Kleptophobia (fear of burglary): symptoms, causes and treatment
A specific phobia related to the fear of being involved in robberies.
The idea of being the victim of a robbery or mugging is not pleasant for anyone, and in fact it is among the most common fears.
It is an adaptive fear, given that after all it involves a risk to physical integrity and at the very least involves the theft of something that belongs to us. However, despite the fact that it is a real risk, most people live their lives without this possible fear limiting their functionality.
However, for some people the idea or fear of being robbed can become a barrier that prevents them from living in peace and even from leading a normal day-to-day life. This is what happens to those who suffer from kleptophobia, something we are going to talk about.This is what we are going to talk about in these lines.
What is kleptophobia?
It is known with the name of kleptophobia to the phobia or irrational fear to the fact of suffering a robbery, to steal or to be accused of such action.. It is a specific phobia of situational type, which implies that the fact or even the idea of experiencing or being near the type of stimulus or situation feared (in this case the robbery) generates an extreme and even irrational level of panic in relation to the real risk of the stimulus or the probability of it happening.
Symptoms
The idea of being exposed to theft generates high levels of anxiety that may trigger physical symptoms such as hyperventilation, trembling, tachycardia, sweating, tingling or even trigger an anxiety crisis. In order not to feel it, the phobic person will escape or avoid any situation that puts him/her at risk of facing the feared situation.
In the case of kleptophobia, the fear in question is, as we have seen, of experiencing a robbery. However, although the fundamental fear is usually that of doing so as a victim (a condition also known as harpaxophobia when it is specifically the fear of being a victim of theft or of thieves), kleptophobia also includes the fear of taking on the reverse role: stealing/becoming a thief. And it even includes the fear of being accused of theft.
Affect on daily life
Kleptophobia is a condition that can generate a great affectation in the daily life of the person who suffers from it, especially in severe cases.
Someone with this phobia may avoid actions such as going out at night. (whether in a leisure, work or personal context), do not go to places where there is a minimal chance of being the victim of a robbery or theft (banks or public transport, for example) or may become a thief.
It may also be difficult to go to stores, since someone could interpret that he is trying to steal something.
This phobia can also can also cause difficulties at the social levelSome people may even avoid physical contact or stay away from others (especially in large groups) in order to avoid the risk of theft.
It is even possible that this fear may affect the person's own home, and that the person may find it difficult to stay at home alone, especially at night and to sleep. Kleptophobia has the peculiarity that even if there is no stimulus that leads to think about stealing or being robbed, can persist and generate great anxiety.
In addition, the need to justify every act that has to do with dealing with money or objects in order to avoid being accused of stealing may also appear at work.
In short, there are many possible facets that a phobia such as kleptophobia can limit.
Possible causes
As with the rest of the phobias the causes of kleptophobia are not completely known, although there are hypotheses about it.although there are hypotheses in this respect. It is important to bear in mind that there is no single cause, but that the origin of this phobia depends on the interaction of multiple factors.
First of all, kleptophobia is based on a real fear: being robbed is dangerous. A mugging and a robbery could result in injury, rape or even homicide in some cases. And even the idea of stealing or being accused of stealing has its implications: the thief is judged and despised on a social level and even sentenced to imprisonment.and even sentenced to prison, which is not a positive thing either.
However, it is not so common to be the victim of a robbery or to commit one (much less a violent one), and most of those that exist are thefts that sometimes are not even noticed by the victims until much later.
This fear has a certain explanation at an evolutionary level, at a phylogenetic level: for all animals, the fact of suffering a theft can mean in nature losing resources that we need to survive, such as food. Thus, people who are afraid of theft would tend to be more vigilant about would tend to keep a closer eye on things and might find it easier to survive. This fact could mean that we have inherited a predisposition to fear the loss of our possessions, to end up taking them from others or to be accused of doing so.
But one of the main hypotheses regarding the reason for kleptophobia is based on conditioning, the acquisition of a learned reaction to certain stimuli after associating them with consequences or aversive stimuli.
This learning can be done through culture or through the experience of aversive or traumatic situations that have caused the fear to appear. For example, having experienced a mugging or robbery (or being accused of one), especially if it has had severe consequences or has involved some type of aggression or violence. It is also possible that it has not happened to us, but to someone close to us, or that we have been conditioned in a way that we have not been able to cope with. that we have been conditioned in a vicarious way from the reactions of others. from the reactions of others to it.
Different personality aspects may also play a role. Fear of stealing may also indicate the existence of a high level of insecurity in oneself, one's capacity for self-control or one's moral values.
In addition, in the case of fear of being accused, we can see the existence of a sensitivity to punishment and concern for the judgment or consideration of others.
With regard to the fear of being a victim, there may also be a low sense of control over what we do. a low sense of control over what surrounds us, in addition to the aforementioned insecurity.in addition to the aforementioned insecurity.
Treatment of fear of theft
As a general rule, phobias are of the disorders whose psychological treatment turns out to be more effective and relatively simple to carry out. and relatively simple to carry out, existing diverse techniques that allow to fight them.
One of the most commonly used techniques to treat phobias is exposure therapy, in which the subject must face a hierarchy of feared situations elaborated together with the therapist in order to reduce the anxiety and fear they generate.
Obviously, the exposure itself will not be to being robbed in real life, but to situations in which a robbery could occur. These could include withdrawing money from an ATM, taking a car out of a parking lot, going to a concert or going out at night.
But be aware of this, exposure should be gradual and keep in mind that there is a risk of theft. It is also possible to carry out exposures in imagination or virtual reality to recreate and work on the fear of certain situations.
One of the fundamental elements to work on is the cognitive aspect, in which aspects such as the subject's fear, what he/she attributes it to and what beliefs he/she has about him/herself, others and the world in which we live must be worked on.
Work can be done to to modify the existing beliefs in this respect towards other more adaptive ones and that allow the person to live normally. If there is any previous traumatic event, it should be worked on and reworked in such a way that it can be processed in an adaptive way.
Since part of the fear is due to the insecurity felt, it may be necessary to work on personal security and the ability to manage stress and uncertainty. In some cases it might help to carry out activities such as self-defense trainings, since they would contribute to improve the feeling of competence in case of physical confrontation.
Bibliographical references:
- Hamm, A.O. (2009). "Specific phobias". The Psychiatric Clinics of North America. 32 (3): 577 - 591.
- Rogers, K. "Fight-or-flight response". Britannica.com.
(Updated at Apr 13 / 2024)