Phobias are anxiety disorders , which means that they cause great discomfort to people who suffer from them, who feel anxious symptoms when faced with the phobic stimulus or imagine it. Although some phobias are not disabling, except in specific cases, due to the infrequency with which the phobic meets the stimulus, in other cases the opposite occurs and it is complicated to lead a normal life for the sufferer.

In this sense, one of the most complex phobias is haphophobia, which is the irrational fear of being touched .Fortunately, phobias can be treated and the patient can overcome this disorder, and this is no exception. In this article we explain what this disorder consists of and what its treatment is.

What is happhobia?

Happhobia is a specific phobic disorder (unlike agoraphobia or social phobia) that causes great suffering in the person who suffers it.

It is an irrational fear of great intensity that manifests itself when the individual suffering from the phobia comes into physical contact with other people and is touched . It produces a series of responses both cognitive, physiological or behavioural, among which extreme anxiety and the attempt to avoid the feared stimulus in order to reduce the feeling of displeasure.

Haphobics suffer serious social problems , since they fear interaction with other individuals in case they can come into contact with them. Therefore, a simple greeting or hugging of their own parents or spouse becomes a situation that produces intense feelings of fear. These individuals may avoid situations where they can come into contact with others, even acquaintances.

Causes

Phobias usually have their origin in the most ancestral part of the brain, and according to some experts, we are biologically programmed to suffer fears of certain stimuli . This has worked so well for us for centuries to preserve the existence of human beings, sometimes causing this type of disorder today. That is why phobias do not respond to logical arguments, and the alert reaction takes hold of the subject, who feels as if he were in front of a real danger.

Phobias, therefore, develop thanks to one of the most basic forms of human learning, a type of associative learning called classical conditioning that was initially discovered by Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist who conducted a series of experiments on dogs.

Its initial objective was to measure the salivation of the dogs and so it gave food to these animals, as saliva is a reflex action that is produced to aid digestion. Over time, Pavlov realized that although at first the dogs salivated when presented with the food, after several trials, the mere presence of the researcher triggered salivation, since the animals had learned that when he appeared, they would receive the food. Classic conditioning provokes an association between a stimulus that provokes a reflex response and another that does not, but that in the end the latter ends up producing the same response as the other stimulus to which it is associated.

Later, it was John B. Watson, an American scientist, who proved that classical conditioning also occurred in humans. In fact, he was able to make a child learn a phobia of a white rat that previously did not cause the little one any discomfort.

You can learn more about this studio in the following video:

Other origins of phobias

Phobias, therefore, are learned by classical conditioning because the person suffers a significant traumatic event . But phobic disorders, and especially in the case of happhobia, vicarious conditioning can also be a cause of this pathology.

Vicarious conditioning is nothing more or less than learning by observation , for example, that the person has seen a movie in which the main actor gets a disease by coming into contact with the skin of others. The phobic may suffer from irrational fear and unrealistic beliefs as a result of the emotional impact caused by some event he or she observes, in this case, the film.

Symptoms of fear of contact with others

Phobias, as I mentioned earlier, produce cognitive, physical and physiological and behavioral symptoms.

They’re next:

  • Cognitive : anxiety and distress, lack of concentration, nervousness, thoughts of contagion, thoughts of impending death, terror and fear, thoughts of running out of air.
  • Physical and physiological : headaches, tremors, stomach discomfort, accelerated heartbeat, hyperventilation, etc.
  • Behavioral : avoidance of the feared stimulus.

Treatment and therapy

Phobias are one of the main reasons why people need psychological assistance, and despite the fact that they cause great discomfort, they respond really well to psychological treatment . In extreme cases, pharmacological treatment is indicated, but always together with psychotherapy.

One of the most widely used therapeutic models is cognitive behavioural therapy, which aims to modify internal events (thoughts, beliefs and emotions) and the behaviour of people to improve their well-being. Relaxation techniques, cognitive restructuring or exposure techniques are some of the most used for this type of pathology.

Among the latter, , systematic desensitization stands out, with which the patient performs a series of exercises that expose him/her to phobic stimuli in a gradual way while learning more adaptive strategies to face fear and anxiety.

In recent years, new therapeutic methods are showing their effectiveness in different scientific studies. Among these, Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) stand out. New technologies are also applied in therapy sessions, as virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality are useful tools that are increasingly used to expose the patient to phobic stimuli.

In fact, it is now possible to find “apps” for the treatment of phobias and for the treatment of anxiety disorders. In the following links you can find more information:

  • 8 apps to treat phobias and fears from your smartphone
  • 15 apps to treat anxiety