Atichyphobia: description and treatment

To a certain extent, each of us needs recognition of merit and success. And thoughts about a possible defeat, an unsuccessful outcome of a business cannot be attributed to pleasant ones. But there are people whom fear of failure makes you abandon business and undertakings in general. Such people are called atihifobami.

Atichiphobia is pathological irrational fear of failure. This mental disorder got its name from the Latin atyches - “unhappy” and the Greek φόβος - “fear”. This disorder is considered in the modern world one of the most common, but, despite this, only a small part of atihifobov comes to psychotherapists and psychiatrists to receive adequate treatment. The rest habitually attribute what is happening to their character.

In all situations where there is even the slightest hint of competition as such, people with atichiphobia see a close connection with danger, they believe that they will fail and survive their fiasco in advance.

A person is not confident in his strengths, knowledge, abilities, capabilities, and therefore prone to depression and the emergence of more severe pathologies of the psyche. Atichyphobia is considered a destructive phobic disorder. It is capable of not only destroying a person’s life in its various aspects, but also causing irreparable harm to his health.Against the background of constant expectation of failure, many begin to use alcohol and drugs in order to at least temporarily relax, stop thinking about the prospects of their own defeats and mourn the missed opportunities that a person did not dare to use while he had a chance.

This phobia by specialists belongs to the category of social. In childhood, we all expect praise from parents for a beautiful drawing, successfully completed crafts, and grades at school. When we grow up, the need for praise does not diminish, and at some points in our lives it may become more acute.

It is she who underlies his fear of not becoming the best, of failing. A healthy person is distinguished from an atihiphob by the ability to philosophically treat defeat. People with such a mental disorder cannot reason the situation sensibly, painfully experiencing even their minor mistakes. The mere thought that failure can be repeated causes panic horror, terrible excitement for the atihifob, it is difficult for him to cope with these emotions.

Excitement before their possible (not yet happened) failure forces a person to carefully avoid any situations related to competition - admission to a university, job interviews, participation in creative contests and sports competitions, and even the prospect of creating close relationships with a loved one, the atihiphob will immediately refuse if an opponent appears on the horizon.

Of all types of phobic disorders of the psyche, it is atichiphobia that has the largest number of forms in which it can be observed, that is why true atihifoba can be so difficult to recognize.

• Self-isolation and self-isolation - with this form, the atihiphob refuses to participate in any events that involve competition (does not go for an interview, refuses to participate in a variety of events and projects, any, even minimal possible obstacles to achieving the goal become insurmountable).

• Self-sabotage - fear of failure takes the form of persistent conviction, confidence that everything will end badly. The patient does not refuse to participate in events, but tries to do everything at a subconscious level so as not to achieve a positive result.

Then he says that "he knew." The instructions that such atihiphobes receive are usually carried out for a very long time, they are diligently delayed, a person reaches the point of absurdity and begins to show signs of incompetence.

• Immobilization - in this form, atihiphobia is accepted by the patient as a character trait. He does not fight, does not seek to overcome his insecurity, he is inactive and answers all questions from the outside: "Yes, I am." These patients tend to lock themselves in, they do not develop, do not grow professionally and personally.

They themselves say that they do not have abilities and were the last in line when God distributed talents, but they didn’t have enough.

• Perfectionism - a person really wants to be the best, but is afraid to fail, and therefore is forced to make a lot of efforts to prevent even theoretically no erroneous or reckless actions. The desire to be the best becomes an obsession. Any business that takes such an atihiphob turns into stress for him, since he throws all his strength into ensuring that everything is done “to the point”. True, with this form of phobic disorder, the patient never takes up a case from an area unfamiliar to him, confining himself to one, main area of ​​activity.

For example, a successful programmer with perfectionism takes on the most difficult professional tasks, but cannot bring himself to overcome fear and take part in the “Fun Starts” at school with his own child.Or for a woman - a teacher of literature, it seems completely unacceptable to go camping out with her students on weekends, because she is simply afraid to be ridiculed.

All types of atichiphobia are characteristic low self-esteem and high self-criticism.

Psychology and psychiatry attach particular importance to the study of the causes of the development of a fear of defeat. Considering how widespread this phobia is, it is necessary to develop the most effective methods of assistance. Experts tend to believe that various causes can cause atihifobia, among which personal negative experience takes the leading place.

The experience of experienced failures can be especially painful and traumatic for a person if he has a tendency to generalize. In this case, according to some single story or situation, a person begins to judge the phenomenon or event as a whole. So, having made a mistake once, having failed, the person concludes that he cannot do anything worthwhile, that his abilities are not great enough, that he lacks knowledge and skills, and, in general, he is a failure. This belief starts a series of negative reactions, the desire to do something or achieve something is almost at the root blocked.

First of all, parents can influence low self-esteem, more precisely, their attitude to failures and failures of the child. If it is customary in the family to demand that the child be the best in school, sports, a music school and a painting studio, so that the child has the best grades in the class, then the child is in constant tension - it is not easy to keep up with everything.

If, in the family, even successes are taken for granted, by virtue of which there is no encouragement, the child has a distorted idea of ​​his own achievements. Perfectionist parents can scold and even punish them badly, and this immediately affects their perception of themselves as incapable of achieving success.

Moreover, it is not necessary at all that the reason for ridicule was actions and deeds, sometimes they ridicule personal qualities and character traits. This often happens in kindergarten groups, at schools, in sections, and even in the first years of higher education. At any moment, against the background of strong dissatisfaction with oneself, the victim of ridicule may develop a fear of failure.

Most exposed to fear impressionable people, suspicious, prone to anxiety.

Atihifoba just enough to find out among other people. He is always anxious, very worried about important events. If you have to do something, agree on something, do some responsible work, in addition to anxiety, the atihifob experiences a whole complex of vegetative symptoms. His heart rate quickens, an unpleasant feeling in his stomach appears, his skin becomes paler, sweating may increase.

In a state of fear, atihifobov often tremble hands, dilate pupils, pulse becomes frequent, breathing - shallow. Many note that pressing pains appear in the region of the heart. Some sharply become nervous, fussy, irritable, while others, on the contrary, fall into a state of stupor.

For example, before an important exam or interview, the patient may lose sleep, he cannot get rid of obsessive thoughts, scrolling through his head the possible scenarios of the upcoming case in a negative light, diarrhea and nausea develop.From an ordinary excitement before an important event that is common to all people, an attack of atihiphobia differs primarily in that all manifestations are present on the verge of a panic attack, and panic attacks themselves are possible.

Moreover, a person understands that there is no reason to worry yet, after all, nothing terrible has happened, everything may be fine, but he can’t cope with horror, the manifestations of atichyphobia are not amenable to volitional influence and control.

With this phobia, it is very important to consult a doctor, since it is almost impossible to overcome this form of social pathological fear on your own. Seeking help is already a big step towards overcoming fear. Therapist or psychiatrist begins treatment with the establishment of a "childhood history" - they ask the patient about his childhood, upbringing, about what and in what situations he was punished, how a person’s relationship was built with classmates, classmates, representatives of the opposite sex. This helps to find the root causes of low self-esteem.

The doctor will establish how his patient himself relates to his failures and mistakes, how things are with the presence of motivation to achieve success.

Among the methods of psychotherapeutic treatment, particular effectiveness is method of modeling situations. The doctor creates a description of situations that ended in complete failure for the patient. The patient’s task is to describe in as much detail as possible all the nuances of sensations and feelings that he experienced during and after the lesion. The treatment is based on sincerity - if it does not exist, then it will be very difficult to overcome the phobia and remove its manifestations.

Group activities are useful because talking with people who are afraid of failing helps a person in a calm environment to look at their own problem from the side.

There is no medication to fight atihiphobia. But the doctor may, at personal discretion, recommend antidepressants if he notices that the patient has depressive moods and sleeping pills for sleep disturbance.

During therapy, patients It is recommended to avoid stress, alcohol, drugs. They are encouraged to learn more about the biographies of successful people. Usually their victories were the result of many failures, which became the basis of such a valuable and important experience for victory.

On how to overcome the fear of failure, see below.