Hippotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia: what is it?
In our article “The 15 rarest phobias that exist” We echoed the strangest phobias that some individuals may suffer. Definitely, One of the most atypical and curious phobias is hippotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia or phobia of long words.. And it is that people who suffer from this phobia must feel great discomfort just hearing the name of the disorder they suffer from.
As with all phobias, hippotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia is an irrational fear, which causes great discomfort and causes those affected with this pathology tend to avoid those situations in which they come into contact with the phobic stimulus, that is, words long.
a very strange phobia
The truth is that this phobia is rare, like other strange phobias such as arachibutyrophobia, which is the fear that butter peanut sticks to the palate, and that can appear, for example, when a child is about to choke from eating peanut butter toast.
These types of phobias, which are caused by specific stimuli, are called specific phobias. These include: fear of spiders or arachnophobia, fear of clowns or coulrophobia or fear of flying or aerophobia, among others.
- There are other types of phobias that you can learn about in our article: “Types of Phobias: Exploring Fear Disorders”
Classical conditioning and its relationship with phobias
Fear is an emotion that can be adaptive just like anxiety; However, fear does not always have an objective and real cause, since people are capable of developing an irrational fear of virtually anything that can be perceived or imagined: clowns, spiders, food, etc
Phobias are usually learned, that is, we can unconsciously associate a stimulus (which originally did not cause us fear) to a negative emotion. This can occur due to the intensity of the negative emotion, which turns that originally neutral stimulus into a phobic stimulus. If we suffer from a phobia, every time we see the feared stimulus or imagine it, we feel intense discomfort, which is caused by associative learning called classical conditioning.
- Related article: “Classical conditioning and its most important experiments”
Causes of Hippotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia
Generally, hippotomonstros is squipedaliophobia occurs in people who have experienced childhood trauma related to long words. It could be that they had a bad experience in a spelling bee, or they had a great time. embarrassment in front of the class when they had been asked to read a word they did not understand or could not pronounce well. A traumatic event like this is enough to start the development of a phobia.
Research makes it clear that associative learning is behind phobias, either directly or indirectly (for example, watching a movie about killer clowns and develop a phobia of clowns), although there are also those who affirm that genes play a determining role, since some people are more prone than others to suffer from disorders phobic
Symptoms
Phobias belong to the group of anxiety disorders, since irrational fear causes great discomfort and people who suffer from these pathologies suffer a lot. This suffering is such that they tend to avoid feared situations, objects and thoughts.
Therefore, the symptoms of phobias are characterized by great fear or panic, accompanied by a great feeling of anguish, anxiety and discomfort, which can cause the person to feel stomach ache, headache, rapid pulse, etc. When the subject has to face a situation in which, for example, he has to pronounce a long word, he will try not to have to face that feared stimulus in order to avoid feeling bad.
The vast majority of phobias share physical, cognitive, and behavioral symptoms. In summary, they are as shown below:
- Fast pulse and increased heart rate
- Feeling of lack of air and suffocation. hyperventilation
- excess sweat
- Anxiety and anguish
- Dry mouth
- catastrophic thoughts
- Loss of concentration and disorientation
- great fear or terror
- Stomach ache
- Headache and muscle tension
- Avoidance of the feared stimulus
Treatment
The treatment of this phobia is the same as that of other phobic disorders. Different methods can be used, for example, hypnosis or mindfulness, the latter to accept one's own experience as a person suffering from a phobia and, in this way, reduce the intensity of the symptoms. However, the most widely used techniques for the treatment of phobias belong to cognitive therapy. behavioral, which help to face feared situations and replace irrational thoughts with more adaptive.
Expository techniques are the most used, specifically systematic desensitization. This method consists of gradually exposing the patient to the phobic stimulus and, at the same time, acquiring more useful coping skills. Thanks to the different therapeutic sessions, the patient is facing the phobic stimulus, and little by little he can start pronouncing those words that previously caused him great anxiety.
Other fundamental treatment techniques are relaxation and breathing techniques. In addition, those people who suffer from more serious cases can consume some drugs (if they do so). advises therapist or psychiatrist) to reduce anxiety, but always in combination with therapy psychological.
New technologies applied to the treatment of phobic disorders
Cognitive behavioral techniques have been applied for several decades for the treatment of phobias, but new technologies are also beginning to play a leading role as psychological therapy. Virtual reality and augmented reality have turned out to be very effective for the treatment of phobias, since they make it possible to simulate those phobic stimuli that patients fear. Virtual reality, for example, can be useful for the patient to be in a room where larger and larger spiders appear, which would belong to exhibition therapy.
In recent years, moreover, mobile applications are appearing for the treatment of phobias. You can learn more about these apps in our article: “8 apps to treat phobias and fears from your smartphone”
