Spectrophobia: pathological fear of ghosts

In most cases, our fears and fears are normal and current elements that are present in the mental life of any healthy person. However, in some cases certain phobias, which are pathological and totally irrational fears that damage our quality of life.

Sometimes these phobias are based on objective and easy-to-recognize elements: for example, in the case of The phobia of dogs, the source of terror and stress, is almost always easy to identify in what we surrounds. But... What happens when what produces extreme terror is something that doesn't even exist? This is the case of spectrophobia, or extreme fear of ghosts..

What is spectrophobia?

Spectrophobia is defined as a mental disorder that occurs when someone experiences an extreme and persistent terror of ghosts and specters in general... or, rather, to what he interprets to be a manifestation of a ghostly entity.

Normally, the fear of ghosts is so extreme that the focus of attention of people with spectrophobia shifts to easily focus on any stimuli in the environment that can be interpreted as a revelation that there is ghosts nearby.

This presence of delusions functions as a fear feedback system: the anxiety and the tension leads to a state of alertness in which one is very sensitive to everything that happens nearby, and the possibility of coming into contact with the spirits is so terrifying that all psychological processes are oriented towards the avoidance of this kind of situation.

What are people with spectrophobia like?

People with spectrophobia are in a state of constant tension when they are in a space they believe is haunted by supernatural entities such as ghosts. This means that they avoid being alone in dark, closed places or places that have been associated with the supernatural. through urban legends

The proximity of one of these places coinciding with a context in which there are no or very few companions makes the Spectrophobes enter a state of extreme anxiety that in some cases leads to panic attacks or blockages mental.

Of course, a certain fear of ghosts is still relatively common even in many people. adults and that in principle do not believe in supernatural entities, but in the case of spectrophobia this terror is powerful enough to harm the person's quality of life.

In addition, this fear will not appear only when seeing, hearing or hearing, for example, immersive works of fiction that work with the idea of ​​spirits and ghosts; It will spread to all areas of life and its symptoms may appear at any time, without the person being able to control this.

The latter is relative, since people with spectrophobia they tend to want to learn about topics related to parapsychology and the supernatural, and somehow they learn to read their own life as if it were the script of a horror movie to be as prepared as possible for the possible arrival of ghosts.

The contagion of fear of spirits

As in most phobias, in addition, suggestion has a very important role, and both what others say and do can cause this extreme fear to intensify.

This is relatively common, since many times the fear of the person with spectrophobia is contagious to the rest (although to a lesser extent), and this in turn reinforces the delusional idea that there are ghosts near. Furthermore, while the fear experienced by people who see how the person with spectrophobia reacts is fleeting and only appears in those kinds of specific situations, the latter's terror is persistent and does not depend on the presence of others to reveal your symptoms.

• Related article: “Folie à Deux (shared madness): the strangest cases”

The symptoms

The symptoms of spectrophobia are physiological, cognitive, and behavioral.

1. physiological symptoms

The entry into the alert state that this phobia produces is triggered by mediation between the limbic system of the brain and the hormone glands that are distributed throughout the body. Within seconds, the person with spectrophobia notices how your pulse and breathing rate rise sharply and you begin to sweat.

In addition, in this phase the sympathetic nervous system makes the blood vessels thinner and superficial surfaces to narrow to prevent possible blood loss, which causes the skin to adopt a pale tone. The muscles tense to be able to act quickly in case it is necessary to escape. In general, all the signs of anxiety appear.

2. cognitive symptoms

On the cognitive side, spectrophobia attacks are characterized by inducing a state in which one stops mentally wandering and the attention is totally fixed on elements of the exterior, constantly moving. The person goes into a state of high alert to try to find out where the danger could come from.

3. behavioral symptoms

The most obvious behavioral symptom of people with spectrophobia is the constant avoidance of places considered dangerous due to the risk associated with being a place where ghosts appear. If you are in one of these sites, you will do everything possible to get out of there, even if it has a high cost for your public image or for your personal or professional projects in the medium and long term term.