Cherophobia (aversion to happiness): symptoms, causes, treatment

Cherophobia is a concept that can be shocking for many people, since its existence makes us question something that in theory we all seek: happiness. And it is that cherophobia is the aversion to happiness, the rejection of those experiences or habits that we believe could lead us to be happy.

How can someone not want to tend towards happiness? What is the raison d'être of this psychological phenomenon? Let's see it in the following lines.

• Related article: "Philophobia (fear of falling in love): what it is, causes and frequent symptoms"

What is cherophobia?

As we have previously seen in summary, cherophobia is the aversion to happiness, the tendency to avoid what we associate with being happy.

Now, that doesn't mean that people are afraid of the idea of ​​happiness itself; are able to think about the concept itself, but they want to get away from what makes them feel happy in a minimally stable and consistent way.

Causes

Human beings are capable of adopting an infinite number of lenses from which to perceive and value life, for better and for worse. This makes for relatively rare cases where some individuals adopt

mentalities that seem to be far from common sense.

As with most psychological phenomena, there is no single cause that leads us directly to cherophobia as a consequence. Instead, there are several possible causes that make it more or less likely that we fall into this state of mind.

One of the causes that have been hypothesized for part of these cases has to do with the pressure that exists today at the time of practically forcing everyone to be happy all the time, as if it were part of their work and their responsibilities. Feeling that link between happiness and obligations, in certain cases, can cause aversion.

Another of the explanatory hypotheses of cherophobia is based on the idea that the people who experience are afraid to be happy at first and then see how all that happiness is crumbles. The feeling of loss that would result from this is anticipated and generates so much discomfort that one completely renounces the claim to be happy, even avoiding falling into this state by chance.

• You may be interested in: "Positive Psychology: how can you be truly happy?"

Is happiness aversion a problem?

As much as it may seem strange that happiness is avoided, it is possible to understand people who seek to keep life simple and maintain an austere philosophy of life. However, it must be borne in mind that cherophobia It does not consist of humility or austerity, values ​​that in themselves are not negative and are in fact legitimate.

The characteristic of cherophobia is that in it the person makes active efforts to get away from happiness, even if doing so has a high cost. These efforts significantly interfere with people's quality of life, isolate them, and make them less capable of coping with day-to-day problems.

That is why cherophobia It is not one more attitude of life before which we must maintain a neutral attitude; it is clearly a problem that makes people suffer.

Symptoms

Cherophobia is a complex phenomenon that is based on relatively abstract concepts, so it can manifest itself in different ways. However, it is possible to find some generalities in the symptoms of this problem.

In general, those who experience cherophobia first-hand maintain a conservative profile and little open to new experiences. In a related way, they tend to be introverted, since personal relationships bring a certain instability and exposure to emotionally charged situations, something that goes against his intention to always stay more or less the same, away from intensely joyful experiences or nice.

On the other hand, meeting new people can lead us to seasons of calm and stability in a context of feeling fulfilled, something that could crack and generate a feeling of loss and grief. Let us remember that those who have an aversion to happiness do not want to be markedly unhappy, they simply seek to avoid suffering.

Treatment

Fortunately, cherophobia itself is neither depression nor a neurological disorder, so psychological intervention should be able to reduce this form of discomfort until it almost disappearsAll this in a relatively short period of time.

In general, the aversion to happiness is related to the fact of clinging to maladaptive beliefs and to an unhealthy lifestyle that generates psychological exhaustion. That's why, cognitive restructuring can help, as well as other forms of intervention in anxiety problems, such as exposure in controlled contexts to what is feared (in the most accentuated cases in which there are anxiety crises in front of stimuli concrete).

Bibliographic references:

• Joshanloo, M., Weijers, D. (2013). Aversion to Happiness Across Cultures: A Review of Where and Why People are Averse to Happiness. Journal of Happiness Studies. 15 (3): 717–735.
• Robinson, J. (2014), What's so bad about feeling happy? Springer.