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

Enoclophobia or demophobia (that is, phobia of crowds) also leads many individuals to seek psychological help , since phobic disorders are not rational fears, but are pathologies that seriously affect the life of the person who suffers them. Phobics know that this irrational fear does not disappear even when they know that nothing has to 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 ideas that might cause 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 discuss enoclophobia and look at its symptoms, causes, and treatment.

What is enoclophobia

Albert Einstein once said, “I hate crowds and having to make speeches in front of a large audience. This well-known character was a genius. So if you identify with his words, you can be reassured: everyone can suffer from irrational fears, and brilliant people too.

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 closed 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 called enoclophobia.

Enoclophobia can happen to anyone, but research shows that the proportion is higher in women than in men, and it usually develops when it starts in early adulthood. In most cases, enoclophobes hide their feelings of fear and try to act normally , but inside they feel a great discomfort when faced with the sensation of fear, and avoid any possibility of finding themselves in this feared situation, because when they are in a crowd, they may feel that 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 an irrational learned fear, which usually occurs as a result of some traumatic experience in the past. This learning happens through classical conditioning, which is a type of associative learning that was first studied by Ivan Pavlov and later by the behavioralist John B. Watson. The latter is responsible for one of the most controversial studies in the history of Psychology, in which he managed to make a small boy, named Albert, learn to be afraid of a white rat that he initially adored.

Watson thought that human beings could learn strong emotions through conditioning and then generalize them to similar situations, and he used children to do so. Little Albert was only 8 months old at the time of the study, and for the first few sessions he played quietly with the white rat, but as the sessions progressed, Watson began to match the animal’s presence with the loud sound of a metal hammer strike. After a few sessions, Albert stopped playing with the rat, and every time it appeared he moved away as a consequence of the fact that he had associated the presence of the rat with the sound that scared 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 since the ethical guidelines governing research would not allow it. Below you can view a video explaining Watson’s study.

Classic and Vicar 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 fear of being in a crowd.

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

Symptoms and warning signs

Phobias have 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, dizziness, concentration difficulties…

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

In summary, the symptoms of enoclophobia are:

  • Thoughts of impending death
  • Extreme anxiety and fear in the presence or imagination of phobic stimuli
  • Thoughts that the person will run out of air
  • Lack of concentration
  • Hyperventilation
  • Hypersudoration
  • Rapid heartbeat
  • Tremors
  • Chest pain or tightness
  • Dizziness, nausea, dizziness and headaches
  • Avoidance behaviour

Treatment

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

Currently, other forms of psychotherapy are also used , such 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 the 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. Likewise, there are different applications for mobiles 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”

.