Panophobia: symptoms and treatment of this curious type of phobia

This phobia has a characteristic that makes it unique.

All of us are afraid of something in this life. In some cases, this fear even takes the form of a real phobia that can limit us more or less and that can be directed towards a specific stimulus or not. Spiders, heights, Blood or injections, public speaking, enclosed spaces, airplanes or the impossibility of being helped if we have an anxiety crisis are some typical examples of phobias.

But now let's imagine that we were afraid of everything. That we were constantly afraid that something would happen. This is what happens to people with panophobia. people who present the panophobia or omniphobia..

• Article related: "Types of phobias: exploring the disorders of the fear".

The panophobia: the fear to everything

It is understood by panophobia or omniphobia to a type of phobia somewhat particular. In fact, it can be considered one of the strangest types of phobia. Phobias generally refer to the existence of a high level of fear or panic towards a specific stimulus or type of stimulation that is recognized as irrational and disproportionate to the actual level of risk posed by the stimulus in question. The presence of the stimulus in question generates a high level of anxiety, to the point that the subject avoids situations in which it may appear and flees from its appearance.

However, although in panophobia we do find the above reactions, the truth is that there is no specific stimulus that causes them. there is no specific stimulus that provokes them.. Or rather, everything becomes phobic. We would be in front of a sensation of panic and terror continued and vague, without a fixed object that explains it, that remains continuous in the time.

It is also possible to observe a fluctuation of fear between different stimuli, with some becoming more phobic than others depending on the situation. Panophobia is not currently listed as a phobia in diagnostic classifications such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) or the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), but it may fall into the category of other unspecified anxiety disorders. could fall into the category of other unspecified anxiety disorders..

Interference with daily life and the body.

If already a specific and concrete phobia can become very disabling, it is clear that panophobia brings a high level of suffering, frustration and fatigue to those who suffer from it. It also has the potential to generate a disturbance in all areas of life: the person may be afraid of everything he or she perceives, both from the outside world and from within, and tend to suffer from continuous anxiety and isolation. Family, friends, work or leisure are very limited, and the people around the subject may not understand the situation of the person in question.

It is common for depressive symptoms, low self-esteem and self-concept and different somatic alterations to appear over time. On a physical level, the presence of tachycardia, acceleration of the cardiorespiratory rhythm, sweating, gastrointestinal discomfort, vomiting, headaches, headache and other symptoms.Vomiting, headaches, dizziness and fainting are common (as occurs in other phobias in the face of phobic stimuli). It is necessary to take into account that this level of continuous agitation can be detrimental to the organism, exhausting our resources and making it difficult to concentrate and maintain energy.

Causes of this disorder

The causes of this disorder are not entirely known, and panophobia is very rare and there are few studies on it. However, it could be considered the hypothesis of the existence of a high level of basic cerebral excitability, especially in the limbic system, which could have interacted with the presence of multiple traumatic experiences. With the passage of time, the fear generated by this interaction would generalize to most stimuli, or even to the perception of reality as a reality.or even capturing reality as something dangerous in its totality.

Also the conditioning and learning of extremely insecure parental models with a very high level of anxiety and fear on a continuous basis, or with little capacity to provide feelings of security or affection to the child, may contribute to this fact.

Relationship with other psychiatric disorders

Panophobia has often been linked to various well-known psychiatric conditions. In fact, it is often identified (although not exactly the same) with generalized anxiety disorder or GAD, in which there is also persistent agitation and permanent anxiety in the face of day-to-day concerns that the subject cannot control and whose anticipation he fears (often giving it excessive importance in relation to the possible outcome).

Another disorder with which it has been closely linked is schizophrenia.This fear of everything may appear with the passage of time both in patients with deterioration and in those with a high level of agitation. It is usually a rather secondary symptom and not definitive of the disorder.

Finally, it has also been related to borderline personality disorder, characterized by an intense and overflowing emotionality, highly labile and in which sufferers have great difficulty in managing emotions. A common symptom is the presence of chronic feelings of deep emptiness, as well as despair at the idea of being abandoned and performing different behaviors to avoid it, delusional ideas and aggressive and self-harming attitudes.

Treatment of panophobia

Taking into account the above-mentioned characteristics of panophobia, its treatment may seem more complicated than that of other phobias. Pero esto no quiere decir que no sea posible combatir este problema.

Al igual que ocurre con el resto de fobias, la terapia de exposición se hace una técnica realmente útil. Sin embargo, existe una dificultad: el establecimiento de una jerarquía de exposición. Y es que en este caso el estímulo fóbico es inespecífico y en muchos de los casos los pacientes no son capaces de determinar a qué le temen. Si bien generalmente nos centramos en un tipo de estímulo fóbico, en esta caso es mucho menos probable. De modo que en este tipo de fobia a lo que debería exponerse el sujeto en cuestión es a la sensación de miedo en cuestión, pudiendo ser aplicados los diferentes miedos que vaya narrando.

Además, resulta de gran utilidad la desensibilización sistemática, en la cual el sujeto debe aprender a emitir una conducta incompatible con la ansiedad o el miedo. If necessary, virtual reality exposure can be used to facilitate the process and extreme control of the exposure conditions.

Cognitive restructuring is another of the most commonly used techniques that can be very useful. Explaining the subject's beliefs about himself, about the world and about his situation and then trying to propose alternative interpretations and gradually integrating them into the patient's psyche can lead to better self-control and eventually to a lower level of nervous activation.

Neurolinguistic programming and the technique of self-instructions can also be helpful, in such a way that by reprogramming how we express ourselves and the self-instructions we give ourselves we can visualize ourselves from a more positive and self-effective perspective.

Learning relaxation techniques is also important. In extreme cases it may even require the use of medication in order to control the level of physiological activation. in order to control the level of physiological activation, although work should be done to explore the origin of such fear and perform therapies such as those mentioned above.