Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia: The Irrational Fear Of Long Words
In our article “The 15 strangest phobias that exist” we echoed the strangest phobias that some individuals may suffer from. Definitely, One of the most atypical and curious phobias is hypopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia or phobia of long words. And people who suffer from this phobia must feel great discomfort just by hearing the name of the disorder they suffer from.
As with all phobias, hypopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia is an irrational fear, which causes great discomfort and causes those affected with this pathology to tend to avoid those situations in which they come into contact with the phobic stimulus, that is, long words.
The truth is that this phobia is rare, just like other strange phobias such as arachibutyrophobia, which is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the palate, and which can appear, for example, when a child is about to choke from Eat some 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.
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 practically everything that can be perceived or imagined: clowns, spiders, food, etc.
Phobias are usually learned, that is, we can unconsciously associate a stimulus (that did not originally cause us fear) to a negative emotion. This may occur due to the intensity of the negative emotion, which converts 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.
Causes of hypopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia
Generally, hypopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia occurs in people who have suffered childhood trauma related to long words. They may have had a bad experience at a spelling bee, or been extremely embarrassed in front of the class when they were asked to read a word they didn’t understand or couldn’t pronounce well. A traumatic event like this is enough to initiate the development of a phobia.
Research makes it clear that associative learning is behind phobias, either directly or indirectly (for example, by watching a movie about killer clowns and developing a phobia of clowns), although there are also those who claim that genes play a role. a determining role, since some people are more prone than others to suffer from phobic disorders.
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 make the person feel stomach pain, 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 to avoid feeling bad.
The vast majority of phobias share physical, cognitive and behavioral symptoms. In summary, they are shown below:
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 used techniques for the treatment of phobias belong to cognitive behavioral therapy, which helps to confront feared situations and replace irrational thoughts with more adaptive ones.
Expository techniques are the most used, specifically systematic desensitization. This method consists of the patient gradually exposing themselves to the phobic stimulus and, at the same time, acquiring more useful coping skills. Thanks to the different therapeutic sessions, the patient faces the phobic stimulus, and little by little he can pronounce 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 take some drugs (if advised by a therapist or psychiatrist) to reduce anxiety, but always in combination with psychological therapy.
New technologies applied to the treatment of phobic disorders
Cognitive behavioral techniques have been applied for several decades to treat phobias, but new technologies are also beginning to take center stage as psychological therapy. Virtual reality and augmented reality have proven to be very effective for the treatment of phobias, since they allow us to simulate those phobic stimuli that patients fear. Virtual reality, for example, can be useful for the patient to find himself in a room in which larger and larger spiders appear, which would belong to expositional therapy.
In recent years, mobile applications have also been 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”
