Gelotophobia: symptoms, differential diagnosis, causes and treatment.

An irrational fear of being made fun of by others.

Gelotophobia is the fear of being made fun of, being laughed at or being ridiculed.. It usually appears in social situations, in front of other people; it arises especially in childhood and adolescence.

We should not confuse gelotophobia (a specific phobia) with other types of disorders, such as social phobia, avoidant personality or schizoid personality. In this article we will make its differential diagnosis and we will know what it is, its symptoms, as well as its causes and possible treatments.

Gelotophobia: what is it?

Phobias are intense fears of certain stimuli, objects or situations. It can be said that there is a phobia for everything, and that is why practically any stimulus can be feared. Generally, the fear that appears in phobias is irrational and disproportionate to the possible harm that such stimulus or situation may cause. Phobias are a type of anxiety disorder.

The DSM-5 (Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders) classifies specific phobias into 5 groups, according to the phobic stimulus: phobia of animals (e.g. snakes), blood/injection/hurt (e.g. needles), natural situations or environments (e.g. storms), situational phobia (e.g. driving) and other types of phobia (e.g. choking).

Gelotophobia is a type of phobia associated with the possibility of being teased.i.e., the sufferer has an irrational and intense fear of being laughed at or made fun of. That is why a person with gelotophobia can adopt paranoid or distrustful behaviors towards others, constantly fearing that they are talking bad about him or her or that they can make a fool of him or her.

Thus, following the classification proposed by the DSM-5 for specific phobias, gellotophobia could be classified as "another type of phobia", since it does not correspond to any of the 4 previous ones.

Symptoms

The symptoms of gelotophobia correspond to the typical symptoms of specific phobias.and that constitute diagnostic criteria of the DSM-5. These symptoms are:

1. Intense fear to the mockery 2.

The gelotofobia is translated mainly in an intense fear to that the others make fun of us.. Instead of fear, it can also appear an intense anxiety before the fact of experiencing such situations. This implies that the organism is overactive at the psychophysiological level (with typical symptoms of anxiety).

The situations that are feared are those that may trigger others to laugh or make fun of us. This is also extrapolated to people who may do so, or who have done so in the past.

2. Avoidance

The person with gelotophobia, in addition, wants to avoid this fear that produces him the fact that they can be made fun of it.. It is for that reason that also avoids people or situations that can unchain it. On the other hand, it can happen that instead of avoidance, a resistance to such situations is produced but with an associated high anxiety.

3. Persistence of fear

The fear or anxiety that appears in gelotophobia, as in other types of phobias, is persistent.. That is to say, it appears in a very constant way and it is lengthened in the time. In fact, it is necessary that the symptoms of the gelotofobia are maintained during a minimum of 6 months to be able to diagnose such a phobia.

4. Altered functioning

The daily functioning of the person with gelotophobia is altered.The person shows difficulties to develop his/her daily activities normally, even to start or finish tasks that he/she would normally solve.

These alterations cover the different spheres of the individual's life, including the social, labor, academic and personal spheres.

Differential diagnosis

It is important to distinguish gellotophobia from other types of mental disorders. The disorders that could be more similar to gelotophobia and that, therefore, should be previously discarded, making a correct differential diagnosis, are the following.

1. Avoidant personality disorder

The avoidant personality disorder (APD) is characterized by a marked pattern of social inhibition.This can be associated with feelings of hypersensitivity to negative evaluation and rejection and feelings of incompetence.

It is precisely this hypersensitivity to negative evaluation that can confuse us with gelotophobia. However, TPE is a personality disorder, which means that the individual's functioning will be much more altered than in gelotophobia (a type of anxiety disorder). In addition, in TPE the fear is of mockery but also of criticism, rejection, isolation... i.e., the fear is more generic than in gelotophobia (where the fear is limited to mockery).

In addition, TPE includes other symptoms not included in gelotophobia, such as fear of taking personal risks or of getting involved in new activities (i.e., the person avoids many types of situations; in gelotophobia, on the other hand, the situations are limited to those that may cause a situation of mockery).

2. Schizoid personality disorder

Schizoid personality disorder is another disorder that can be confused with gellotophobia. In schizoid personality, there is a pattern characterized by social isolation.. However, this does not appear because of the fear of being made fun of, as it does in gelotophobia; in reality, people with schizoid personality isolate themselves socially because they have no interest in others.

3. Social phobia

Finally, a third disorder that we must differentiate from gelotophobia is social phobia.. Social phobia, like gelotophobia, is also an anxiety disorder. The difference is, however, that the fear of gelotophobia is linked to a specific stimulating situation; in contrast, in social phobia, it is one or more social situations (or performances in public) that produce fear.

That is to say, in social phobia more situations are feared, and because they are social situations (for fear of embarrassment, of being left blank, of not knowing what to say, of being judged...); in gelotophobia only the fact that one can be made fun of oneself is feared.

In addition, social phobia involves a broader pattern of avoidance than gelotophobia.

Causes

The causes of gelotophobia are usually related to traumatic experiences where one or more situations of mockery have been experienced.. This can make us think of situations such as bullying (harassment at school) or mobbing (harassment at work).

The etiology of this phobia is also related to low self-esteem, insecurities, fear of other social situations, etc. It can also appear as a consequence of a depressive disorder, where the person experiences a feeling of deep sadness, guilt and insecurity, among others, and where this fear of being laughed at can also appear.

Treatment

The psychological treatment of the gelotofobia will include techniques of cognitive restructuring to help the person to understand that he/she is not always being laughed at, and that sometimes he/she may have dysfunctional and erroneous thoughts that are making him/her believe precisely this.

In other words, we will try to ensure that the person does not feel threatened by situations that are not really threatening to him/her, trying to reduce and eliminate paranoid thoughts that make the patient feel observed and criticized.

On the other hand, psychological therapy will try to ensure that the patient has (or learns) appropriate coping mechanisms to enable him/her to cope with social situations and/or situations where others are really making fun of him/her.

Importance of prevention

Childhood and adolescence are typical ages where gellotophobia appears; it is for that reason that the prevention will be importantIt is important to encourage respectful behavior among children in the classroom and at home in order to avoid bullying or teasing of others.

In addition, it is advisable not to overprotect the little ones, as this may hinder their socialization and they may not know how to relate properly with others.

Finally, techniques should be used to teach children to tolerate feelings of frustration or fear of ridicule when they arise, so that they can manage their emotions appropriately. This will increase their personal security and prevent them from feeling so bad when they "make a fool of themselves" or when they are "made fun of".

Bullying and harassment should always be fought against, but we should also offer tools to children and adolescents to manage such situations if they happen, going for help when necessary.

Bibliographical references:

• American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Fifth edition. Washington DC: Author.

• Belloch, A.; Sandín, B. and Ramos, F. (2010). Manual de Psicopatología. Volume I and II. Madrid: McGraw-Hill.