Dorophobia: causes, symptoms and treatment

Rare phobias are striking in their variety. One of these less common fears is dorophobia - the fear of giving and receiving gifts. For most people, such a disorder seems ridiculous, but there is really nothing funny about it, because any phobic disorder significantly complicates a person's life.

Phobia refers to specific and isolated. Dorophobia got its name from the Greek word doron, which means "gift". Fear of receiving a gift or an overwhelming fear of the prospect of giving it to someone is closely related only to these actions. In other everyday situations, dorophobes behave as usual.

Exacerbations of dorophobia usually occur during the holidays. As a significant event or celebration approaches, a person begins to experience strong anxiety, which is very difficult for him to manage on his own, almost impossible to manage. Fear is obsessive, often accompanied by panic attacks.

There is no detailed clinical description of dorophobia, since the disease is extremely rare. People prone to fear of gifts try to celebrate the holidays alone. As soon as an event approaches, they can turn off the phone, lock themselves in the house, and take sick leave, so as not to accidentally "run into" congratulations and gifts from colleagues at work.

They avoid holiday sales, and if they accidentally come across an advertisement for gifts on the eve of the holidays, they immediately rush to switch the TV or radio station to another channel.

If the gift nevertheless catches up with a dorophobe, he can experience real horror.The sight of a holiday box with a colorful ribbon wrapped in wrapping paper can be very worrying. Hands begin to tremble, sweat appears, heartbeat increases, blood pressure surges, pupils become dilated. A person temporarily loses control over his emotions. Some dorophobes are unable to open the gift box on their own. What is inside creates a strong subconscious fear.

With phobic disorder associated with the fear of giving gifts, dorophobes are very anxious if the need arises to give. They cannot sleep, they are tormented by constant anxiety.

The causes of this rare phobic disorder always come from childhood. It is believed that unsuccessful jokes, which peers sometimes make among themselves, can influence. For example, in a beautiful package, classmates hid a mouse or a spider, a firecracker or a firecracker for the birthday boy, which exploded loudly at the very moment when the person opened the box in anticipation.

Parental behavior can also affect the likelihood of a phobia. If adults often reproach the child with gifts, take away gifts made earlier for wrongdoing, then the person begins to associate the act of giving with something like a favor - he understands that they don’t give gifts just like that. And in which case they will be required for them in full.

Fear of giving gifts to others may stem from an unfortunate incident when a gift made to a loved one with love and heart was ridiculed. This often happens to children when they first fall in love.

A gift given to a dream boy or a dream girl means a lot to the giver. And if at this moment the addressee laughs at him, does it in public, starts to scoff, then it is very likely that in the future any prospect of making a gift will be closely associated with a sense of danger. Dorophobes, like other phobes, adhere to avoidant behavior. They try to completely exclude situations from life when they need to accept something as a gift or give to others.

A doctor-psychotherapist can help in overcoming this phobia. He will find out the root causes that caused the violation, if the patient himself does not remember such an event, methods of hypnosis come to the rescue. In a state of trance, many unmistakably name the circumstances in which they first had a negative experience associated with gifts.

Helps get rid of dorophobia cognitive behavioral therapy, it is aimed at destroying the wrong synoptic connections of the nervous system and creating new, more positive ones. Thus, at first, a person begins to simply tolerate gifts, and then give and accept gifts with pleasure.

Receiving a gift is always associated with the production of dopamine - a substance that helps our brain to feel pleasure, enjoy the moment. That's why there are usually no problems with psychocorrection of dorophobia, after all, the doctor only establishes completely natural reactions of the psyche, without inventing or creating anything artificial.

At the same time can be recommended antidepressants, as well as relaxation techniques - swimming, yoga, breathing exercises.