Psychologists have studied in detail the impressive number of phobias that haunt modern man. Life makes its own adjustments, adding new fears. Among them there are those that, at first glance, seem quite absurd. Fear of fun is precisely one of these.
Fear of fun is one of the rare phobias that prevent a person from living life to the fullest.
Cherophobia (sherophobia) what is it?
Psychologists consider the fear of happiness and fun to be a justified fear. Despite the fact that it does not directly threaten life, the painful symptom often manifests itself in situations that are psychotraumatic for a person, for example, at crowded holidays, and becomes uncontrollable. What cherophobia is and how it appears has not yet been fully studied, since the phobia is considered to be quite young.
In psychology, the term cherophobia is considered to be derived from the Greek words chero (I rejoice) and phobia (fear). The definition emphasizes that cherophobia is an unusual fear of some individuals that occurs during festive events. Fun is a pleasant state for any person; even the simple thought of upcoming fun causes panic in a cherophobe, making life joyless.
What does it represent?
The term itself comes from the word “chairo” - “I rejoice.” That’s why “cherophobia” is read in English, either as cherophobia, or as sherophobia, and sometimes cherophobia.
As you prefer, all the names are correct, the only thing is that the first option is not associated with fun at all. So be careful when sharing it in public.
People with this disorder do not walk around with a constantly sad face, nor do they faint if someone laughs in their presence.
No, they are not at all depressed melancholic people, although there are such people among them. Herophobes simply expect punishment for the joy and pleasure they receive.
It’s as if the Universe is trying to balance the lives of each of us, and gives us different feelings and sensations in equal portions.
Therefore, they can deliberately refuse a happy event, choosing quiet everyday life, just so that they don’t have to pay for it later.
Who is at risk of becoming a cherophobe?
Thanatophobia - what is it, causes of pathological fear
Any person can become a cherophobe and be called sick. Psychologists studied the population of patients and identified risk groups:
- Most often, they are children from families where fathers or mothers themselves experience a similar condition. When raising a child, they unconsciously develop a fearful attitude towards the objects of their own fear. If a family doesn’t like to have fun, then the emotional state of adults can be passed on to the children.
- Psychologists note that sherophobia is a behavior that is similar to the behavior of introverts. Introverted individuals dislike events where large crowds are expected and feel discomfort, especially when surrounded by strangers.
- You can also find cherophobes among extremely emotional and imaginative individuals.
Anyone can become a cherophobe if they are at risk
Help from a psychologist
If you are not yet ready to go to psychological consultation, but feel that your own strength is not enough to overcome fear, listen to the advice of professional psychologists, they will definitely help you:
- Accept the attitude that being alone is a variant of the norm. Some are in a couple, some are alone, both are normal. In order to be a full-fledged person, it is not necessary to communicate with others 24/7.
- Learn to manage your thoughts and change them at will, without getting stuck in negativity. Mindfulness practices will help you with this.
- Be sure to lead a healthy lifestyle. In a healthy body healthy mind. Exercise, healthy eating, sleep patterns, enough clean water. Here is the minimum set in order to feel better in a couple of months.
- Get a pet.
- Don't be afraid to go out. Going to a restaurant, theater, or cinema without company is normal.
- Meet and find friends via the Internet. There are no interests for which you cannot find friends online. And if you live in a small town where no one shares your exotic hobby, then, believe me, on the Internet, you will find many groups of people with whom you will have something to talk about.
Important If, despite all your efforts, your worries do not go away, and the fear of loneliness grows and you begin to notice somatic manifestations - panic attacks, tremors, palpitations, etc. — do not put off visiting a psychotherapist. Remember - phobias, without timely treatment, tend to grow.
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Symptoms of a phobia
A cherophobe can be recognized by traits similar to those of an introvert: isolation, withdrawal, isolation from the outside world, excessive seriousness. Such a person lives comfortably, immersed in his inner experiences. Answering the question of what cherophobia is, experts emphasize the lack of positivity in the lives of those suffering from this disease. The main problem is that they are afraid to be happy, they constantly think that if bad days come after happiness, then is it worth being happy?
Astheno-depressive syndrome - what is it?
People dependent on a phobia can easily be identified at the holidays that they are forced to attend, for example, matinees in kindergarten, school holidays or professional corporate parties. At these moments, they experience severe anxiety, panic attacks, unjustified excitement, and are looking for a place where they can retire. Unpleasant experiences prompt them to refuse such entertainment, pretending to be sick or simply being late for a festive evening.
For your information. Individuals prone to sherophobia not only do not feel love for fun as an action, but also stop communicating with those who are trying to please and amuse them. Such a person will never go to a birthday party or a youth party, because he sincerely does not understand why have fun, because tomorrow he has to work.
Diagnosis of the syndrome
Fear of getting sick - what is it and what is it called?
How sherophobia is diagnosed, what it is and how it manifests itself, according to experts, is not difficult to find out. Signs of such fear are similar to the syndromes of any phobia: panic attacks, systematic avoidance of situations that cause joy, depression, especially on the eve of the holidays.
If it is impossible to avoid a festive event, the cherophobe develops symptoms characteristic of such patients: tremors, sweating and pallor, panic or fainting, tachycardia, diarrhea, hoarseness and similar phenomena.
Sherophobia exhibits all the signs that are characteristic of any phobia.
For your information. This fear does not immediately become clear to others, since sherophobes are not always in a sad or anxious state, characteristic of depression. In this position they find themselves only in front of events that bring a feeling of joy. It seems to such people that if they allow themselves to become happy even for a short time, this will certainly be followed by some sad or tragic event.
General characteristics of the disease
When characterizing the disease, the following reactions of people are most often noted:
- They try to avoid participating in entertainment events.
- They do not want to watch comedy films and performances, considering it an unnecessary waste of time.
- They never talk about the good things that have happened in their lives, or devalue them when mentioned.
- They forbid themselves to think about happiness, even remember joyful moments, fearing that something bad will happen.
- They feel guilty when they experience joy, when they realize that they are happy.
- They unknowingly give up everything that could change their life for the better.
Holiday of Solitude
There is a rather unpleasant situation that women who have a married friend most often find themselves in. It is sometimes called the mistress effect. A man can be attentive and loving, reliable and interesting... but only on weekdays. He has to spend weekends and holidays with his family, and nothing can be done about it. It's especially difficult during the holidays. On New Year's, when instead of having fun, you spend the whole night thinking about the passing years, loneliness, and what will happen next. Or on March 8th, when you receive congratulations over the phone in a whisper from the toilet.
However, in order to fully experience such “charms”, it is absolutely not necessary to be a lover, or even an adult. It's enough to be a child who gets rid of at the first sign of free days. Weekends have to be spent in the company of grandma, who prefers lying down, knitting and, in the best case scenario, playing trick-or-treater. And the holidays are fraught with another grandmother, who will have to be reached by train and two buses. There is a phone number in the village council, you can only get a mobile phone if you climb a tree with a basin, and not everyone has heard about the Internet.
So it turns out that a real holiday is that short period of time when after school you can spend time with your parents or do what you love in your room. And the holidays themselves are similar to serving a sentence. This perception of the rhythm of life will most likely remain forever. Its owner will seek pleasure in passing and against the backdrop of other activities, while large periods of free time will not be perceived as something good.
Cause of the syndrome
The causes of this disorder are being studied, but have not yet been fully established. Modern medicine has adopted a conventional point of view, according to which a nervous state can be caused by:
- Fear experienced in childhood during a holiday, for example, about a forgotten text, and caused by ridicule from others.
- In rare cases, the cause may be a joyful event, but associated with severe stress that followed it, for example, during the fun, a tragic accident happened to someone close to you. In this case, a cause-and-effect relationship develops from joy to misfortune in a person’s mind.
- An evil prank during a holiday and the subsequent feeling of shame, fear, and awkwardness cause further rejection of the fun. It’s bad when such events happen to a child, as they leave an imprint for life.
- The fear of being in a funny situation again, when everyone makes fun of the patient’s awkwardness, encourages one to avoid positive emotions and people having fun.
- The causes of cherophobia are often mental disorders and genetic predisposition.
The cause of cherophobia is severe fear during a festive event.
Why are people afraid of loneliness?
There are objective reasons for the fear of loneliness.
- Biological
Man is not a predator, and in those days when our ancestors lived in caves and fought for survival literally every minute of their lives, if left alone, a person would not survive the next night. There are too many dangers around, and man is too weak on his own.
Therefore, the feeling of a pack, the desire to be in a group, is our natural state.
- Social
For a long time, the economic system was structured in such a way that the efforts of the entire community were needed to obtain even a minimal additional product. Yes, someone could run a farm alone, settling on the edge of the village, but the very first bad harvest, and especially a series of them, put a person on the brink of starvation. We could not do without help, support, and therefore approval from the community.
Often expulsion from the village was tantamount to the death penalty.
Yes, now all this is irrelevant, especially for a resident of a metropolis, but thousands of years of evolution are not erased by a hundred prosperous (relatively) years, and our desire to be in a group and to be accepted by it will not soon cease to be significant and strong.
But normal fear does not necessarily have to become insurmountable; moreover, there are introverts who are initially largely free from such fear.
For the formation of a phobia, only prerequisites are not enough; personal psychological trauma is needed. The following events can lead to autophobia:
- Lack of physical and/or psychological contact with mother in infancy.
- Lack of care in childhood. This is especially true for children who avoid their parents.
- Inappropriate punishment by loneliness. The child was locked in a dark room, put outside the apartment door, and left alone on the street. They threatened to send the policeman, Baba Yaga, to an orphanage.
- Overprotective parenting. Such a person grows up unsure of himself and his strengths; he literally cannot take a step without his mother.
- A child once got lost and was left alone. The younger he was, the more traumatic this event would be for him. For a 2-3 year old child, 5 minutes may be enough; they will seem like hours of loneliness to him.
- The death of one of the parents, a close relative, or separation from them can also become a traumatic event.
Important It is almost impossible to identify an injury, especially if it occurred at a very early age. In order to find the source of pain, you need to contact a psychologist and work with the injury individually.
Take a stress test
How to deal with your fear of fun
It is possible to overcome a phobia if you seek help from a psychotherapist. The specialist will conduct a preliminary diagnosis and find the necessary treatment method individually for each patient.
You can also recover from cherophobia on your own if you make a categorical decision to get rid of fear and pull yourself together. The patient needs to realize that a joyful atmosphere must be present in his life. Not every cherophobe decides to take such a step. It will be more useful to seek help from a specialist who will give you the opportunity to work through anxiety and fear and find the cause of your nervous state.
Important! Sherophobia does not pose a threat to the life and health of people, however, like many mental disorders, it requires mandatory monitoring by a specialist.
Psychoanalysis, hypnosis and cognitive behavioral therapy
Before you begin psychocorrection, you need to think about why fear occurs when you see people having fun. Identifying external causes will eliminate internal depression and relieve tension.
In psychotherapy, specialists influence the underlying cause of a phobia using psychoanalysis, hypnosis, and cognitive behavioral therapy. This provides an opportunity to develop the ability to maintain composure in a critical situation and realize that having fun does not cause harm.
Cognitive behavioral therapy helps the patient understand the relationship between the emergence of pathological fear and the onset of cherophobia. Having realized this, the cherophobe works through specific panic attacks using various means. The techniques prescribed in the future are aimed at changing a person’s lifestyle and thinking.
Important! Psychotherapeutic intervention is valuable because the psychotherapist teaches the patient relaxation methods that will help in the future to suppress the next attack.
The main course of psychocorrection is carried out with the help of psychotherapy and trainings. First, a conversation is held with the cherophobe, then an individual plan and treatment method are developed. In the future, up to ten psychotherapeutic sessions are sufficient.
If the case is advanced, it is necessary to use medical hypnosis.
Modern methods of psychotherapy are used to treat cherophobia
Important! Hypnotherapy is used only by licensed physicians, psychologists who can use hypnosis to treat depression, anxiety, phobias and various disorders. In the laws of the Russian Federation there is no separate specialty “hypnotherapist”.
Cognitive behavioral therapy, psychoanalysis, and hypnotic actions have a positive effect on the underlying causes of fear. Thus, the patient gradually develops the ability to control himself in a stressful situation. With constant psychotherapy, herophobes gradually free themselves from phobic addiction.
In modern psychotherapy, drug treatment is not used to treat sherophobia. Only if necessary can sedatives be prescribed to normalize the functioning of the nervous system. Therapy may not be used if the phobia does not affect the quality of life and activity; psychological sessions can also help.
Treatment
Cherophobia is often mistaken for depression and attempts are made to cure it. Naturally, to no avail. Therefore, you should be extremely attentive to your own well-being.
And at the first sign of a phobia, go to a qualified specialist.
Since such disorders usually do not go away on their own, but only become more complicated, gradually developing into more serious forms.
A psychotherapist will help you get rid of attitudes that prevent you from realizing your needs. You will also explore why these negative associations between punishment and happiness arose.
Try to figure out what prompted you to deliberately limit yourself and deprive yourself of pleasures. Work with fears, release accumulated emotions and begin to try to gain your own experience, new, devoid of introjects and fantasies.
The psychiatrist will prescribe the necessary medications to speed up the recovery process. For example, these can be sedatives, tranquilizers, sleeping pills and antidepressants.
Treatment is selected depending on the somatic symptoms that cause inconvenience.
Someone cannot sleep because of nightmares in which he has fun, and then learns about the death of his loved ones as a sign of punishment.
And some are unable to relax even for a minute, being on alert to learn unpleasant news. In general, an integrated approach to treatment will achieve more effective results.
