An old Scottish proverb says that “there is no cure for fear. “This would be a very serious problem for people with pantophobia. In a way, we all had the same feeling that makes us incapable: a strange fear of something unknown, that hides us, that leaves us unable to explain.
This fear of the unknown has a name, it’s pantophobia, if this is your case, you don’t have to panic. We are talking about a phobia that responds well to intervention, in this article we want to talk about what pantophobia is, what symptoms it causes and how we can eliminate it or make it less intense. The behavior of trying to avoid it is not valid, even if that’s what we tend to do naturally.
“I’m afraid it’s your fear. ” -William Shakespeare-
Pantophobia is a phobia consisting of a vague fear of an inexplicable threat from an unknown source, it is an irrational fear that is unleashed without any logic, as in all phobias, the person understands how unexplained this fear is. It is known as fear of everything, it receives other names such as panophobia or panophobia, for example, however, the origin of the name goes back to the ancient Greek god Pan, who instilled fear in people.
This phobia is characterized by excessive concern for an event or series of events, it is considered a limiting phobia because it influences and conditions the behavior of the person who is afraid.
There are several causes that can cause this disorder. In general, the patient does not remember when he first felt it, although it is more common for him to remember when that fear began to become an important source of discomfort.
It is usually said that the origin is caused by more specific previous phobias, such as arachnophobia or aerophobia, all of them can make the person more vulnerable to the phobia we face, among the most common causes are the experience of traumatic events, genetic inheritance and also the experience itself?or someone else?, like the children who observed the fearful attitude of their parents or references and, through this example, began to feel that fear.
How do you know if you have this problem? There are a number of identifiable symptoms, such as irrational fear of objects, situations, people, animals, etc. The thing is, the feeling of fear is constant and difficult to explain.
The problem can reach worrying levels when the person avoids situations, people and contacts because of that irrational fear, it is time to look for a professional. The person can remain in a state of hypervigilance, suffer constant adrenaline discharges to maintain the level of activation that supports this continuous monitoring.
In addition, it usually coexists with other mental problems, such as depression, sadness or anxiety, similarly seen in people with low self-esteem, a high feeling of guilt and a low level of control.
Sometimes there is a fear of losing control or the constant desire to escape the stressful situation that the person believes causes him fear, so there is a physical correlation: tremors, excessive sweating, dizziness, palpitations, agitated breathing, vomiting, body and abdominal pain and body tension.
Fortunately, it is a phobia that has specific treatments, but of course they should only be applied after evaluation by a qualified psychologist for this purpose, the specialist will be in charge of adapting the procedure to the characteristics of the patient. commonly used in the intervention of this phobia are:
Fortunately, there are many tools available to professionals to plan a good response, but for it to have a good end result still missing an essential ingredient, we are talking about the attitude of the patient, who will have to be ready to work and trust the specialist who takes care of your case.