In day to day life we see people who are afraid of certain things. In this blogpost we will discuss an interesting condition called scopophobia.
Fear is a natural reaction that produces the action of flight. Fear is rational and it makes life possible keeping you away from dangerous things. Imagine if you are not afraid of fire and jump into fire. Sure, you will die or get burn injuries on your body.
Table of Contents
What are phobias?
Phobias are conditions in which a person has excessive and irrational fear of some objects or situation. This irrational fear creates difficulties in day to day life.
Phobia after exposure to a specific object or situation creates anxiety-like conditions in the affected person. So, a person may show anxiety when exposed to a condition he is phobic to.
scopophobia is a mental disorder, a rare form of phobia.
What is scopophobia?
scopophobia is a type of phobia in which a person has excessive irrational fear of being stared at. Even if no one is looking at the person the affected person thinks he is being observed and judged by others.
In scopophobia, a person is afraid and thinks he will be judged for his acts. That may create fear.
Some examples that can produce fear in persons with scopophobia are:
- While travelling in public transport.
- At public places.
- At school and college.
- At the office and workplace.
- In extreme cases even when a person is alone.
- When the person is walking on road.
What are the symptoms of scopophobia?
Phobias are disorders of anxiety. scopophobia is fear of large objects. The symptoms produced in phobia are because of anxiety reactions that appear after exposure to public places or situations. They include:
- Shaking of limbs
- Increased heart rate producing symptoms of palpitation
- Excessive sweating
- Feeling of hot air around air
- Headache
- Restlessness
- Shortness of breath and rapid breathing
- Not able to sleep (Insomnia)
- Dizziness
- Crying
- Panic
- Abdominal pain
- Some people may experience vomiting and loose motions.
What are the consequences of scopophobia?
This condition affects day to day life. Life becomes difficult due to fear in the affected person. The consequences of scopophobia are:
- The person tries to avoid the public places.
- The person tries to avoid travel by vehicles.
- Affected people may stop mixing with other people and friends.
- The person may lose self confidence because of fear.
- The affected person may try to avoid jobs where he/she comes in contact with large objects and machineries.
How to diagnose this condition?
Diagnosing this condition is a simple task. The person with scopophobia is aware that he is fearful and thinks someone is constantly watching and judging him/her. He/she has insite of his/her own illness.
Simple history taking and physical examination is needed for the diagnosis of the condition.
How to treat scopophobia?
scopophobia is a mental illness like anxiety is. It is treatable and any psychiatrist can treat that condition.
For scopophobia treatment strategy is as follows:
Cognitive behavioural therapy
Cognitive behavioural therapy is a self help strategy. scopophobia being anxiety disorder, this strategy works in this disorder. It is designed to control the way of thinking and behaviour on exposure to certain situations.
CBT helps to control the fear and anxiety in the mind of the person on exposure to large objects that make day to day life easier.
Aims of CBT is making yourself understand how the excessive irrational fear and anxiety is affecting your day to day functions and controlling your emotional response on exposure to large objects.
Along with CBT following strategies help in these conditions are as follows.
Exposure to large objects
Treatment of any phobia is exposing the affected person to the object or situation he has. The phobia gets cured as people learn that fear is irrational and controls the reaction to exposure to public places.
Systematic desensitization
This method of treatment of scopophobia is more gentle than exposure to large objects. In this method the person with phobia is exposed to successively public places for a period of time.
Sources
- Overview – Phobias https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/phobias/overview/
- Samra CK, Abdijadid S. Specific Phobia. [Updated 2021 May 15]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2021 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499923/
- Eaton, W. W., Bienvenu, O. J., & Miloyan, B. (2018). Specific phobias. The lancet. Psychiatry, 5(8), 678–686. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(18)30169-X
- Hofmann, S. G., Asnaani, A., Vonk, I. J., Sawyer, A. T., & Fang, A. (2012). The Efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Review of Meta-analyses. Cognitive therapy and research, 36(5), 427–440. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-012-9476-1
- Walker, J. R., & Kjernisted, K. D. (2000). Fear: the impact and treatment of social phobia. Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England), 14(2 Suppl 1), S13–S23. https