Androphobia: What It Is, Symptoms And Treatment

Before talking about androphobia, we must first know what a phobia consists of. In general terms, We can define a phobia as an intense and irrational fear or fear oriented towards a person, an object or situation that does not represent a real danger. In this way, there are several types of phobias in which the difference lies in the way the fear is presented to the person.

According to the DSM-V, androphobia is located within the group of specific phobias. For this reason, in order to detect this clinical condition we need to know the main characteristics of androphobia:

• Fear and/or intense anxiety towards specific people, objects or situations (in this case, the men represent the main cause of this disorder). Androphobia, that’s what the fear of men is called.
• The phobic situation causes reactions of fear or high anxiety.
• Existence of fear or anxiety disproportionate to the danger represented by the person, object or phobic situation.
• Anxiety, fear and avoidance cause deterioration in work and social relationships.
• Anxiety, fear and avoidance last six months or longer.

Notably This anxiety disorder is found mainly in women, although it is also possible that some men suffer from it. However, this occurrence is rare.

Androphobia has a series of symptoms of great importance what is pertinent to know. Before explaining them, we must keep in mind that the way in which each person experiences the symptoms may vary depending on the resources and tools that have been acquired throughout life. Next, we will describe the main symptoms that stand out in androphobia:

• Excessive sweating.
• Shortness of breath.
• Dizziness
• Rapid heartbeat.
• Heavy breathing.
• Tremors.
• Fainting.
• Nausea.
• Avoidance of possible situations in which there are men.
• Catastrophic thoughts linked to men.

How to overcome androphobia? Fortunately, there are some treatments that are currently available to address androphobia. These treatments are highly effective in cases of androphobia, resulting in an improvement in the quality of life of those people who present compatible symptoms. In this way, we will describe the current treatments in the following items:

Psychotherapy

Therapy sessions provide tools that are useful in the manifestation of androphobia. On the one hand, short-term therapies offer the possibility of modifying thoughts, emotions and behaviors in situations that arouse fear and/or anxiety. As a result of this, brief therapies focused on problem solving are intended to that the person is gradually exposed to conflictive situations to have various resources in life. Here we can include cognitive behavioral therapy as the best known. The treatment used for phobias is the exposure technique.

On the other hand, there are long-term therapies that aim to find the origin of the problem that causes the symptom. Generally, these situations are found in the past and understanding the behaviors allows the person who suffers from a problem to find new ways to deal with their conflicts. Among the best-known extensive therapies, we can highlight psychoanalysis.

Medication

There are some medications of pharmacological origin that can be given in cases of androphobia. However, this must be indicated by a health professional that can verify the evolution of the clinical picture that the patient presents. Likewise, the complexity of the case plays an important role here and psychiatric treatments are usually carried out in harmony with psychological therapy because the cause of androphobia comes from unpleasant experiences that have occurred in life, among others.

The type of treatment chosen will depend on the characteristics of the person suffering from androphobia since factors such as age, sex, pre-existing medical illnesses and family history play a key role in the development of symptoms and the remission of symptoms. themselves.

If you want to know more about phobias, below you will find:

• Types of rare phobias and their meaning
• The 15 most common phobias and their definition

This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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