Tachophobia (speed phobia): symptoms, causes and treatment

This specific type of phobia affects those who feel bad when experiencing speed.

Phobias describe very intense and irrational, sometimes disabling, fears that arise when exposed to specific stimuli or situations. They constitute a prevalent group of anxiety disorders, and often occur comorbidly with other problems in the same category (generalized anxiety, for example).

Despite the above, this fear does not usually motivate consultation with specialists, since the sufferer develops strategies to avoid the scenario in which it usually takes place (thus minimizing its interference).

In some cases, however, it is difficult to avoid such encounters, so that the person's life deteriorates rapidly in many different areas (including academic or work). In this article we will address tachophobia, a specific phobia that is relatively common in children and adults.. Its symptoms, causes and treatment will be detailed; according to the current evidence on the matter.

What is tachophobia?

The term tachophobia comes from the Greek, and more specifically from the words "tachýtita" and "phobos". The former refers to velocity (a physical measure that describes the variation in the position of a body according to a specific time unit) and the latter translates as "fear" or "aversion". When the two are joined together they form a word designed to describe the experience of phobic fear that occurs when someone is exposed to situations in which he or she appreciates excessive velocity..

One of the nuclear characteristics of all phobias, which serves as a distinctive feature with respect to normal fear, is their irrational basis (recognition of their excessive intensity in contrast to the threat represented by the feared stimulus at the objective level).

However, speed can pose a real risk, speed may pose a real riskTherefore, only a fear that impedes essential activities of daily life (getting on a train, traveling by car, etc.) or that is clearly disproportionate (it is triggered even at very low speeds) is considered phobic.

Symptoms

Symptoms of tachophobia emerge when the subject participates in activities involving exposure to high speeds. These can be very varied, and include both those in which one has an active role (driving, for example) and those that involve a more passive attitude (riding a roller coaster, occupying the co-pilot's position, traveling by train or plane, etc.). Thus, it is a fear that goes beyond the insecurity of losing control and consequently suffering an accident, as in amaxophobia.

In severe cases, the fear of speed extends to the most ordinary spaces.. For example, an individual might feel intense discomfort the moment he/she decides to run, or even when exposed to situations in which he/she feels that "things are happening too fast". Episodes of tachophobia have also been described during the observation of a fast and/or erratically moving object, even though there is no risk of collision with the person who fears it (in a movie, for example).

In conclusion, tachophobia involves intense fear responses in which speed is the protagonist, especially when the body is exposed to a process of increasing acceleration..

We will now explore some of its central symptoms. For this purpose, a distinction will be made between the three basic dimensions of anxiety, namely cognitive, behavioral and motor.

1. Cognitive expression

People with tachophobia may become anxious in anticipation of exposure to a speeding situation. This anxious anticipation prevents them from taking trips that require the use of any means of transportation, since they would not be able to predict their mobility. When such a "journey" is unavoidable, the sense of threat can last for weeks or even months, growing as the day of expected departure approaches.

When the time comes, in the midst of the journey, excessive attention to visceral sensations associated with body movement (kinesthetic sensitivity) emerges. (kinesthetic sensitivity): adjustments in the axis of gravity if one travels standing, for example. This hypervigilance can also be directed to the exterior, so that special attentional emphasis would be placed on the external markers used to "calculate" the relative speed at which we are moving: dashed lines on the road, static objects on the edge of the road, etc. Thus, the subject would remain expectant to everything that happened in his body (or outside it) and that could suggest movement.

This This sharpening of visual and kinesthetic sensations forms a complex stimulus forms a complex stimulus that is interpreted as catastrophic and excessive in relation to the "real" danger. It is common in this context for thoughts such as "we are going to get killed" or "I am going to faint if he does not stop now" to arise, which contribute to the threat assessment and the exacerbation of physiological fear reactions.

On the other hand, the person often harbors irrational beliefs about speed, overestimating the risk of an accident even though the conditions are not conducive and perceiving him/herself as incapable of tolerating what he/she fears. These beliefs act as the basis on which the concrete, catastrophic-type thoughts described above are erected.

2. Physiological expression

The bodily sensations that the person experiences are similar to those of an anxiety attack (panic), and are the result of (panic), and are the result of sympathetic hyperactivation (the branch of the autonomic nervous system that triggers fight-or-flight responses when a risky situation is perceived). It is a very disturbing experience for the person who feels it. In the case of this phobia, the reaction of dizziness or vertigo heightens the fear, since it is experienced as a subjective movement.

The most common response is an acceleration of breathing (tachypnea) and of the Heart rate itself (tachycardia), technical terms that make use of the same Hellenic root as the disorder in question (tachycardia in this case would mean "fast"). In addition, there is an increase in pupil diameter (mydriasis) that blurs visual acuity and increases light sensitivity (photophobia). It is also usually observed tremor, sweating and tingling in the distal region of the extremities (especially in the fingers and toes). (especially in the fingers of the hands).

In some cases, acute dissociative symptoms may occur, which surprise the person because they appear as strange or profoundly unreal experiences. Depersonalization (a feeling of detachment from mental and bodily processes) and derealization (the perception that the environment has changed in some way or has lost its distinctive quality) stand out.

3. Motor expression

The cognitive and physiological experiences described so far are so aversive that the person makes a deliberate effort to avoid them on successive occasions when they may occur.

In this way, will make decisions to avoid a situation related to the speed at which the experience would be reproduced.This will result in a deep emotional relief in the short term. Such a coping mechanism, however, is the one that maintains the problem in the medium/long term (by a system of negative reinforcement).

Causes

The most common cause of tachophobia is usually, according to the various studies that have been carried out on the subject, having experienced a traffic accident in which speed was particularly involved. When the origin lies in childhood, very aversive experiences related to sudden movements are identified (fairground or theme park attractions, for example), which precipitate a fear that later extends to vehicles moving more or less quickly (and to adulthood itself).

These fears are more common in people who are biologically disposed to anxiety.. It seems that the disorder is more prevalent in subjects who show a baseline vulnerability, and who have also experienced a difficult situation related to movement. The combination of genetics and environment is the axis on which this mental health problem gravitates, although the relative contribution of each of them is still unknown.

Finally, there is the possibility that this fear is acquired through observational learning (witnessing someone having an accident while driving at high speed) or social learning (assimilating such a fear by living with a family member who suffers from it). In any case, those who suffer from tachophobia have something in common: the perception that the different moving elements are subject to chaos and erraticism, making them dangerous and unpredictable.They are therefore dangerous and unpredictable.

What is the treatment of tachophobia?

There are effective psychological approaches to tachophobia, generally from cognitive and behavioral models. The one that has shown the greatest efficacy is undoubtedly exposure, which consists of a programmed (and sometimes gradual) presentation of speed-related stimuli, in order to stimulate changes in expectations about them and in the reactions they elicit (by a process of habituation and extinction).

Exposure can be carried out in many ways: from the use of videos related to speed scenes to guided imagery combined with some activation control technique (such as diaphragmatic breathing or Jacobson's progressive muscle relaxation). These latter procedures are designed to stimulate the action of the parasympathetic nervous systemwhich opposes that of the sympathetic and promotes a state of relaxation.

It may also be useful to design a hierarchy of speed-related situations, ordered according to the anxiogenic potential attributed to them by the subject (a procedure known as systematic desensitization), so that they can be presented in imagination in a structured and orderly manner. Thus, the exposure would progress from innocuous scenes (such as entering a garage) to others that are much more sensitive and relevant (such as driving on the highway).

Finally, it can be very important to carry out cognitive restructuring strategies aimed at detecting irrational thoughts related to the emotion of fear, and thus be able to replace them with others that are more in line with objective reality (rational debate). The process involves an exploration of the inner life and of some conceptions that have been forged over the years; therefore, it may require time and the use of tools to record the situation, thought and emotion.

Bibliographical references:

• Maples-Keller, J.L., Yasinski, C., Manjin, N. and Olasov, B. (2007). Virtual Reality Enhanced Extinction of Phobias and Post-Traumatic Stress. Neurotherapeutics, 14(3), 554-563.
• Steimer, T. (2002). The Biology of Fear and Anxiety related Behaviors. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 4(3), 231-249.