That phobias are a problem for developing a full, happy and healthy life is something we already knew. What surprises us is some of the consequences of phobias, those vicious circles that are created around fear and from which it seems impossible to get out. But it is not impossible, because all phobias can be overcome. Discover in our dictionary of phobias what phobophobia or the fear of fear itself is.
What is phobophobia?
Phobophobia is the fear of fear itself, the fear of suffering from a phobia, the fear of the anxiety that the phobia produces. It’s kind of the height of phobias, just likepanophobia, where you’re afraid of everything, because the conflicting stimulus is so general that it’s impossible to understand.
Being afraid of fear can be a most poetic concept, but when you suffer from this phobic disorder there is nothing lyrical. People with anxiety problems can get an idea of what phobophobia means because to a greater or lesser extent they will have felt something similar.
That fear of suffering an anxiety attack is often the cause of the The same goes for a panic attack, that the more you fear experiencing it, the more likely it is to happen to you. Phobophobia has a similar mechanism. The fear of fear is what attracts fear, a whole vicious circle.
Symptoms of fear of fear itself
When you are afraid of being afraid, the first symptom that appears is the fear itself. Then a whole range of anxiety symptoms unfold, such as dizziness, a feeling of unreality, difficulty breathing, palpitations, tingling in the legs or arms, or even a panic attack. All out of fear.
Like all phobias, phobophobia is an irrational and excessive fear that involves obsessive and distorted thoughts. The person with phobophobia is afraid of being in a situation and therefore tends to avoid it. The problem is that there is no concrete and specific situation capable of causing fear and the possibilities are expanding until reaching isolation.
Causes of phobophobia
Phobophobia is linked to other more well-known phobias such as agoraphobia, fear of crowds, or even fear of flying. Suffering from phobia implies suffering from many more phobias, but what is the origin of this fear of fear? Although we can also look for a reason for conditioning a traumatic experience, it is a phobia so imprecise that it is difficult to get to its origin.
Most of the time, phobophobia develops due to a significant anxiety problem in which the person has already developed a series of obsessive and irrational thoughts that lead to this fear that has lost its adaptive function to become a pathology.
The best treatment for a phobia
All phobias can be overcome, but in no case is it recommended to do it on your own. Professional help is necessary because phobias end up completely conditioning the life of the person who suffers from them and in this help a therapy stands out among the others.
This is cognitive, thanks to which the person suffering from the phobia can identify the distorted thoughts that cause fear. If you can transform her thoughts, you can also transform fear and avoidance behavior. But we insist on the need to seek professional help.