Venustraphobia (phobia of beautiful women): symptoms and treatment

Although it doesn't happen to everyone, it's not uncommon for things to happen when we feel strongly attracted to someone. like our hands sweating, we turn red if they look at us or that at a specific moment we don't know what to say or what to say talk. It is about a certain shyness in front of a person who attracts us, but who does not create a major impediment for us.

Now, let's imagine that this happens to us with all the people we find very attractive. And now let's imagine that we are not only talking about discomfort, but about an intense panic that leads us to the anxiety crisis and that causes us to flee from situations in which this type of people. We are talking about a phobia, which in the case of referring to women who are considered attractive or beautiful It is called Venustraphobia..

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

What is venustraphobia?

We call venustraphobia or caligynephobia to the phobia of women considered very attractive by the person who suffers from it.

Thus, the phobic stimulus or situation is the presence of physically very attractive women or considered as such by the person suffering from the phobia. There is no need for an interaction, but the mere presence of the stimulus could be enough to arouse great anxiety. But they will also generate some anxiety and situations and places where they can appear will be avoided.

It is important to bear in mind that we are dealing with a phobia and not with a simple fear or shyness, which be up to a certain point logical when facing situations in which we expose ourselves to someone who attracts. It is a very rare phobia but of which there are several cases.

Symptoms

Venustraphobia implies the presence of extreme and irrational panic and anxiety levels towards a stimulus or situation, a fear that usually generates physiological symptoms such as hyperventilation, tachycardia, cold sweats, tremors and that can even generate anxiety crises.

Likewise, the person feels so much anxiety that, fearing to feel it again, he will tend to avoid, as much as possible, exposing himself to situations where he has to face the feared stimulus or believe that you can find it, or in case of need you can come to face the situation but at the cost of suffering great anxiety.

It must be appreciated that what generates anxiety is a subjective element: not all of us consider attractiveness in the same way. In general those people who conform to the current beauty canons tend to generate anxietyAlthough depending on each person, the characteristics that cause anxiety will vary.

Likewise, it is not essential that there be an affective-sexual interest towards the person in question, but simply that it is a woman who is considered to be very attractive.

Although It is more common in heterosexual men, Venustraphobia can be suffered by both men and women regardless of their sexual orientation.

Effects on everyday life

Venustraphobia can generate significant repercussions for the person. Felt anxiety usually generates a high level of suffering and disrupt normal operation.

In this sense, it can affect at various levels. At the work level it can generate complications at the level of hindering teamwork and reducing the productivity and capacity of the affected person, while at the social level can restrict social relationships (it becomes difficult to establish or maintain relationships, avoidance of very attractive women or groups in which that are included...) and cause them to avoid situations, places or areas where it is considered that women considered attractive may appear: sports, cinema, fashion...

In extreme cases it would be possible to achieve isolation and cloistering at home, although it is rare.

Possible causes

Although the exact causes of venustraphobia are not known, it is considered that, like the rest of them, venustraphobia can have a multifactorial etiology or origin.

Although an explanation of evolutionary origin could be found (there could be pressure and anxiety in the case of heterosexual men and women homosexual females to court a partner considered attractive, while in heterosexual women it could be anxiety linked to competition), it is generally considered that this phobia has a character more linked to cognitive, psychological factors and to the learning.

One of the factors that seems to be more common is the existence of some traumatic event or aversive experience in the past in which either he had to see an attractive woman or the discomfort was associated with that person. It can be a failure in love, a divorce, ridicule and harassment regarding one's own physique compared to other people (for example in the case of bullying).

In this case, it would be a form of conditioning, in which one would have learned to associate females who are considered beautiful with pain, anxiety or suffering.

The existence of cognitive distortions linked to the anticipation that the woman will criticize or find ridiculous, often also magnifying the person's attractiveness and underestimating one's own qualities.

It is not uncommon for there to be great insecurity on the part of those who suffer from this phobia., which can cause them to have a hard time facing the idea of ​​interacting with someone they consider more attractive than themselves, often in turn existing a possible feeling of inferiority. They may consider that person or the qualities they represent for the subject as unattainable. There may also be a comorbid social skills deficit, although this is not always the case.

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Treatment of this phobia

As with the rest of phobias, venustraphobia can be treated through various psychological techniques, the most common and effective of which is live exposure.

The exposure technique is based on making the subject face the feared situation in order to achieve not eliminate, but effectively manage the anxiety he feels and without the need to avoid it. To do this, an exposure hierarchy will first be created between the professional and the patient, a list of situations that generate anxiety that will be ordered from lowest to highest according to the level of anxiety that provoke.

The subject will gradually confront each one of them (usually starting with those that generate medium anxiety), in such a way that in the presence of the significant stimulus an anxiety will appear that with time will decrease by itself alone. When two exposures are carried out without anxiety appearing or it has been greatly reduced, you can move on to the next item.

Also it will be necessary to work on a cognitive level, analyzing first of all what generates anxiety in the patient (knowing the specific elements and others that can influence are necessary to elaborate correctly the hierarchy, in addition to having other possible applications), what this anxiety means for him or her, to what he attributes it and how he it affects. Likewise, it will be discussed what beauty implies for the subject and the beliefs that he has regarding this or its importance.

Last but not least, it is relevant to discuss the patient's self-esteem and their beliefs about himself, about how he is and his abilities, and about how he sees the world (and how he sees it to others). he). A cognitive restructuring can then be carried out to modify possible biases and dysfunctional beliefs.

It can also be useful to use relaxation techniques, such as diaphragmatic breathing or Jacobson's progressive muscle relaxation therapy, in order to help control and reduce anxiety levels. They can also be used in the form of systematic desensitization, as an incompatible response to anxiety during exposure.

Bibliographic references:

• Cavallo, v. (1998). International Handbook of Cognitive and Behavioral Treatments for Psychological Disorders. pergamon. pp. 5 - 6.
• Wolpe, J. (1958). Psychotherapy by reciprocal inhibition. Conditional Reflex: A Pavlovian Journal of Research & Therapy. 3 (4): 234 - 240.