Fear of the crowd or entochophobia symptoms, causes and treatment

One of the most frequent psychological disorders in the general population, are phobic disorders. Many phobias are similar to each other and what differentiates them is the fobic precipitating stimulus. In the case of Enochophobia, the trigger for anxiety is the spaces in which a multitude of people can bring together. Faced with these situations, people who suffer from fear of crowds, suffer a very intense, irrational fear and high discomfort and anxiety, which leads them to avoid the circumstances that lead them to these situations. Therefore, people with this disorder will try to avoid very busy places such as demonstrations, concerts or large shopping centers.

However, phobias are a very common disorder and the therapeutic plan that is established in front of them has repeatedly demonstrated empirically their effectiveness. To learn more aspects of Enochophobia, in this Psychology-online article we will explain the Fear of crowd or enoclophobia: symptoms, causes and treatment.

1. What are phobias?
2. What is grooves?
3. Comparison between Enochophobia, Social Phobia and Agoraphobia
4. Symptoms of Enochophobia or fear of crowds
5. Causes of Enochophobia or fear of crowds
6. Treatment of Enochophobia or fear of crowds

What are phobias?

Phobias or phobic disorders are guided by two characteristic features:

1. Fear or anxiety They are experienced exclusively in very specific circumstances (in the presence of certain objects, activities, situations, ...), far from which the person is safe, well. However, feel a constant fear to be able to meet these circumstances again.
2. The person establishes a great systematic and conscious effort to Avoid circumstances that has associated as cause of anxiety.

What is grooves?

Purophobia is the fear of the crowd. The fear of the crowd is part of the so -called simple or specific phobias. The main characteristic of this disorder is a irrational and persistent fear to be present in spaces where many people are And, in front of this, the person seeks to avoid these spaces. In these situations the person can react with very high levels of anxiety and reproducing a certain symptomatology, being aware of the irrationality of fear in proportion to the danger that said element can behave. We can meet in front of many simple or specific phobias, but they all share the same structure and origin. Here you can see interesting information about the 15 most common phobias.

Comparison between Enochophobia, Social Phobia and Agoraphobia

When we talk about enoclophobia or fear of crowds it is necessary to blame some definitions to be able to make a correct diagnosis differentiate. Below we see the differences between thirty, social phobia and agoraphobia.

Difference between social phobia and empoophobia

We must not confuse the so -called social phobia with the fear of the crowd. First, social phobia is in itself a psychopathological anxiety disorder, against, fear of the crowd is part of the so -called specific phobias. The main component that distinguishes the two phobias is that In the social phobia the person fears being evaluated, humiliated or ashamed by the people around him, which is not part of his family scope. The fear of evaluation can be present in situations where there are much or few people. Against, in the phobia to the crowds the main characteristic is the fear of the great agglomerations itself, in the social phobia it is not necessary that there are many people to be of fear or intensify anxiety. Some examples that we can describe from social phobia could be: fear of speaking or acting in public, to use public toilets, to eat or write in front of people.

Difference between agoraphobia and enoclophobia

It is also necessary to distinguish the empoophobia of agoraphobia. The main difference between grooves and Agoraphobia is that in the last one fears the same symptoms of anxiety, to the places where it is difficult to escape or receive help if you feel anxiety and anxiety attacks themselves. They agree that it is possible that a situation of difficult escape can be a place where there is an agglomeration of people, but the perspectives are different. If you feel identified with these symptoms, you can perform the agoraphobia test.

Symptoms of Enochophobia or fear of crowds

The symptomatology presented in front of a specific phobia is independent of the phobic stimulus, that is, a person who has a specific phobia, such as claustrophobia, will respond with the same symptomatology as a person with fear of the crowd. So that, although the phobic stimulus may be different in the different forms of presentation of the simple phobia, the reaction to said stimulus will be the same or similar.

According to the DSM-V, the symptoms associated with the empoophobia are the following:

• Presence of a intense fear or anxiety For a specific trigger stimulus.
• The phobic object or situation almost always causes a immediate fear or anxiety reaction.
• The person seeks with all their efforts Avoid or resist actively the object or situation.
• The fear or anxiety presented generates a disproportionate response to the real danger that the trigger represents.
• The presence of fear and anxiety are persistent, normally lasting six or more months.
• Generates clinically significant discomfort, as well as a social, labor and other areas of the person's life.

Faced with the presence of a simple phobia, the typology must be specified according to the phobic stimulus: animal, natural environment, fear of blood-injections, situational, ... in this case, we would be faced with a Situational phobia to the busy spaces of people.

Faced with a situation with a great agglomeration, the person who is afraid of the crowd could react with a panic attack. The Symptoms presented in the panic attack, According to the DSM-V, they are the following:

• Palpitations, heart pounding or heart rate acceleration.
• Sweating.
• Tremor or shaking.
• Feeling of difficulty breathing or suffocation.
• Drowning sensation.
• Pain or discomfort in the thorax.
• Nausea or abdominal discomfort.
• Feeling of dizziness, instability, stunning or fainting.
• Chills or heat sensation.
• Paresthesia: Numbness or tingling sensation.
• DESREATION: Sensation of unreality.
• Depersonalization: feeling of separating from oneself.
• Fear of losing control or "going crazy".
• Affraid to die.

Causes of Enochophobia or fear of crowds

The causes of the specific phobia, explained from the behavioral perspective, are associated with the experience of trauma, where the person seeks to avoid the circumstance, apparently insignificant, because his thought has associated that element (place, situation, object ...) to a lived experience that caused pain or fear.

Cognitive orientation adds that from this traumatic experience that has been associated with a specific element, the person establishes a set of irrational mental contents, that revolve around the phobic object, attributing irrational meanings.

Faced with this, the therapy that has been more effective in the face of phobic disorders has been cognitive-behavioral therapy, which works on these causal hypotheses.

Treatment of Enochophobia or fear of crowds

Faced with the causality associated with phobic disorder, the treatment that has been more effective in improving phobic symptomatology is cognitive-behavioral therapy.

The main intervention in cognitive-behavioral orientation is the exposure technique, being the most used and validated in its effectiveness. The intervention consists in positioning the person to a gradual exposure of the feared situation, with the objective that the patient can progressively expose the object or phobic situation that causes the high levels of anxiety and fear. As it is a gradual exposure, they must be established in hierarchies from lower to greater impact, so that the person will first be exposed to the associated situations or objects that cause a smaller fear and will increase exposure to more feared situations. The exhibition graduation can be reproduced “in vivo” or in imagination. However, it is considered that the "in vivo" technique is more effective. After determining how the exposure will be carried out, the list of hierarchies towards the feared object or situation is established with the therapist. Gradually, The person will expose each feared stimulus of this hierarchy, Not being able to advance to the next step until the anxiety caused by the previous hierarchy is not normalized.

It is highly recommended to use Relaxation techniques Between each hierarchy jump, such as Jacobson's progressive muscle relaxation, since the anxiety levels of the person exposed will increase considerably. Relaxation will help return to your normal state.

In addition, cognitive exercises tend to be carried out, in order to modify the irrational thoughts associated with fear caused by the phobic stimulus. To do this, the Cognitive restructuring technique, which aims to transform automatic and irrational thoughts by more agreed thoughts with reality.

On many occasions, the prescription of drugs, In order to reduce the anxious symptomatology presented, to be able to work with the cognitive components (irrational thoughts) and behavioral (avoidance behaviors). The drugs used for treatment can be from the family of antidepressants and anxiolytics.

This article is merely informative, in psychology-online we have no power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Fear of crowd or enoclophobia: symptoms, causes and treatment, We recommend that you enter our clinical psychology category.