Pselismophobia is the intense and persistent fear of stuttering . It is a fear that often aggravates and prolongs the stuttering itself. It is also a fear related to social phobias.

Next we will see what psellismophobia is, what some of its main characteristics and causes are, as well as the most common treatment of social phobias.

Pselysmophobia: fear of stuttering

The word “psyllism-phobia” or “psyllism-phobia” is composed of the term “psyllism” which means “stuttering” and “phobos” which means “fear”. In this sense, psyllismphobia is the persistent and irrational fear of stuttering (of speech fluency disorder). It is a phobia related to different fears of verbal interactions , such as glossophobia, lalilophobia or lalophobia.

Because of this, psychophobia is often considered a type of social phobia or a characteristic of the latter. Social phobia, on the other hand, is characterized by an intense, persistent, and excessive fear of one or more social situations, as well as of being forced to perform in front of others.

This can happen in front of known or unknown people, but the fear is not the people or the interaction itself, but the humiliation, the discomfort and the possibility of being compared or evaluated.

Main symptoms

In social phobia, the most common feared situations are speaking in public, starting or maintaining conversations with new people, talking to authority figures, being interviewed, and going to parties. Exposure to these generates anxiety and its corresponding physiological correlate: sweating, increased heart rate, hyperventilation , decreased gastrointestinal activity, etc., and sometimes panic attacks.

Other frequent manifestations are dry mouth, nervous contractions and flushing. These responses are often generated in an anticipatory manner, that is, before exposure to social interactions. Likewise, such responses are a consequence of the activity of different systems such as the autonomic nervous system, the cognitive system and the behavioural system.

To counteract the anxiety response, the person generates different avoidance behaviours to social interaction . The latter ends up having a significant and negative impact on their daily activities. In fact, it is this last criterion (the discomfort that markedly interferes in the person’s life) that makes the difference between a social phobia and a social anxiety (also called shyness).

When it comes to adults, the intensity and disproportion of fear is easily recognized, but when it occurs in children this recognition does not occur.

Causes

Social phobias usually develop in adolescence (often around age 15). The latter may be linked precisely to that stage of development, where there is a significant increase in situations involving an external evaluation. This, together with the demands generated by new environments and the need to establish certain roles in a social system beyond the family.

In addition, social phobias are more common among women, which may be related to Western values where shyness is incompatible with the male role, but socially accepted in the female role. On the other hand, it is more common to occur in people of lower socioeconomic status, which may indicate discomfort related to hierarchies and unequal power relations (Bados, 2009).

In the specific case of psychophobia it is important to consider that the fear of stuttering is one of the main causes of persistent stuttering . As such, it can trigger a constant avoidance of talking and interacting with other people, especially in the situations described above.

In this sense, beyond being a particular phobia, psychophobia is, on the one hand, one of the causes of stuttering, and on the other, it is one of the manifestations of social phobia. Thus, in order to understand the specific causes of the fear of stuttering, it is necessary to explore the persistent fear of wider social situations.

Treatment

Among the most commonly used treatments for social phobias are live exposure in the natural environment, exposure by imagination , social skills training, cognitive restructuring, self-instructional training, applied relaxation techniques, virtual reality and simulation (Bados, 2009).

Also, recently, stress reduction techniques typical of the cognitive-behavioral model have been used, such as supportive educational therapy with explanations, demonstrations and discussions about the determinants of phobia. As for the maintenance program , group therapy approaches have also been carried out , once anxiety in the face of social interaction has decreased (ibid.).

Finally, and considering the prevalence, it may be important to explore and work on empowerment from the criticism of gender values and socio-economic inequalities, so that social interactions can flow with greater security and assertiveness.

Bibliographic references:

  • Bados, A. (2009). Social phobia. Faculty of Psychology. Departament de Personalitat, Avaluació i Tractament Psicològics. University of Barcelona. Retrieved 27 September 2018. Available at http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/bitstream/2445/6321/1/Fobia%20social.pdf.
  • Psellismophobia. Common-phobias.com. Recovered September 27, 2018. Available at http://common-phobias.com/Psellismo/phobia.htm.