, fittingly enough, titled, "Claustrophobia."
* Ridley Scott, the director of ''Film/{{Alien}}'', states that the sets on that film were supposed to create claustrophobia in the audience.
* ''Film/{{Elevated}}'': Ben is quite claustrophobic and quickly panics when the elevator breaks down. [[spoiler:This leads to his death when he goes outside the elevator.]]
* In Creator/DonBluth's ''WesternAnimation/RockADoodle'', Snipes is shown to be this when he and the others are closed into Edmin's toy box. Unfortunately, this drives him to peck air holes while the toy box is ''underwater''.
* ''Film/MorningDeparture'': Snipe suffers from claustrophobia and should have been illegible for the submarine service, but he hid the condition so he qualify for the bonus pay paid to submariners. So long as the sub is active he can control his fear, but when the ''Trojan'' becomes crippled on the floor of the sea, he starts to freak out and gradually becomes unhinged.
* In ''Film/ReformSchoolGirls'', Lisa suffers from claustrophobia as a result of being locked in an icebox as punishment by her foster mother. She does not react well to being placed in isolation.

* ''{{Literature/Animorphs}}'': Andalites are a species of open-air grazers, so they all seem to have some form of claustrophobia, though it only comes up once or twice. Ax repeats "There is sufficient air" to himself to ward off the effects in one book (note that he's on top of a truck in a tunnel at the time), while Visser Three once designs a trap for the team involving closing walls (it doesn't work, since Rachel's the one that fell in the trap).

* [[SmugSnake Yago]] from ''Literature/{{Remnants}}''. He fell into a construction hole in his backyard during a rainstorm, and wasn't rescued until the next morning.
* Creator/DavidEddings' ''Literature/TheBelgariad'':
** Silk develops a pronounced case of claustrophobia after Relg rescues him from a pit by carrying him through--as in, [[{{Intangibility}} right through]]--the rock it's carved out of. Up to that point he had only minor difficulties with it when he was in the cave system of the Ulgos. This remains an issue for Silk in the follow-up series, ''The Mallorean''.
** Relg himself suffers from the opposite fear -- agoraphobia, the fear of open spaces -- at first. He had lived his entire life in the caves of Ulgoland, and had not only had never seen the sky, he had no real ''concept'' of "sky", "sun", "clouds", or "stars". Garion spends several days just trying to keep him vaguely functional.

* Phase, of the Literature/WhateleyUniverse has some degree of claustrophobia. This is pretty reasonable, since he's: been experimented on (i.e. tortured) by a MadScientist while trapped in a box the size of a coffin; nearly suffocated underground; been trapped in a pitch-dark sewer with no flashlight while being attacked by a [[ZombieApocalypse zombie army]]; and his own powers mean he can pass through solid objects ''but he can't see or breathe while he's doing it''. Ouch.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov:
** In ''Literature/TheCavesOfSteel'' Protagonist Elijah Baley and all of the Earthlings raised in the crowded, claustrophobic Cities, have ''agoraphobia'' -- a fear of open spaces, in this case the outdoors in general. Baley starts confronting this fear in the second novel, and is largely successful, although [[FearOfThunder being caught in a thunderstorm doesn't help]].
** "Literature/Nightfall1941": Due to their EndlessDaytime, the people of Lagash are so afraid of the dark that 15 minutes without light are enough for a 10% chance of becoming extremely claustrophobic. They discovered this pattern with a [[ThemeParks theme park ride]] called "The Tunnel of Mystery".
** ''Literature/Nightfall1990'': The people of Kalgash are so used to daylight that 15 minutes of darkness is enough for a 10% chance of becoming extremely claustrophobic.
** Asimov himself was a claustra''phile'' - he worked best in small, enclosed spaces.
* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'':
** The entire Andalite race is claustrophobic. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that Andalites are descended from herd animals that lived in grasslands.
** In The Ellimist Chronicles (a distant prequel to the main Animorphs series), the Ketrans have a similar species-wide claustrophobia. This is seen when they are forced to enter and fly an alien ship of opaque metal. Ketrans are a winged species which live on massive transparent crystals that float in the sky.
* Literature/TheWheelOfTime: Rand Al'Thor develops claustrophobia after being abducted, stuffed in a trunk, cut off from channeling, and shipped off on a trip of hundreds of miles, only being allowed out for minutes at a time for weeks.
* In Creator/MargaretMahy's ''Maddigan's Fantasia'' and ''Series/MaddigansQuest'', the TV series written by the same author, Eden the boy magician has this fear, which is useful to the plot because he is the only magical character and his absence in some scenes forces the other characters to think for themselves and get out of sticky situations without magic.
* Allie in Creator/DevonMonk's ''Literature/AllieBeckstrom'' series.
* Zak shows some signs of this in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'', especially after he's BuriedAlive.
* Four from ''Literature/{{Divergent}}'' is afraid of small spaces, [[spoiler:which is from a childhood punishment]].
* Valkyrie from ''Literature/SkulduggeryPleasant'', especially after book six, but can you blame her?
* In Creator/MercedesLackey's ''Summoned to Tourney'', one of the characters is claustrophobic due to a childhood trauma; the bad guys find this out and put her in a decompression chamber to break her. She's rescued, but spends the remainder of the book struggling with PTSD.
* The Doctor develops a bad case of this in the ''Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures'', along with other symptoms of PTSD, after being imprisoned for a very long time.
* Inverted in ''Literature/SeekerBears''. Being a black bear, Lusa is most at home amongst the trees. She hates wide-open spaces.

* [[Franchise/{{RWBY}} Coco Adel]] is revealed to be claustrophobic in ''Literature/RWBYAfterTheFall''. As a child, she got herself locked under the sink all day during a game of hide and seek and wasn't found until much later when she desperately kicked against the pipes to make noise. This fear leaves her very jumpy and trigger happy when trying to escort a family of survivors through tunnels in the mountain.

* ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'': Shutaro Mendo suffers from both this and a fear of darkness... unless any women are watching, in which case his desire to look cool and suave trumps it. It's later revealed that he developed these phobias as a child from the actions of [[spoiler:himself as a teen, travelling back in time to attempt to ''prevent'' the phobias from developing in the first place. After getting fed up with the bratty, borderline abusive (who are we kidding? -- ''actually'' abusive) behavior of his younger self, Mendou snapped and was about to take himself out of the timeline by chopping the kid into tiny bits with his katana. Kid Mendou hid out in a room full of large clay jars, scared for his life, as he heard Mendou smashing them trying to find him. Lum knocked Mendou out just as he found Kid Mendou, leaving a traumatized toddler]].

* Ash Ketchum's Pikachu from ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' is actually implied to be claustrophobic because of his dislike of being contained within a Pokéball like all of the other Pokémon. The only time we ''ever'' see him come out of a Pokéball was at the very beginning of the first episode where Ash chooses him as his starter Pokémon, and the only time we ''ever'' see him go inside a Pokéball is about halfway through ''Anime/PokemonTheFirstMovie'' during the scene where Mewtwo captures all of the trainers' Pokémon using several sinister-looking Pokéballs (which for some reason, also capture Pokémon that are already ''inside'' their own Pokéballs), so he can create an army of cloned Pokémon to help him rule the world. When the aforementioned "Clone Balls" come back to release all of the captured Pokémon, Pikachu, as a result of this, is apparently now extremely ''pissed...''
* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', it's hinted that Magellan, the BigBad of the Impel Down arc, has the opposite problem -- agoraphobia, the fear of open spaces -- making him well-suited to his job as warden of the facility.

* Carla Valenti in ''VideoGame/{{Fahrenheit}}''. Notable because in two levels, you actually have to guide her through claustrophobic environments, simultaneously controlling her movement and her breath. If you fail the latter, she freaks out and the game's over.

* It's never explicitly stated, but in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', Cloud freaks out whenever he's forced to go into a tight space, like when he goes into the hut to open the bridge on Mt. Corel or has to enter the submarine interior. Considering his [[PeopleJars history]], it would make sense for him to be a claustrophobe.
* Two unavoidable instances of this in ''VideoGame/EscapeFromHorrorland''. One is where you are crawling through incredibly cramped wooden tunnels while being chased by a mummy at high speed directly behind you, and it is very easy to get lost in the tunnels. The other time is when you have to shut yourself inside a coffin and use it as a boat down a sewer, while spiders enter the coffin and try to bite you.
* Charlie Cutter, in ''VideoGame/Uncharted3DrakesDeception'', is dangerously claustrophobic. [[spoiler: When he's affected by the mind-altering substance of the BigBad, his fear is much worse, and he responds with homicidal rage towards his friends, who he believes have betrayed him.]]
* ''Franchise/DragonAge'':
** If you bring Anders to the Deep Roads in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOriginsAwakening'', he gets distracted by the miles and miles of rock over your heads. If he's telling the truth about spending a year in solitary confinement back at the Circle, that would explain it.
** Isabela from ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' isn't fond of the Deep Roads either, nervously saying that she "really doesn't like tight spaces" if you take her with you on the expedition.

* In ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'', Aerie gets extremely uncomfortable in dungeon environment, and nearly freaks out when the party finds themselves in the Underdark. And for good reason; Aerie is a member of the Avariel, a race of winged elves, all of whom are claustrophobic to a degree.
--> '''Aerie''' ''(when the Underdark is mentioned):'' "The... the Underdark? No... no! I cannot go there! You do not understand, it is death for my kind! No Avariel has ever traveled the depths!!"
--> '''Aerie''' ''(upon arrival in the Underdark):'' "This... this is the Underdark. Oooh, I don't want to be here, I don't! This place is death for my people! I, I feel as if I'm going to suffocate here!"
* There is an Oculus Rift game named ''[[MeaningfulName Squish]]'' where you simply watch the walls close in on you.[[note]]Unsurprisingly, it's not very long.[[/note]] Actually, lots of horror games utilize closed-up spaces... usually ''dark'' closed-up spaces.
* In Chapter 1 of ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights: Hordes of the Underdark'', a conversation you can randomly get with [[BarbarianHero Daelan Red Tiger]] reveals that he's claustrophobic: [[SarcasmMode great fun]] during a dungeon crawl. He's willing to keep going with you through the end of the chapter though, believing that by facing his fears, they lose their power over him.

* Storm of the ''ComicBook/XMen'' is traditionally claustrophobic, dating back to Creator/ChrisClaremont's work on the comic. A plane crash that killed her parents also left her buried in rubble for hours, right next to her mother's body. She keeps it under control except in similarly extreme situations. She also has this phobia in certain adaptations, particularly ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'' and ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution''. It's generally a bad idea to try to exploit this in battle nowadays, since it just makes her ''[[BerserkButton angry]]''. You don't want to make a person who is essentially a FisherKing everywhere she goes angry, something Doctor Doom can attest to.

* Post-Crisis ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' experiences strong claustrophobia (combined with nyctophobia) when she is stuck inside a tight, dark space due to spending decades trapped inside a space pod. In "[[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 Girl Power]]", she explains this to the ComicBook/TeenTitans member Raven.

* In ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', Squidward tells [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick that he is claustrophobic. However, [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick think that means he was scared of SantaClaus. Complete with Patrick trying to "scare" him by saying "Ho ho ho!"

* Hefty in ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs1981'' develops this when he is trapped in an elevator for hours with Brainy of all Smurfs.

* In ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'', Casey Jones is revealed to be claustrophobic when taken to the turtles' lair in the sewers. When he goes to sleep in the cab of his truck instead, he has to roll down the window to feel comfortable.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': Hawkgirl is claustrophobic, as shown in "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS2E5And6OnlyADream Only A Dream]]". She hyperventilates when trapped in a [[HardLight holographic box]] by [[MasterOfIllusion Luminus]], which foreshadows her nearly having a heart attack when Dr. Destiny traps her in a coffin [[NightmateWeaver in an inescapable dream]].

* [[Characters/MarvelComicsStorm Storm]] of the ''ComicBook/XMen'' is traditionally claustrophobic, dating back to Creator/ChrisClaremont's work on the comic. A plane crash that killed her parents also left her buried in rubble for hours, right next to her mother's body. She keeps it under control except in similarly extreme situations. She also has this phobia in certain adaptations, particularly ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'' and ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution''. It's generally a bad idea to try to exploit this in battle nowadays, since it just makes her ''[[BerserkButton angry]]''. You don't want to make a person who is essentially a FisherKing everywhere she goes angry, something Characters/DoctorDoom can attest to.

** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': Tom Paris apparently suffers from this subconsciously, causing him to frequently crawl out of a HumanPopsicle tube in one episode, much to the annoyance of Seven of Nine who had to keep putting him back in.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', Appa is seen to have a great dislike for enclosed spaces, especially being underground. Makes sense, considering that he's a large animal who is used to flight.
* Chris from ''WesternAnimation/DanVs'' is an interesting subversion. Instead of being afraid of small, enclosed spaces he's afraid of wide, open spaces...which is why he's terrified of prairies.
* Hawkgirl in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' is claustrophobic, as shown in "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS2E5And6OnlyADream Only A Dream]]". She hyperventilates when trapped in a [[HardLight holographic box]] by [[MasterOfIllusion Luminus]], which foreshadows her nearly having a heart attack when Dr. Destiny traps her in a coffin [[YourWorstNightmare in an inescapable dream]].
* Garrett on ''WesternAnimation/ExtremeGhostbusters'' is claustrophobic, and has to confront his fear when facing a ghost that makes people's phobias come to life.
* In ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse2021'', Krass lost her parents when their ship crashed. Krass was the only survivor because she had been wearing her father's helmet at the time. It took the Tiger Tribe ''three days'' to get her out of the wreckage and save her. When she is BuriedAlive while in another ship, she's in a TroubledFetalPosition and desperately trying not to have a panic attack.
* James Rhodes from ''WesternAnimation/IronManTheAnimatedSeries'' developed claustrophobia as a result of drowning while wearing his War Machine armor.
* Jessie Bannon from ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuestTheRealAdventures'' is claustrophobic, conveniently presented in an episode where her and Jonny end up stranded in an underwater laboratory with only a bunch of deadly mutant fish for company.
* Minka Mark from ''WesternAnimation/LittlestPetShop2012'' is ''highly'' claustrophobic, referring to herself as a "space monkey" (it's ''not'' because she was part of the space program). Her claustrophobia is triggered in at least three episodes. See above quote for just how much SanitySlippage she might undergo if confined to small spaces.

* ''TotalDrama'':
* [[PerkyGoth Gwen]] is claustrophobic, as we find out in "[[WhatDoTheyFearEpisode Phobia Factor]]" when she has to face her fear of being BuriedAlive as part of the challenge. It gets even worse for her in ''Revenge of the Island'' when she is trapped in a cave with Sam [[{{Gasshole}} who keeps suffocating her with his farts.]]

* [[BigBad Josee]] of ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaPresentsTheRidonculousRace'' has this as her AchillesHeel.