Scopophobia: causes, symptoms and treatment

Many people buy beautiful things, take care of stylish makeup, noticeable accessories in their image with the sole purpose of being attractive to others. At the same time, there are people who will never stand out from the gray mass, because they are panicky afraid that strangers will look at them. This fear is called scopophobia.

Scopophobia (scoptophobia) - irrational panic fear of the gaze of others. This mental disorder should not be confused with gelotophobia - fear of possible ridicule, although the fear of ridicule is partly characteristic of scoptophobes. But only partially.

Scopophobia is directly related to the group of social phobias (code 40.1 in ICD-10), since it is closely related to a person's interaction with their own kind.

It is difficult to say when exactly humanity first learned about scopophobia, researchers suggest that this is an ancient fear that was characteristic of some members of the human race at the dawn of civilization. It is believed that the "starting point" was the very first human shame. Once people learned to experience this social feeling, there were individuals who were ashamed and embarrassed more than others.

The very term denoting the name of this disorder was first formulated by psychiatrists at the beginning of the last century.For a long time, experts could not accurately describe the distinguishing features of this disorder from others, but gradually the average portrait of a scopophobe became known: this is a person who is extremely unsure of himself, he does not look others in the eye, he is afraid that someone might look at him intently. He is afraid of being ridiculed, humiliated, and therefore other people's views make him want to run away and hide, to find a safe space in which no one can see him. For such basic manifestations, scoptophobia is often called social neurosis..

Experts tend to believe that the most likely prerequisites for the development of this phobia are laid in childhood. As soon as a child begins to socialize - goes to kindergarten or starts school, he invariably faces the fact that he is "met by clothes", each of us at different moments of life is invariably visually assessed by others. If the child has a sufficiently strong nervous system and normal self-esteem, he can easily cope with the involuntary embarrassment and awkwardness that can arise under the evaluating glances of strangers.

But suspicious, insecure children, for whom the opinion of others is very important, can easily fall into a "trap" - one or two comments from a teacher, teacher or peers, especially if they are public, is quite enough for a child to experience the present. shock, worried.

Sometimes scoptophobia starts after an unsuccessful public speech (the child forgot the words of the speech, failed to present his project at an important conference or Olympiad). In this case, the fear of prying eyes develops faster, and very soon a person, even outside situations when he needs to speak in front of someone, begins to feel anxiety due to a possible negative assessment by the public of his appearance, actions, behavior.

According to psychiatrists, parents also make a significant contribution to the development of scoptophobia. If a comparative-evaluative type of upbringing prevails in the family, when adults constantly compare their child, his actions, achievements, abilities with the neighbor Vasya or the son of a friend, the likelihood of a mental disorder increases significantly.

Moms and dads, of course, want the best, believing that comparing their C grade son with a neighbor's excellent boy should stimulate their own child to accomplishments and achieve academic success. But in practice it doesn't work. And if it does work, then with likely side effects in the form of mental disorders.

Too demanding attitude of parents towards a child is also a likely cause of scoptophobia.

If at the same time adults subject the child's inevitable failures to harsh criticism, then the likelihood of the disorder is even higher. The child closes in, tries to close himself off from his parents, and therefore from society as a whole, since he involuntarily projects maternal and paternal criticism in relation to himself to all the people around him.

But this does not mean that children who are loved and praised by adults do not suffer from scopophobia. Overprotected children, who are accustomed to being the main, loved, central figures in the family, grow up without a useful skill of confronting problems, they do not know how to make responsible decisions, they expect actions from others... And these children are most often laughed at in a group of peers ("mama's son", "good-daughter").Under the pressure of ridicule, a child can "break".

Adult scopophobes try to keep aloof, they are very modest, even morbidly modest. In their appearance, clothes, everything is thought out to the smallest detail, they are incredibly neat, take care of themselves, and this colossal control and constant thoughts about how they look exhaust them. They avoid crowds, large groups, new acquaintances. It can be difficult for them to build a personal life, start a family, communicate with colleagues.

Epileptic scoptophobes experience bouts of their underlying illness in public places such as a shopping mall. And the suffering Tourette's syndrome, worried that they are being examined, they begin to suffer from a sharp exacerbation of facial tics, stuttering just when others are looking at them.

Once in a "dangerous" situation, the scoptophobe turns red or pale, his heart often beats, blood pressure rises, his hands begin to tremble, and his voice breaks down. A person may experience bouts of nausea, may faint. To exclude such situations, people with this phobia try with all their might to avoid circumstances and situations in which their uncontrollable fear may appear, with which they cannot do anything on a conscious level.

He will choose a job not one for which he has talents and sympathies, but one in which he will not need to contact strangers. Scopophobes are characterized by a constant state of anxiety, a hypertrophied feeling of guilt. They check what they have done many times to rule out mistakes, they are almost always sure that they are doing worse than others, that they do not have the same abilities as others.

Critical scoptophobes understand that their fear has no basis and are even more ashamed of it and blame themselves for not being able to cope with phobic manifestations. This only aggravates their already unenviable situation.

Often scoptophobes speculate for others, dramatize. After visiting a doctor or visiting a post office, they think for a long time whether they said everything correctly, whether they did it that way, whether they looked good, what these completely strangers - the doctor and the postman - could think of them. Scopophobes lose sleep and lose their appetite if someone, even a bystander, looks in their direction disapprovingly or appraisingly or makes an inappropriate remark.

It is very difficult for people with such a phobic disorder to concentrate, to concentrate on something, their thoughts are almost constantly busy with the analysis of their own "flights", experiences. If the actions require them to be performed in front of someone, then the person may not complete his task at all from excitement (for example, the scopophobic librarian feels great alone, taking an inventory of the book fund, but loses control over himself as soon as the visitor asks to accept the books or issue them).

Don't underestimate scopophobia. She herself does not pass, it is also impossible to get rid of her with folk remedies and on her own. A psychotherapist or psychiatrist should be involved in the treatment.

A visit to a psychologist will do nothing. The mental disorder needs medical evaluation. An effective method is psychotherapy - mainly rational and cognitive-behavioral.

But at the same time, more often than in the case of other phobias, it is recommended to take medication. To relieve neurotic manifestations, anxiety can be recommended by antidepressants, in severe cases - tranquilizers.

Often, treatment begins with the medication part and only then systematically move on to psychotherapy. The task of the doctor is to teach the patient to look at traumatic situations with a different look, from a new position, as a result, the patient changes his attitude to previous attitudes, the value of public opinion decreases, and at the same time the fear of not being the same, different, decreases.

No less positive results are obtained by gestalt therapy, within which the doctor identifies the causes and works with a sense of shame and guilt.

It is also recommended to master yoga and relaxation techniques.... The course of treatment can take several months.

The next video will tell you about phobias and fears that almost every person has.