Hormephobia: symptoms, causes and treatment

There are as many phobias as there are objects or situations in the world... which means that there are countless disparate, particular and even "rare" phobias that most of us have never heard of. In this article we bring you one of them: hormephobia.

It is the phobia of experiencing a very strong emotion, a shock, a very extreme fright or a deep state of shock, which in turn can be caused by an infinite number of factors. So, we are going to see what this phobia consists of, what are its particularities, its symptoms, causes and possible treatments to apply.

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

Hormephobia: what is it?

The word hormephobia comes from the Greek terms “ormao”, which means “to excite”, and “phobia”, which means “fear”. Thus, it is translated as the phobia of different stimuli, such as a state of shock, shocks, impressions, shocks and frights.

It is also related to the fear of strong emotions or of everything that can “excite” us excessively. It is, therefore, a specific phobia and therefore an anxiety disorder, classified as such in the reference manual DSM-5 (Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).

Its origin can be related to the deepest fear of losing control or mental breakdown until you lose your nerves.

Thus, it is a curious phobia, because it is related to different states of the same "spectrum". All of them, however, have to do with the fact of suffering some kind of highly emotionally charged event.

Phobic object/stimulus

From this phobia we highlight the particularity of its phobic object/stimulus since, as we have seen, it can be of quite different in nature (although they all share the fact that they can cause strong emotion, usually negative). So, can you fear emotions? As hormephobia demonstrates, and although it sounds a bit strange, yes.

So, there are people who would feel a real panic at the possibility of experiencing strong emotions, whether through a traumatic event, an extreme situation, suffering a shock, a blow, a fright, a surprise, a shock... the possibilities are infinite, therefore, during the treatment of hormephobia (and as we will see later), it will be of vital importance to specify the object well. phobic.

There will be patients who are afraid of "everything" (understanding "everything" as any event or object that can provoke a strong emotion), and others who are only afraid of shocks, for example, and logically the treatment in each case will be different.

Relationship with amaxophobia

Amaxophobia is the phobia of driving; So, does hormephobia have any relationship with this other phobia? It could be, since in both there may be a fear of suffering a crash, for example while driving.

In other words, both could appear comorbidly, although they should be treated independently (bearing in mind, however, that they can coexist).

• You may be interested in: "Amaxophobia, the irrational fear of driving"

Symptoms

Like any specific phobia, hormephobia presents a series of differentiated clinical manifestations. let's see what they are the symptoms of hormephobia.

1. Intense, irrational, and disproportionate fear

Let us remember that phobias are characterized, mainly, by a fear that has three particularities: it is an intense, irrational fear (generally the patient himself recognizes that his phobia is irrational) and disproportionate (although under "normal" conditions the phobic stimulus can cause fear, the symptoms it causes exceed those expected by the nature of the stimulus).

Fear is an altered reaction of the body to the possibility of suffering harm.; fears are frequent and "normal", and most of them are evolutionary (they have allowed us to adapt to the environment and survive). However, when this reaction is disproportionate and irrational and also interferes with our daily lives, we speak of a phobia, as is the case with hormephobia.

2. psychophysiological symptoms

Beyond the fear of the possibility of suffering a shock, a strong emotion, a trauma or a fright, other associated symptoms appear in hormephobia, triggered by that intense fear. These symptoms are psychophysiological, that is, They cover two aspects: the psychological part (the pisque) of the person and the physiological part (physical).

Examples of these symptoms are: nausea, dizziness, choking sensation, tachycardia, sweating, tension, chest pressure, migraines, panic attacks... In the case of hormephobia, all these symptoms are triggered by the possibility of being in contact with the phobic stimulus, that is, by the possibility of experiencing a state of shock, of suffering a strong shock, etc

They can also appear before the mere imagination of one of these situations.

3. discomfort and interference

In order to diagnose a specific phobia, it is necessary that the above symptoms cause significant discomfort in the patient and/or interference in your day to day work, academic, personal, social…

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

Causes

The most probable cause of suffering from hormephobia is having previously suffered a state of shock or great shock due to a certain vital event. The fact of having experienced such a situation can cause a strong fear of experiencing it again., which ends up causing hormephobia.

So, the main cause is a traumatic event, as is the case with most phobias. In addition, we must take into account that we are dealing with a very particular phobia, since the phobic object of the hormephobia itself can already be a traumatic situation, which does not happen with most other phobias (for example, being afraid of clowns, costumes, heights…).

Treatment

In the psychological field, the treatment of hormephobia is based, as in all specific phobias, on two major therapeutic options: exposure therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy.

1. exposure therapy

In this case, the patient with hormephobia will be exposed to the phobic stimulus gradually, through a hierarchy of items.

First you must identify very well (specify it very concretely) what causes fear in the patient; if it is about the possibility of suffering a blow, a concussion, a state of shock... and based on this, elaborate the hierarchy. Items that cause little anxiety should be placed in the first items, to progressively incorporate increasingly intense items into the scale.

2. Cognitive behavioral therapy

In the case of the cognitive behavioral therapy, its objective is to replace the negative, irrational and catastrophic thoughts associated with the phobic stimulus, such as: “I will lose control”, “I will hurt myself”, “I will have a terrible time”, “I will go crazy”, “I will not know how to react”, etc., for others that are more functional, adaptive and realistic.

These other thoughts can be, for example: "I don't have to suffer a shock if I go outside", "if I hurt myself, they can help me”, “I don't have to lose control”, “I don't have to have a shock”, etc.

Bibliographic references:

• American Psychiatric Association –APA- (2014). DSM-5. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Madrid: Pan American.
• Pérez, M., Fernández, J.R., Fernández, C. and Friend, I. (2010). Guide to effective psychological treatments I and II:. Madrid: Pyramid.