Many people buy beautiful things, take care of a stylish make-up, visible accessories in their image with the sole purpose - to be attractive to others. At the same time, there are people who will never stand out from the gray mass, because they are terrified that they will be viewed by strangers. This fear is called scopophobia.
What it is?
Scopofobia (Scoptophobia) - irrational panic fear of alien gaze. Do not confuse this mental disorder with helotophobia - fear of possible ridicule, although skopofobam partially characterized by fear of ridicule. But only partially.
Scopophobia is directly related to the group of social phobias (code 40.1 in ICD-10), since it is closely connected with the interaction of a person with his own kind.
Scopophobia is considered to be a complex and severe mental disorder, because besides the fear, the scopophobe experiences several strong negative emotions - guilt, shame.
It is difficult to say exactly when 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. As soon as people learned to experience this social feeling, individuals appeared who were ashamed and shy more than others.
The term itself, denoting the name of this disorder, was first formulated by psychiatrists at the beginning of the last century. For a long time, specialists could not accurately describe the distinguishing features of this disorder from others, but the average portrait of the scopofoba gradually became known: this is a person who is extremely unsure of himself, he does not look others in the eyes, he fears that someone can closely examine him. He fears being ridiculed, humiliated, and therefore the views of others make him want to escape and hide, to find a safe space in which no one can see him. For such basic manifestations, scopofobia is often called social neurosis..
Why does it occur?
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 - he goes to kindergarten or begins to study at school, he invariably faces the fact that he is “greeted according to his clothes,” each of us at different moments in life is invariably visually assessed by others. If a child has a strong nervous system and normal self-esteem, he can easily cope with the involuntary embarrassment and embarrassment that may arise under the evaluating glances of outsiders.
But miserable, insecure children, for whom the opinions of others are very important, can easily fall into the “trap” - one or two remarks from the educator, teacher or peers, especially if they are public, is quite enough for the child to experience the present. shocked, worried.
If ridicule from peers is repeated periodically, then an inferiority complex develops, which is a very fertile ground for development and skoptofobii, and a number of numerous and diverse mental illnesses.
Sometimes scoptophobia starts after an unsuccessful public speech (the child forgot the words of speech, failed to present his project at an important conference or Olympiad for him). In this case, the fear of prying eyes develops faster, and very soon a person, even outside of situations where he needs to speak in front of someone, begins to be alarmed because of a possible negative assessment by the public of appearance, actions, and human behavior.
Considerable contribution to the development of skystophobia, according to psychiatrists, are made by parents. 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 girlfriend's son, the likelihood of mental disorder increases significantly.
Moms and dads, of course, want the best, believing that the comparison of their trio son with the neighbor boy excellent should stimulate his own child to accomplishments and achieve success in school. But in practice it does not work. And if it works, then with possible side effects in the form of mental disorders.
Too demanding parental attitude towards the child is also a likely cause of scopophobia.
The tasks that adults can put in front of a child are often overwhelming, and the requirement that a son or daughter be successful in everything they do can easily lead to serious mental health consequences.
If at the same time adults subject the inevitable failures of a child to harsh criticism, then the probability of frustration is even higher. The child closes, tries to close himself from his parents, and therefore from society as a whole, since he unwittingly projects maternal and fatherly criticism with respect to his person on all the people around them.
But this does not mean that children who are loved and left behind by adults do not suffer from cophobia. Over-baked children, who are used to being the main, beloved, central figures in the family, grow up without the useful skill of confronting problems, they do not know how to make responsible decisions, they expect action from others. And these children are most often laughed at in the peer group (“mamma’s son”, “good girl-daughter”). Under the pressure of ridicule, a child can "break."
Adult scopophobes try to keep apart, they are very modest, even painfully modest. In their appearance, clothes, everything is thought out to the smallest detail, they are incredibly neat, they take care of themselves, and this tremendous control and constant thoughts about how they look, exhaust them. They avoid the crowd, large teams, new acquaintances. It can be difficult for them to build a personal life, create a family, communicate with colleagues.
The emergence of spocophobia at any age may be due to the presence of epilepsy, Tourette syndrome.
Epileptics-scoptophobes experience bouts of the underlying disease in public places, for example, in a shopping center. And suffering Tourette syndrome, worrying that they are being considered, they begin to suffer a sharp exacerbation of mimic ticks, stuttering precisely when others are looking at them.
Symptoms and signs
Caught in a "dangerous" situation, the skoptophob turns red or pale, his heart often beats, blood pressure rises, his hands begin to tremble, his voice breaks. A person may experience nausea, may faint. To exclude such situations, people with this phobia try by all means to avoid circumstances and situations in which their uncontrollable fear can manifest itself, with which they can do nothing on a conscious level.
Skopofob will never agree to speak to an audience, even if he is a successful scientist, innovator, brilliant writer.
He chooses a job that is not the one for which he has talents and sympathies, but one in which he will not need to contact with strangers. Skopofobam is characterized by a constant anxiety, hypertrophied guilt. They check what they have done many times to eliminate mistakes, they are almost always sure that they are doing worse than others, that they do not have such abilities as the others.
Critically, scoptophobes understand that their fear has no basis, and they are even more ashamed of it and blame themselves for not coping with phobic manifestations. This only exacerbates their already unenviable position.
Often skoptofobs think about others, dramatize. When they visited the doctor or visited the post office, they thought for a long time, did they all correctly say, did they all do it, did they look good, what could they have thought of these completely strangers — the doctor and the postman. Scopophobes lose sleep and lose their appetite, if someone, even a casual passer-by, looks at them disapprovingly or evaluatively or releases an incorrect remark.
It is very difficult for people with such a phobic disorder to concentrate, to concentrate on something, their thoughts are almost always busy analyzing their own “flights”, experiences. If actions require them to be performed before someone, then the person may not perform his task of excitement at all (for example, the scopofob librarian feels great alone, taking an inventory of the book fund, but loses control of himself as soon as the visitor asks to accept the books or give them away).
Therapy
Do not underestimate scopophobia. She herself does not pass, it is also impossible to get rid of her with folk remedies and with her own forces. The treatment should be a psychotherapist or a psychiatrist. A visit to a psychologist will give nothing. Mental disorder needs medical evaluation. Psychotherapy is considered an effective method - mainly rational and congenitally behavioral.
But at the same time more often than in the case of other phobias, taking medication is recommended. To relieve neurotic manifestations, anxiety can be recommended by antidepressants, in severe cases - tranquilizers.
Often, treatment begins with the medical part, and only then systematically proceed 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 the previous attitudes, the value of public opinion decreases, and with it decreases the fear of being different.
Gestalt therapy gives no less positive results, within which the doctor determines the causes and works with a sense of shame and guilt.
On the road to recovery is the support of loved ones. At first, it is desirable that relatives accompany the Scopophobe in transport, shop, on the street.
It is also recommended to master yoga and relaxation techniques. The course of treatment may take several months.
In the next video about phobias and fears that almost every person has.
