The world of phobias is immensely varied and fascinating, there are phobias of all kinds, from the classic phobia of the spider to the supercomplejo (even by its pronunciation) hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia, the fear of long words. Rare or rare phobias include venustraphobia. , fear of beautiful women.
People suffering from cametraphobia or caligerophobia have a phobia of women who find them very attractive, in these cases the mere presence of the attractive woman is sufficient to provoke fear and anxiety, and interaction with her is not necessary or necessary. have a particular emotional or sexual interest in the feared figure.
- The term comes from the union of the word Venus (in Roman mythology.
- Goddess of love.
- Beauty and fertility) and the word phobia.
As we know, a phobia consists of a very intense and irrational fear that forces the person to make great efforts to avoid the feared stimulus; because he can’t help it, he supports her with great anxiety.
It is more common in heterosexual men, although cases have also been reported in gay and heterosexual women. This type of phobia can affect adults and children.
As mentioned above, the main symptoms of phobias in general, and venustraphobia in particular, consist of an irrational and excessive fear of the presence of phobic stimulus (in this case, women considered attractive).
Fear is usually accompanied by avoidance behaviors and high anxiety and discomfort, in addition, it can be accompanied by the following physiological symptoms:
Like all phobias, it has a big impact on people’s lives and can limit their functioning in certain areas.
In addition, having suffered an episode of venustraphobia at any given time can lead to the development of an anxiety of anticipation, which can lead the person to avoid any situation in which he may find an attractive woman, even reaching social isolation.
Although the origin is not 100% clear and multifactorial, it is believed that venustraphobia can be caused by traumatic childhood experiences.
These can range from the divorce of oneself or his parents, from a failure in love to having lived with a careless, indifferent or abusive mother; In this case, through a conditioning process, the person can come to associate beautiful women with pain, suffering and discomfort.
For heterosexual men and gay women, phobia may be more common in people with more shyness and low self-esteem and possibly feelings of inferiority.
For these people, it can be very embarrassing to interact with more attractive women for fear of being ridiculed or prominent. For heterosexual women, venustraphobia can be caused by a competitive environment.
The most effective treatment of choice of phobias is progressive exposure to the dreaded stimulus, which consists of developing a hierarchical list of feared situations to begin exposure to them.
With exposure, we try to get the person used to the anxiety that the situation generates and see that the situation decreases as he realizes that the dreaded consequences are not real.
If during exposure the person is overwhelmed by anxiety or even suffers a panic attack, the situation can be abandoned, this abandonment should be momentary and exposure should resume as soon as possible.
It is best to teach relaxation and breathing techniques that can be practiced in times of maximum anxiety to avoid running away, it is important that these techniques do not become a form of secret evasion.
It is also necessary to identify irrational beliefs or cognitive distortions that lead to an overestimation of danger, these thoughts should be worked with cognitive techniques, by seeking more rational alternative thoughts or by seeking evidence for and against the truthfulness of those thoughts. .
Also, if venustraphobia limits a person’s life in a way that turns out to be a social anxiety disorder, we can’t just deal with phobia.
The same is true if the disorder accompanies depression. In case of comorability, the only way to improve the problem will be to intervene, in an integrated way, on the symptoms of the different disorders.
“Fear is always willing to see things worse than they are. Titus Livio-
We live in a society that loves the body too much and in which beauty standards can be unattainable, physical attraction is sometimes seen as the only sign of success in life, leading to the emergence of defining beliefs, such that an attractive woman can only have a partner with at least the same level of beauty.
Comparison with a certain beauty ideal allows very few people to be privileged, which can seriously affect the self-esteem of many people, we must begin to value our qualities and even our defects in a more positive way (which for others can be considered virtues).
Above all, we must remember that physical beauty is over and that when everything folds and changes shape, what remains of us is our essence.