Panophobia: symptoms and treatment of this curious type of phobia

All of us are afraid of something in this life. In some cases, this fear even takes the form of a true phobia that can limit us more or less and that may or may not be directed towards a specific stimulus. Spiders, heights, blood or injections, public speaking, enclosed spaces, airplanes or the impossibility of being helped if we have an anxiety crisis are some typical examples of phobias.

But now let's imagine that everything scared us. That we were constantly afraid that something would happen. This is what happens to those people who present panophobia or omniphobia.

• Related article: "Types of Phobias: Exploring Fear Disorders"

Panophobia: fear of everything

Panophobia or omniphobia is understood as a somewhat particular type of phobia. In fact, it can be considered one of the strangest types of phobia. And it is that generally phobias refer to the existence of a high level of fear or panic towards a stimulus or type of specific stimulation that is recognized as irrational and disproportionate in relation to the level of real risk that the stimulus entails in question. The presence of the stimulus in question generates a high level of anxiety, to the point that the subject avoids situations in which it can appear and flees from its appearance.

However, although in panophobia we do find the above reactions, the truth is that there is no specific stimulus that causes them. Or rather, everything becomes phobic. We would be facing a continuous and vague sensation of panic and terror, without a fixed object to explain it, which remains continuous over time.

Likewise, it is also possible that a fluctuation of fear is observed between different stimuli, some becoming more phobic than others depending on the situation. Panophobia is currently not included as a phobia in diagnostic classifications such as the Manual Diagnostic and Statistical of Mental Disorders (or DSM) or the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), but could fall into the category of other unspecified anxiety disorders.

• You may be interested in: "Types of Anxiety Disorders and their characteristics"

Interference in daily life and in the body

If a specific and concrete phobia can become very disabling, it is clear that panophobia entails a high level of suffering, frustration and fatigue for those who suffer from it. It also has the potential to generate an alteration in all vital areas: the person may be afraid of everything that perceived, both from the external world and from the internal one, and tend to suffer from continuous anxiety and isolate. Family, friends, work or leisure are very limited, and the people around the subject may not understand the situation of the person in question.

It is common for depressive symptoms, low self-esteem and self-concept, and different somatic alterations to appear over time. On a physical level, the presence of tachycardia, increased cardiorespiratory rhythm, sweating, gastrointestinal complaints, vomiting, headaches, dizziness and fainting are common (as occurs in other phobias against the phobic stimulus). It is necessary to take into account that this level of continuous agitation can be detrimental to the body, depleting our resources and making it difficult to concentrate and maintain energy.

Causes of this disorder

The causes of this disorder are not entirely known, and panophobia is also very rare and there are few studies on it. However, the hypothesis of the existence of a high level of base cerebral excitability could be considered, especially in the limbic system, which could have interacted with the presence of traumatic experiences multiple. Over time, the fear generated by said interaction would be generalized to most stimuli, or even grasping reality as something dangerous in its entirety.

Also the conditioning and learning of extremely insecure parental models and with a very high level of anxiety and fear in a continuous way, or with little capacity to provide feelings of security or affection to the minor, can contribute to this made.

Relationship with other psychiatric disorders

Panophobia has often been linked to a number of well-known psychiatric conditions. In fact, it is often identified (although not exactly the same) with the generalized anxiety disorder or GAD, in which permanent agitation and anxiety also appear persistently in the face of day-to-day concerns that the subject cannot control and fears the anticipation of (often giving it excessive importance in relation to the possible becoming).

Another disorder with which it has been closely linked is schizophrenia., and this fear of everything can appear with the passage of time both in patients with deterioration and in those with a high level of agitation. It is usually a rather secondary and non-defining symptom of the disorder.

Finally, it has also been related to borderline personality disorder, characterized by emotionality intense and overflowing, highly labile and in which those who suffer from it have great difficulties managing the emotions. A common symptom is the presence of chronic feelings of deep emptiness, as well as despair at the idea of being abandoned and carrying out different behaviors to avoid it, delusional ideas and aggressive attitudes and self harm

Panophobia treatment

Taking into account the aforementioned characteristics of panophobia, its treatment may seem more complicated than that of other phobias. But this does not mean that it is not possible to combat this problem.

As with other phobias, exposure therapy becomes a really useful technique. However, there is a difficulty: the establishment of an exposure hierarchy. And it is that in this case the phobic stimulus is non-specific and in many cases the patients are not able to determine what they are afraid of. While we usually focus on a type of phobic stimulus, in this case it is much less likely. So, in this type of phobia, what the subject in question should be exposed to is the sensation of fear in question, and the different fears that he narrates can be applied.

Besides, systematic desensitization is very useful, in which the subject must learn to emit a behavior incompatible with anxiety or fear. If necessary, to facilitate the process and extreme control of the exposure conditions, virtual reality exposure can be used.

The cognitive restructuring It is another of the most used techniques and that can be very useful. Explicit the subject's beliefs about himself, about the world and about his situation to later try to propose interpretations alternatives and gradually integrating them into the patient's psyche can allow better self-control and over time a lower level of activation nervous.

Neuro-linguistic programming and the technique of self-instructions can also be helpful, in such a way that By reprogramming how we express ourselves and the self-instructions we give ourselves, we can visualize ourselves from a more positive and self effective

Also learning relaxation techniques is important. In extreme cases, it may even require the use of medication. in order to control the level of physiological activation, although work must be done to explore the origin of said fear and carry out therapies such as those mentioned above.