One of the most common psychological disorders in the general population is phobic disorders. Many phobias are similar to each other and what differentiates them is the phobic precipitating stimulus. In the case of enochlophobia, the anxiety trigger is spaces where a crowd of people can gather. 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 busy places such as demonstrations, concerts or large shopping centers.
However, phobias are a very common disorder and the therapeutic plan established against them has repeatedly demonstrated its effectiveness empirically. To learn more aspects of enochlophobia, in this Psychology-Online article we will explain the Fear of crowds or enochlophobia: symptoms, causes and treatment.
What are phobias?
Phobias or phobic disorders are guided by two characteristic features:
- 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, he feels a constant fear to be able to find themselves in those circumstances again.
- The person establishes a great systematic and conscious effort to avoid circumstances that has been associated as causing anxiety.
What is enochlophobia?
Enchlophobia is the fear of crowds. Fear of crowds is part of the so-called simple or specific phobias. The main characteristic of this disorder is a irrational and persistent fear of being present in spaces where many people are and, faced with this, the person seeks to avoid these spaces. In these situations, the person can react with very high levels of anxiety and reproduce a certain symptomatology, being aware of the irrationality of the fear in proportion to the danger that said element can entail. We can face many simple or specific phobias, but they all share the same structure and origin. Here you can see interesting information about .
Comparison between enochlophobia, social phobia and agoraphobia
When we talk about enochlophobia or fear of crowds, it is necessary to clarify some definitions in order to make a correct and differentiated diagnosis. Below we see the differences between enochlophobia, social phobia and agoraphobia.
Difference between social phobia and enochlophobia
We should not confuse the so-called social phobia with the fear of crowds. Firstly, social phobia is in itself a psychopathological anxiety disorder; on the other hand, fear of crowds is part of the so-called specific phobias. The main component that distinguishes the two phobias is that In social phobia the person fears being evaluated, humiliated or embarrassed by the people around her, who are not part of her family environment. The fear of evaluation can be present in situations where there are many or few people. On the other hand, in crowd phobia the main characteristic is the fear of large crowds themselves; in social phobia it is not necessary for there to be many people for fear to occur or anxiety to intensify. Some examples that we can describe of social phobia could be: fear of speaking or acting in public, of using public toilets, of eating or writing in front of people.
Difference between agoraphobia and enochlophobia
It is also necessary to distinguish enochlophobia from agoraphobia. The main difference between enochlophobia and agoraphobia is that in the last one fears the same symptoms of anxiety, places where it is difficult to escape or get help if you are experiencing anxiety and anxiety attacks themselves. They agree that it is possible that a difficult escape situation could be a place where there is an agglomeration of people, but the perspectives are different. If you feel identified with these symptoms, you can take the .
Symptoms of enochlophobia or fear of crowds
The symptoms presented in the face of a specific phobia are independent of the phobic stimulus, that is, a person who has a specific phobia, such as claustrophobia, will respond with the same symptoms as a person with a fear of crowds. So, although the phobic stimulus may be different in the different forms of presentation of simple phobia, the reaction to said stimulus will be the same or similar.
According to the DSM-V, the symptoms associated with enochlophobia are the following:
- Presence of a intense fear or anxiety by a specific triggering stimulus.
- The phobic object or situation almost always provokes a immediate fear or anxiety reaction.
- The person searches with all his efforts avoid or resist actively the object or situation.
- The fear or anxiety presented generates a response disproportionate to the real danger posed by the trigger.
- The presence of fear and anxiety is persistent, normally lasting six or more months.
- It generates clinically significant discomfort, as well as social, occupational and other areas of the person’s life deterioration.
In the presence of a simple phobia, the typology must be specified based on the phobic stimulus: animal, natural environment, fear of blood-injections, situational,… In this case, we would find ourselves facing a situational phobia to crowded spaces.
In a situation with a large crowd, the person who is afraid of the crowd could react with a . The symptoms presented in panic attackaccording to the DSM-V, are the following:
- Palpitations, pounding heart, or rapid heart rate.
- Sweating.
- Trembling or shaking.
- Feeling of difficulty breathing or suffocation.
- Feeling of suffocation.
- Pain or discomfort in the chest.
- Nausea or abdominal discomfort.
- Feeling dizzy, unsteady, lightheaded, or fainting.
- Chills or feeling of heat.
- Paresthesias: sensation of numbness or tingling.
- Derealization: feeling of unreality.
- Depersonalization: feeling of separating from oneself.
- Fear of losing control or “going crazy.”
- Affraid to die.
Causes of enochlophobia or fear of crowds
The causes of specific phobia, explained from a behavioral perspective, are associated with experience of traumawhere the person seeks to avoid the apparently insignificant circumstance, because his or her thoughts have associated said element (place, situation, object…) with 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 contentswhich revolve around the phobic object, attributing irrational meanings to them.
Faced with this, the therapy that has been most effective for phobic disorders has been cognitive-behavioral therapy, which works on these causal hypotheses.
Treatment of enochlophobia or fear of crowds
Faced with the causality associated with the phobic disorder, the treatment that has been most effective in improving phobic symptoms is .
The main intervention in cognitive-behavioral orientation is exposure technique, being the most used and validated in its effectiveness. The intervention consists of positioning the person for gradual exposure to the feared situation, with the aim that the patient can progressively expose himself to the phobic object or situation that causes high levels of anxiety and fear. As it is a gradual exposure, they must be established in hierarchies from least to greatest impact, so that the person will first be exposed to the situations or associated objects that cause a smaller fear and will gradually increase exposure to more feared situations. The graduation of the exhibition 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 be exposed to each feared stimulus in this hierarchynot being able to advance to the next step until the anxiety caused by the previous hierarchy is normalized.
It is highly recommended to use relaxation techniques between each jump in hierarchy, such as, for example, since the anxiety levels of the person who is exposed will increase considerably. Relaxation will help you return to your normal state.
In addition, cognitive exercises tend to be performed in order to modify the irrational thoughts associated with the fear caused by the phobic stimulus. For this, the cognitive restructuring techniquewhich has the objective of transforming automatic and irrational thoughts into thoughts that are more consistent with reality.
In many cases, it is necessary to drug prescription, in order to reduce the anxious symptoms presented, to be able to work with the cognitive components (irrational thoughts) and behavioral (avoidance behaviors). The drugs used for its treatment can be from the family of antidepressants and anxiolytics.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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Bibliography
- Beck, A., Emery, G & Greenberg, R. (2014). Anxiety disorders and phobias: a cognitive perspective. Bilbao: Desclée de Brouwer.
- American Psychiatric Association. (2014). DSM-5. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Barcelona: Masson.
- Sassaroli, S & Lorenzini, R. (2000). Fears and phobias: causes, characteristics and therapies. Barcelona: Paidós.