Social phobia – causes of unreasonable fear of communicating with people

Social fears

In its literal meaning, social phobia is the fear of society, but in reality it is a generalized definition for pathological anxiety in front of various social situations in which a person finds himself in front of people.

The fear of society is divided into two groups:

• “outlined” anxieties (attacks occur when similar situations are expected/occurred);
• “generalized” anxiety (temporary or constant fear of various situations).

Thus, individuals suffering from social phobias may have one or more types of pathological anxiety. Patients experience irrational fear:

• blushing in public - erythrophobia;
• be in the company of strangers;
• perform professional activities - ergophobia;
• speaking in public - glossophobia;
• end a relationship with a loved one;
• do not perform an action in the presence of strangers;
• before meeting in a public place;
• before loneliness - autophobia;
• before exams;
• before involuntary vomiting or hiccups in public;
• in front of a large crowd of people - demophobia.

Some social phobes are terrified of everything new : strangers, new acquaintances and communication. Often people are afraid not only of live communication, but also avoid telephone conversations and are afraid of virtual contacts on social networks.

Other patients experience intense fear of exams, performances, reports, even if they are well-educated and highly intelligent people.

The third category of patients is sure that they are always the main object of attention in public. They are confident that others are staring at them, pointing fingers, observing their behavior, criticizing and ridiculing their actions. Such individuals are not confident in their actions; it seems to them that they will definitely do something wrong.

The vast majority of the fourth group are women with extremely low self-esteem , who are afraid of leaving their partner and living their lives alone.

During attacks of social anxiety, a “cocktail” of painful physical symptoms appears:

• difficulty speaking, up to the appearance of stuttering;
• feeling of lack of air;
• increased heart rate;
• dizziness;
• nausea;
• tremor of the limbs;
• a feeling of unreality of what is happening.

Psychiatrists call this group of anxiety-phobic disorders “phobia of the young,” since the majority of patients are people aged 15 to 25 years , and in 50% of recorded cases, the disease debuted in clinic patients in childhood (according to WHO).

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Causes of social phobia

In psychology, it is generally accepted that social phobias most often develop at the age of 10-13 years. People under 25 years of age are still at risk of developing social phobia. And those who are older than this age are practically not susceptible to the formation of this disorder. And such people can develop a phobia only against the background of depression or severe nervous shock. The number of women suffering from this disease is twice the number of men with the same symptoms. Statistics show that people with high intelligence and spiritual development, higher education and married people are most susceptible to social disorders.

This is primarily due to character traits cultivated from childhood. Driven into the head by the idea that everything should be “correct”, “like other people”, force such people, on the one hand, to really become correct, the best and successful in everything, pushing them towards spiritual and physical development. The other side of the coin with such attitudes is the development of phobias.

Prerequisites for the formation of social anxiety may be:

• excessively strict treatment of the child by parents during childhood;
• biased parental assessment of the child’s actions and behavior;
• parents’ demands are too high (to study well, to be the best in everything);
• criticism from parents in adolescence, when the child begins to show his own character, desires and individuality;
• conflicts with others, social disapproval;
• if there were financial problems in the family, and they were emphasized both by parents and by the environment (for example, at school);
• repression of sexuality and gender definition from the outside;
• negative experience of relationships with people of the opposite sex;
• psychosomatic diseases.

Experimental materials

In the process of working to determine the TIM of the psyche, working materials were accumulated on the ShSS website, upon examination of which the presence of fears in one-dimensional functions was noted (forms 4 and 5). The SSS working group decided to investigate this issue in more detail. The study was conducted on respondents whose TIM is known and verified, who know Model A, who have studied their TIM and observe their reactions from a socionic point of view (these are self-observations of specialists in socionics). 27 people took part. Respondents were asked to describe their fears in one-dimensional functions. It was suggested that fear be understood as an anxious feeling of expectation that you may find yourself in a given aspect situation. Not just an unpleasant, but a sad, heavy, oppressive state. Fear is mental pain.

In this study, we examined one-dimensional functions, since fears are most clearly (noticeably) manifested in these functions, although we do not exclude fears in other low-dimensional functions.

Are there any chances of full recovery after treatment?

As a rule, it is not possible to completely get rid of social phobia even with high-quality medical care. But it is possible to smooth out the deviation to acceptable values, when it becomes possible to interact with the surrounding society and even build strong connections. Although not always.

Treatment is psychotherapeutic. The use of medications is possible, but this is not a priority; they are resorted to when necessary. Cognitive behavioral therapy allows you to immerse yourself in frightening situations, reduce or completely eliminate anxiety, change your way of thinking, and increase self-esteem. The development of specific skills after a conditional “rehearsal” under the supervision of a psychotherapist or psychologist is carried out in real conditions. As part of therapy, the doctor gives tasks for independent study.

After achieving a lasting result at this stage, they move on to the next one - working in small groups. Which in itself is a big difficulty for a social phobe. Patients are immersed in difficult and frightening situations, and they are resolved under the supervision of a specialist.

The duration of psychotherapy varies from 2 months to a year or even more.

Psychopharmacological support is often used; antidepressants (Paxil, Prozac, Fluoxetine) and tranquilizer tablets (Diazepam and analogues) are prescribed as auxiliary medications. The first ones are used for a long time, at least 4 months. Short courses will be of no use. The second ones are necessary to relieve anxiety. Systematic use is possible for 3-6 weeks. Such psychotropic drugs should not be abused. Medicines are not a panacea, but support. Attacks of social phobia are relieved by tranquilizers, they help overcome fear. But you need to learn methods of self-regulation, this is the basis.

An effective direction is the treatment of social phobia with hypnosis. However, high professionalism of the doctor is required. In addition, hypnosis does not replace the need to work with a psychotherapist. After transferring to a hypnotic state and instilling attitudes, the patient can change behavior, but this is only an external moment. At a deep level, the problem remains and poisons life with formally normal behavior. This is a “disservice” that blurs the symptoms and does not change the essence of the situation.

Eglit I. M., Pyatnitsky V. V.

Key words: socionics, type of information metabolism of the psyche, mental function, fear, mechanism of fear

A possible theoretical approach to the phenomenon of fear from the point of view of systemic socionics is proposed. Practical materials are provided that may be of interest for analyzing the subject of research. A methodology for using a list of fears to draw up a working hypothesis of the TIM of the psyche in a diagnostic interview is proposed.

A person filled with fear can become a very brave person. He can create armor around himself. He can become a fearless devil just to show that he is not afraid, just to show others that he is not afraid. And if he finds himself in danger, he can deceive himself that he is not afraid. But even the bravest person is afraid. All his courage is around him, outside; deep inside he is trembling.

Osho "Fear"

Fear, without a doubt, is one of the most striking psychological phenomena. The importance of the phenomenon of fear can be judged by the enduring interest from religion, philosophy, psychology, esoteric sciences, art and advertising. On the other hand, the complexity of the subject is such that in modern natural and social sciences, despite many approaches, there is no single interpretation of this phenomenon, and many researchers even disagree on its definition.

Here are some definitions of fear from academic sources that can be considered generally accepted.

Fear is an emotion that arises in situations of threat to the biological or social existence of an individual and is aimed at the source of real or imagined danger. [1]

Fear is a state of severe anxiety, restlessness, mental confusion in the face of any danger, misfortune, etc.; fear. [2]

The authors of this article were interested in the phenomenon of fear for several reasons:

• Fear is an emotionally expressed manifestation of mental activity and, apparently, carries the same strong functional load, the meaning of which would be interesting to interpret from the point of view of socionics.
• The topic of fear is one of the most frequently encountered in socionic diagnostic situations, so a good understanding of the phenomenon of fear can be productive in determining the TIM of the psyche.
• An interesting possibility is the practical use of the socionic approach to the phenomenon of fear, for example, within the framework of consulting work.

The purpose of this article is to propose a possible theoretical approach to the phenomenon of fear from the point of view of systemic socionics, as well as to present practical materials that may be of interest for analyzing the subject of research. In conclusion, the authors propose a technique for using a list of fears to draw up a working hypothesis of the TIM of the psyche in a diagnostic interview.

Literature

1. Brief psychological dictionary.
2. Small academic dictionary of the Russian language.
3. Ermak V.D. How to learn to understand people. Socionics is a new method of knowing a person. - M.: Astrel, 2003.
4. Ermak V. D. Age development and information content of the psyche - the formation of individuality and personality // Socionics, mentology and personality psychology. - 2004. - No. 4.
5. Pozdnyakov V. A. Phobias. All about fear and fears.

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