Scriptophobia: symptoms, causes and treatment

This curious phobia is expressed in situations where you have to write in front of others.

Scriptophobia is a rare phobia.It consists of an irrational fear of writing in front of other people or in public situations.

Although it may seem a somewhat strange phobia, the truth is that there are many people, especially students, who manifest it. Below we address it in more depth.

What is scriptophobia?

The escriptofobia is the extreme fear to write in public (from Latin "scripto", "to write" and "phobos", "fear"). It is considered a phobia that has the characteristics to be considered also a specific form of social anxiety. Like other phobias, it produces feelings of stress, anxiety and suffering in the sufferer.

Although it may seem a very rare specific phobia, it actually affects thousands of people around the world, even without their own knowledge that they have a problem that prevents them from leading a normal life. The others who recognize that their phobia is irrational, but still have serious difficulties in coping adaptively with situations in which they have a problem. adaptively dealing with situations in which they have to write in front of others.

Some of the particularly problematic situations for escriptophobic people are: taking a job in which one has to write in front of other people (e.g. teacher, notary,...), taking notes in class, giving a phone number on paper, signing a contract...

Graphophobia is another phobia closely related to scriptophobia, with a similar definition, although it is more specific. In this case, it is an extreme and irrational fear of writing manually.

Symptomatology

The symptoms of scriptophobia are very similar to those of other phobias, however they appear when a situation occurs in which the person has to write something in front of others. They occur automatically and become uncontrollable, either because of being in a situation in which one has to write in front of other people or because one thinks of possible situations of that type, without being in one of them.

People with this phobia try to avoid any situation where they have to write in front of other people.. In fact, in some cases the phobia is so severe that the person only dares to write at night, without anyone at home being awake and without the possibility of being found writing. If the person is of student age, it is likely that he/she will skip classes in order to avoid being seen writing at all costs.

The most notable physiological symptoms are dry mouth, palpitations, dizziness, sensation of needles in the skin, headaches, excessive sweating, nausea, shortness of breath and fatigue. and in the rest of the body, excessive sweating, nausea, shortness of breath and fatigue.

As for the more psychological area, we have problems to relax, mood swings, fear, anxiety, stress and thinking that you are going to make a fool of yourself or that you are not going to be able to get out of this without feeling humiliated.

Possible causes.

Normally, the fear of writing in front of others is originated by the experience of a negative event at some point in life that was related to this. In many cases, escriptophobic people are afraid of making a fool of themselves when writing or that people will think that their handwriting is ugly. It is common for those who have this phobia to have experienced a time when they were made fun of for their handwriting or for having made spelling mistakes. This may have been experienced with such intensity that it has caused the person to suffer panic attacks.

There are people who see in their way of writing an act similar to that of someone who undresses. That is to say, there are those who have the feeling that writing on a piece of paper is a way of expressing their intimacy, either in the form of writing on a piece of paper or in the form of writing on a piece of paper.Either by doing so in the form of words explicitly related to this idea (e.g., a personal diary) or because they take their writing as something very personal that, if someone else sees it, it is as if they were looking inside themselves, and they don't like it.

It may seem a somewhat far-fetched explanation, but the truth is that not a few people would manifest this phobia because of this fact.

Treatment

As with other phobias, treatments focused on scriptophobia are mostly cognitive-behavioral and tend to share features with other treatments that address anxiety disorders. Exposure to the phobic situation, in this case the act of writing in front of other people, is usually the main method to work on the phobia, although progressively and always in a progressive manner.The exposure to the phobic situation, in this case the act of writing in front of other people, is usually the main method to work on the phobia, although in a progressive way and always with the security provided by the professional consultation.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy and exposure

Cognitive-behavioral therapies have defended the idea that many phobias, especially those such as scriptophobia and other contextual phobias, are due to a style of thinking that harms the person. The thought of making a fool of oneself by writing causes the person to imagine the worst-case scenario, which leads to feelings of anxiety and anxiety about writing.which gives rise to feelings of anxiety.

In therapy, you try to get the person to explain exactly why they think they are going to make a fool of themselves or why they think others might laugh at them. It is a matter of addressing the type of thinking and changing it so that the anxious feelings are not so elevated.

It is also in this type of therapy that you try to get the person used to writing in front of other people. This would first be done in front of the therapist, or, if the person feels safe with a family member or friend, have them come to therapy and participate in the treatment under the direction of the professional.

Psychoanalysis

Psychodynamic therapy takes into account the events and influences throughout the patient's life that have contributed to his or her feeling of scriptophobia, as well as taking into account his or her personality traits and seeing to what extent they have contributed to the formation of this anxiety disorder.

The main goal of psychoanalytic therapy is to help the person explore, understand and come to resolve the causes of their phobia.

Other options

Although the alternatives we are going to talk about are not treatments and the person would still have a phobic disorder, in fact, they could be considered as avoidant behaviors, the truth is that they would serve to initiate a therapy or, at least, to facilitate a better well-being before seeking the help of a professional.

As we have already seen, some scripophobic people are afraid of writing in front of others because they do not think their writing is pleasant or they are afraid of making spelling mistakes.. These are the simplest cases, since going to classes to improve handwriting, as well as being more careful when writing and avoiding mistakes would be behaviors that would significantly help in the writing process.

Also, and thanks to the fact that we live in a highly computerized society, you can choose to write on the computer or any other electronic device with a keyboard. Word processors contain spell checkers that detect spelling mistakes, and you can change the font and font size.

Obviously, scriptophobia does not imply a simple fear of typing manually in front of other people.. There are many more aspects to take into account that make the person unable to do this, such as feeling observed, being afraid of making a fool of oneself, thinking about what other people are thinking...

That is why the alternatives put in this section, as we have already commented, are not a treatment in itself, but simple ways to improve the course of the disorder before going to a professional, since they help the person to take some control over their problem.

Bibliographical references:

• American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5. Washington, D.C: American Psychiatric Association.
• Bados, A.(2009). Specific phobias: Nature, assessment, and treatment. Electronic publication.