Enoclophobia (fear of crowds): symptoms, causes and treatment

A phobia similar to agoraphobia but with several differentiating characteristics.

One of the most frequent reasons why people visit a psychologist is for a phobia: fear of flying (aerophobia), social phobia or claustrophobia are some of the most common.

Enoclophobia or demophobia (i.e., phobia of crowds) also leads many individuals to seek psychological help.Phobic disorders are not rational fears, but are pathologies that seriously affect the sufferer's life. Phobics know that this irrational fear does not go away even though they know that nothing will happen to them when they are faced with the feared stimulus.

In other words, the fear is so intense that it becomes uncontrollable, and the discomfort forces the person to avoid any contact or idea that could provoke the great anxiety characteristic of this disorder. Fortunately, phobias can be cured, and scientific studies have shown that the help of a psychologist is key to overcoming enoclophobia, among other irrational fears. In this article we will talk about enoclophobia and delve into its symptoms, causes and treatment.

What is enoclophobia

Albert Einstein once said: "I hate crowds and having to give speeches in front of a large audience". This well-known personality was a genius. So if you identify with his words, you can rest assured: everyone can suffer from irrational fears, and so can brilliant people.

What Einstein said, in extreme cases, could represent a common phobia such as social phobia (fear of being evaluated by other people) or claustrophobia (fear of being in enclosed spaces); however, this fear (the one in the example) has to do with being in front of a large crowd of people, so it would be enoclophobia.

Enoclophobia can happen to anyone, but, according to research, the proportion is higher in women than in men, and it usually develops when it begins in early adulthood. In most cases, enoclophobics hide their feelings of fear and try to act normal.They feel a great discomfort inside when confronted with the feeling of fear, and avoid any possibility of being in this feared situation, because when they are in a crowd, they may feel like they are having a heart attack. They become very anxious and nervous.

Causes of this phobia

Enoclophobia or demophobia, like any type of phobia, is a learned irrational fear, which generally occurs as a consequence of some traumatic experience in the past. This learning occurs by classical conditioning, which is a type of associative learning that was first studied by Ivan Pavlov and later by the behaviorist John B. Watson. The latter is responsible for one of the most controversial studies in the history of psychology, in which he succeeded in making a small boy named Albert learn to be afraid of a white rat that he initially adored.

Watson thought that humans could learn strong emotions by conditioning and then generalize them to similar situations, and he used children for this purpose. Little Albert was only 8 months old at the time of the study, and during the first few sessions he played quietly with the white rat, but as the sessions progressed, Watson began to pair the animal's presence with the loud sound of metal hitting a hammer. Within a few sessions, Albert stopped playing with the rat, and every time it appeared he would turn away as a result of having associated the rat's presence with the sound that frightened him. Not only that, but the little boy was also afraid of other furry animals. According to classical conditioning theory, a generalization phenomenon had taken place.

Today, this study could not be carried out because the ethical guidelines governing research would not allow it. Below you can watch a video explaining Watson's study.

Classical and vicarious conditioning

Classical conditioning is not the only way to learn a fear, but vicarious conditioning, i.e. learning by observation, can also cause a person to suffer from fear of being in a crowd.

Some cognitive factors such as irrational beliefs cause enoclophobia, and some experts claim that Biological factors are also important, since people can develop fears of certain stimuli more easily. This is because it has been useful for our survival as a species. These fears would be developed by primitive and non-cognitive associations, so they are not easily modified by logical arguments.

Symptoms and warning signs

Phobias present cognitive, behavioral and physical symptoms. Cognitive symptoms, therefore, would refer to the anxiety, fear and distress that a person feels, which in turn would cause a narrowing of attention, confusion, dazedness, concentration difficulties....

These symptoms would cause other physical and physiological symptoms such as headaches, stomach pain, tightness in the chest, etc.etc. Behavioral symptoms would refer to the person avoiding situations that cause anxiety.

In summary, the symptoms of enoclophobia are:

• Thoughts of imminent death
• Extreme anxiety and fear before the presence or imagination of the phobic stimulus.
• Thoughts that the person is going to run out of air.
• Lack of concentration
• Hyperventilation
• Hypersweating
• Rapid heartbeat
• Tremors
• Chest pain or tightness
• Lightheadedness, nausea, dizziness, and headaches
• Avoidance behaviors

Treatment

Like any phobia, and according to scientific data, cognitive behavioral therapy is effective in the treatment of this disorder. For this purpose, some techniques are used, such as cognitive restructuring, which helps the patient to realize that his or her thoughts are irrational; relaxation techniques, which are useful to reduce symptoms in the moments when the disorder manifests itself; and expository techniques. Regarding the latter, the ideal treatment is carried out with the systematic desensitization technique, which gradually exposes the patient to the feared stimulus while learning effective coping strategies.

At present, other forms of psychotherapy are also used, such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapysuch as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, both of which are included in the group of contextual therapies. They are used for their good results in the treatment of anxiety disorders, according to research carried out to prove their effectiveness.

Pharmacological treatment is only recommended in extreme cases. Always under medical or psychiatric supervision and in combination with psychological therapy.

New technologies applied to phobias

The treatment of phobias has also benefited from the advance of new technologies, and some specialized centers use Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality as part of the treatment. In addition, there are several mobile applications on the market, there are different applications for cell phones on the market that allow the patient to make use of these new forms of therapy.

• You can learn more about these applications in our article: "8 apps to treat phobias and fears from your smartphone".

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