Autophobia: signs and methods of struggle

Autophobia is a fairly common mental disorder today. It is based on an obsessive fear of being alone. Obsessive thoughts about the need for human society and anxiety without people are extremely difficult to experience.

Autophobia is characterized by anxiety, panic, and discomfort when alone or when thinking about loneliness. The phobic disorder is considered a serious problem, but it can be managed with early treatment. The disease is dangerous not only by the obsessive feeling of anxiety, but also by the risk of harm to oneself. According to statistics, among autophobes, the largest number of people who committed suicide comes out.

For many people, a short stay alone with oneself is a pleasure - it allows you to take a break from the fast pace of life and the bustle of the city, put your thoughts in order, make an informed important decision, or, on the contrary, allow yourself to switch to pleasant favorite activities. However, for others, loneliness is uncomfortable. The problem is called a phobia only in its extreme degree: if you just love noisy companies and miss people, this is not a pathology.

The fear of loneliness is often formed when a person is just thrown out of the social circle. Then he feels the danger of opposing himself to the majority. Loneliness causes the patient discomfort, because he does not feel confident in himself, but feels his dependence on others. Besides, such a phobia is reinforced by a person's natural desire to be part of a society.

Autophobia is very difficult for older people who feel left out of the way of life. Often, a phobia also develops in adolescents during a growing-up crisis: at a young age, it is very important to be part of a certain social circle and to establish itself in society, and rejection by peers can be the beginning of a serious illness. Sometimes a phobia is formed from childhood, and in some situations it can form in an adult state: everything will depend on specific circumstances.

Phobia often develops in the first years of life, when we have a fear of being abandoned by our parents. Also, often autophobia occurs after a painful break with loved ones: it occurs in both women and men, most often after the age of 30. It is very difficult even for specialists to identify exactly why a particular individual has become an autophobe, because in real life we ​​are influenced by a combination of many factors.

But still there is an opportunity to find the most probable and basic reasons.

• Lack of early adult support. Parents often and for a long time leave their child, relatives rarely talk to the baby, he does not attend kindergarten and is deprived of communication with other children, the child is often threatened to leave him if he is capricious, and childhood fears and tears are ignored. Such detached upbringing can lead to a phobia of solitude - social deprivation and a feeling of vulnerability without parents increase the risk of panic rejection of one's own loneliness.
• In childhood, adults around pay little attention to education., do not teach a son or daughter to stand up for themselves, do not try to develop him intellectually, and do not instill useful hobbies. From this, the child does not feel full, confident, he has few interests. In the future, this leads to a painful dependence on others.
• The kid was often threatened to be left alone, thrown on the street or given to strangers. It is impossible to interact with a child this way, since it is precisely such threats that give rise to a phobia.
• Being associated with disadvantaged companies in their teenage years can also develop autophobia. This happens when a teenager is hardly accepted into the society he wants to be a part of. This is how a painful fear of rejection is formed.
• Teenage crisis flowing hard, the lack of an understanding interlocutor can also become the reasons for autophobia. The inability to share feelings with anyone is a serious psychological problem that leads to mental illness.
• An adult's fear of not having time to start a family and have children - This is a common cause of the formation of autophobia in adulthood. For each person, this age is different, but the most obsessive fear becomes after 30 years. It proceeds especially hard when relatives and acquaintances escalate the situation.
• Gullibility and closeness with unreliable people are dangerous. A person becomes dependent on them, but does not find mutual love and understanding. This also gives rise to a panic fear of being left completely without loved ones. Systematic failures in love often precede autophobia, and failures themselves often arise precisely from the fact that an individual does not know how to choose the "right" people.
• Facing the death of a loved one Is another common possible cause that leads to the onset of autophobia. The individual realizes how fragile relationships with loved ones are and how short our life is, he is afraid that loved ones can be very easily lost.
• Low self-confidence, communication difficulties, shyness also lead to a phobia of any solitude.A congenital predisposition in this case is combined with unfavorable accidents, which can easily turn out to be a trigger for the emergence of autophobia.
• Love failure an extremely difficult and unexpected breakup, betrayal of a loved one - these are common causes of a dangerous phobia in both women and men at any age. If the breakup is going through very hard, sometimes you should seek the help of a psychologist in order to avoid unpleasant consequences.
• For people prone to reflection, Even unpleasant memories of being alone can trigger autophobia. Perhaps a person found himself in a difficult situation, in which he was alone with himself, and now the absence of people around him is associated with the negative.
• A busy life and a huge employment of a person in our time (This is especially true for large metropolitan areas) can also become a problem. People simply do not have time for relationships and full-fledged communication, they are constantly in society, but at the same time they feel lonely, because they cannot build a close bond with anyone.

You need to understand that since many factors affect a person from all sides, one reason is extremely difficult to establish: factors are superimposed on one another and act in a complex. An experienced psychologist can help identify the most significant cause and get rid of the disease, because each case is always individual.

Obsessive fear is a very unpleasant feeling that significantly reduces the quality of life. If this is a mild anxiety or a one-time panic attack, it is too early to talk about the disease: the disorder is extremely systematic and comprehensive. However, the phobia can be very subtle, so it is not possible to identify it in individual cases on your own.

The symptoms of autophobia are as follows.

1. Inability to make decisions self-distrust, lack of confidence characterize this disease. Such an individual feels constant and serious difficulties in adapting to the world, therefore he is constantly looking for support and approval from third parties. Fears of privacy, responsibility, and autonomy are important and unpleasant issues that can characterize autophobia.
2. Strong desire to be part of any group also characterizes the pathology. The patient painfully wants to feel like a part of society.
3. Attempts to give in everything to the people around and holding them back at any cost indicate a strong fear of being left without these people. In extreme cases, this is not good.
4. Panic attacks also characterize autophobia. This is another wake-up call that clearly demonstrates an obsessive and unconscious fear of loneliness. The patient's panic arises at the moment of parting with people. Sometimes even the inability to communicate with a person on a mobile phone gives rise to an attack.
5. Illegal behavior in relationships with others. Patients from the outside can seem very promiscuous in the matter of choosing their soul mate. They tend to have a short and non-binding relationship, they can very quickly and thoughtlessly decide on a marriage. The main goal of an autophobe is not to be left alone and not to be abandoned.

Fear is characterized by discomfort, panic, and sometimes it can manifest itself on a physical level. Rapid breathing, tremors, palpitations, pain, sweating - all this can be expressed in autophobia.

An autophobic mental disorder can respond well to qualified treatment. With the proper approach and with the help of professionals, a person is able to get rid of the problem, start life without daily stress.

How to deal with the disease? It is better to leave self-medication so as not to aggravate the situation. Literate and professional psychologists or psychiatrists... From self-medication measures, you should only visit your relatives and friends more often, talk about problems, accept help and support.

There are many ways to treat autophobia. In the first, easy stages, psychologists use various techniques, for example, the patient may be asked to speak or draw their fears, express their emotions in different ways, and get rid of internal aggression. In the later stages of the course of the disease, psychotherapists are more likely to work: patients take antidepressants or other drugs prescribed by a doctor.

Well-known advice from experts will help to overcome a phobia in its initial stages, will partially relieve you of anxiety and allow you to calm your anxiety, but they will not be able to replace a visit to the doctor.

1. It is very important to realize that loneliness - this is a completely natural state of any person, we are all autonomous and individual personalities. Set yourself up for this particular setting. It is impossible to constantly be near someone, and if such conditions are provided, they will cause extremely harm to the psyche and personal development. It is important to learn to be independent and not too dependent on external factors, including the people around.
2. Take a break from your unpleasant thoughts and memories with the help of a hobby or just a pleasant thing, creativity, sports or other self-realization. Finding a hobby, and if not, doing meaningful chores around the house or completely immersed in work will distract from fear.
3. Don't let the routine consume your time be sure to rest and take care of yourself. Arrange shopping, go to the movies with friends, get out of town, diversify your leisure time. The more your life is full of bright, joyful events, the faster you will be distracted from anxiety about loneliness.

A person plunges into his own anxiety and despair, even more shields himself from society. In these cases, understanding on the part of the patient's relatives is very important. Close people should gently nudge the person towards change, help fill the days with bright moments, gain confidence and new interests. You should definitely try to convince the autophobe to visit a psychologist.

Psychology can now cope with almost any problem if you choose a professional in your field.

You can get rid of the all-encompassing uncontrolled anxiety in some situations with the help of hypnotic techniques: effective modern methods help to directly introduce the necessary attitudes into your subconscious mind and replace the negative with positive. In the future, the patient ceases to feel solitude as a frightening phenomenon, begins to relate to it completely indifferently and even enjoy the moments of solitude.

In especially difficult situations, medications are used. These are antidepressants, various sedatives. They can only be taken on the recommendation of a doctor.

It is very important to seek qualified help as soon as possible, not to let the phobia take its course, otherwise the disease will progress. With a balanced treatment, you can completely heal from autophobia, improve your health, forget about physiological unpleasant symptoms, and also stabilize the psychological state.By getting rid of obsessive fears, your quality of life will also significantly improve, in particular, this concerns professional development and personal relationships.

Overcoming the phobia on your own is possible only in its early stages. It will also be effective as a preventive measure if you feel a predisposition to autophobia. The following measures will help prevent the disease or suppress its development in the early stages.

• Meditation and breathing exercises can help you heal from any phobia, including pathological fear of any solitude. This is due to the fact that you calm down in the process and release the accumulated stress. It is worth devoting a few minutes of meditation every day, as well as remembering deep breathing directly in anxious situations - this will not allow you to panic, and calmness will eventually become a habit.
• You should develop and try new thingsto get rid of your phobia. Look for new interests, overcome yourself, do interesting work. This will help you to establish contact with yourself - you will stop being bored alone, you will gain self-confidence and you will stop being afraid of the absence of other people.
• Sports and creativity They are great at helping to release negative energy and leave no time for anxiety or worry. Sign up for a workout, yoga, painting, or singing class. You will have a pleasant time, learn new things, as well as gain self-confidence and be inspired by the results of your work.