Panophobia: Symptoms And Treatment Of This Curious Type Of Phobia
All of us are afraid of something in this life. In some cases, this fear even takes the form of a true phobia that can limit us more or less and that may or may not be directed towards a specific stimulus. Spiders, heights, blood or injections, public speaking, closed spaces, airplanes or the inability to be helped if we have an anxiety crisis are some typical examples of phobias.
But now let’s imagine that everything scared us. That we were constantly afraid that something would happen. This is what happens to those people who have panophobia or omniphobia
Panophobia or omniphobia is understood to be a somewhat particular type of phobia. In fact, it can be considered one of the strangest types of phobia. Phobias generally refer to the existence of a high level of fear or panic towards a specific stimulus or type of stimulation that is recognized as irrational and disproportionate in relation to the level of real risk posed by the stimulus in question. . The presence of the stimulus in question generates a high level of anxiety, to the point that the subject avoids situations in which it may appear and flees from its appearance.
However, although in panophobia we do find the previous reactions, the truth is that there is no specific stimulus that causes them Or rather, everything becomes phobic. We would be faced with a feeling of continuous and vague panic and terror, without a fixed object to explain it, which remains continuous over time.
Likewise, it is also possible that a fluctuation of fear can be observed between different stimuli, with some becoming more phobic than others depending on the situation. Panophobia is not currently included as a phobia in diagnostic classifications such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (or DSM) or the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), but could fall into the category of other unspecified anxiety disorders
If a specific and concrete phobia can be very disabling, it is clear that panophobia entails a high level of suffering, frustration and fatigue for those who suffer from it. It also has the potential to generate an alteration in all areas of life: the person may be afraid of everything they perceive, both from the outside world and from their own interior, and they tend to suffer from continuous anxiety and isolate themselves. Family, friends, work or leisure are very limited, and the people around the subject may not understand the situation of the person in question.
It is common for depressive symptoms, low self-esteem and self-concept, and different somatic alterations to appear over time. On a physical level the presence of tachycardias, accelerated cardiorespiratory rate, sweating, gastrointestinal discomfort , vomiting, headaches, dizziness and fainting are common (as occurs in other phobias when faced with the phobic stimulus). It is necessary to keep in mind that this level of continuous agitation can be harmful to the body, depleting our resources and making it difficult to concentrate and maintain energy.
Causes of this disorder
The causes of this disorder are not entirely known, and panophobia is also very rare and there are few studies on it. However, the hypothesis could be considered of the existence of a high level of baseline cerebral excitability, especially in the limbic system, which could have interacted with the presence of multiple traumatic experiences. Over time, the fear generated by said interaction would generalize to most stimuli or even grasping reality as something dangerous in its entirety.
Conditioning and learning from extremely insecure parental models with a very high level of anxiety and fear on a continuous basis, or with little capacity to provide feelings of security or affection to the child, can also contribute to this fact.
Relationship with other psychiatric disorders
Panophobia has often been linked to different well-known psychiatric conditions. In fact, it is often identified (although it is not exactly the same) with generalized anxiety disorder or GAD, in which permanent agitation and anxiety also persistently appear in the face of day-to-day worries that the subject cannot control and whose anticipation he fears (often giving it excessive importance in relation to the possible future).
Another disorder with which it has been closely linked is schizophrenia , and this fear of everything can appear over time both in patients with deterioration and in those with a high level of agitation. It is usually a rather secondary and not defining symptom of the disorder.
Finally, it has also been related to borderline personality disorder, characterized by intense and overwhelming emotionality, highly labile and in which those who suffer from it have great difficulties managing emotions. A common symptom is the presence of chronic feelings of deep emptiness, as well as despair at the idea of ​​being abandoned and carrying out different behaviors to avoid it, delusional ideas and aggressive and self-harming attitudes.
Treatment of panophobia
Taking into account the aforementioned characteristics of panophobia, its treatment may seem more complicated than that of other phobias. But this does not mean that it is not possible to combat this problem.
As with the rest of phobias, exposure therapy becomes a really useful technique However, there is a difficulty: the establishment of an exposure hierarchy. And in this case the phobic stimulus is nonspecific and in many cases patients are not able to determine what they are afraid of. While we generally focus on one type of phobic stimulus, in this case it is much less likely. So, in this type of phobia, what the subject in question should expose himself to is the sensation of fear in question, and the different fears that he narrates can be applied.
Besides, Systematic desensitization is very useful , in which the subject must learn to emit a behavior incompatible with anxiety or fear. If necessary, to facilitate the process and extreme control of the exposure conditions, virtual reality exposure can be used.
Cognitive restructuring is another of the most used techniques and can be very useful. Explaining the subject’s beliefs about himself, about the world and about his situation and then trying to propose alternative interpretations and little by little integrating them into the patient’s psyche can allow for better self-control and, over time, a lower level of nervous activation.
Neurolinguistic programming and the self-instruction technique can also be helpful, in such a way that by reprogramming how we express ourselves and the self-instructions we give ourselves, we can visualize ourselves from a more positive and self-effective perspective.
Learning relaxation techniques is also important. In extreme cases, the use of medication may even be required in order to control the level of physiological activation, although work must be done to explore the origin of said fear and perform therapies such as those mentioned above.
