All about heliophobia

We and everything that surrounds us cannot exist without sunlight. It is important to us just like water and air, the whole ecosystem of our planet depends on the influence of the sun. But there are people who will give a lot, if only there was no sun at all - these are heliophobes.

Heliophobia is called pathological fear of sunlight, rays of the sun. It is noteworthy that no living creature, except man, has such a fear. There are nocturnal animals that have adapted to the dark and spend their whole lives in it, but this has nothing to do with fear.

Heliophobia is a mental disorder, a disease that is classified by the modern psychiatric classification as phobic disorders (code F-40 in ICD-10). This type of pathological fear is not as common as the fear of the dark (nihophobia), however, according to various sources, about 0.7-1% of the world's inhabitants are afraid of sunlight.

If a person is afraid of depth, darkness, height - this is a hypertrophied "work" of this instinct, which is designed to save a person from extinction. The body needs sunlight and fear of it cannot be explained by the manifestation of the instinct of self-preservation and survival.

Do not confuse heliophobes with people who suffer from pigmented xeroderma. This rather rare dermatological disease is associated with the development of severe sunburn, even with short exposure to ultraviolet rays. Such people fear the sun quite reasonably; their fear is rational. Heliophobes do not suffer from anything like this, their skin is no different from the skin of other people in their properties, nothing threatens them, they find themselves in the sun, and therefore their fear is irrational, unjustified.

For example, in patients hypochondria (an obsessive state of searching for diseases in oneself), fear of the sun's rays may develop in connection with the delusional belief that a person has the prerequisites for the formation of melanoma or other malignant diseases. In some forms social phobia people avoid places brightly shined by the sun because they think that it is in such places that everyone looks at them, looks at them.

With carcinophobia (fear of cancer), heliophobia is initially formed as a concomitant symptom., but eventually transforms into an independent, full-fledged mental illness. Fear of sunlight often develops against the background of neglected agoraphobia (fear of open spaces). But the pathological fear of the sun's rays may well be a separate disorder, and then careful avoidance of the sun is the only "oddity" in human behavior.

History has preserved data indicating a similar mental illness in the famous writer Honore de Balzac. He was afraid of daylight, the sun did not allow him to think calmly, work, live and feel happy. The brilliant French writer wrote all his works at night. At dawn, he drank sleeping pills and went to bed, tightly closing the shutters in the house, at sunset he got up, drank strong coffee and sat down for literary work. The phrase belongs to him: "If necessary, the night can last forever."

In 2011, a resident of Houston, Lyle Bensley, was detained in the United States, who in his early years imagined himself a vampire who was no less than 500 years old. He went outside at night, and during the day he closed in a dark closet and slept. He was terribly, hysterically afraid that the rays of the sun would burn him. They detained a young man with delusional disorder and delusions of grandeur only after he bit a woman, deciding that it was time to give his vampire essence complete freedom.

In general, the heliophobe is an ordinary person, his intellect is not disturbed, his mental abilities are normal. The only symptom is the careful avoidance of situations that can cause an attack of fear.

If heliophobia in a person subject to it is the only disorder, then the person understands perfectly well that his fear is not justified, that there is nothing to fear. He may agree with such arguments, but when exposed to the sun, he ceases to control his emotions and may lose control of his own behavior. The severity of symptoms with such fear can be different - from anxiety to panic attacks.

And therefore, the heliophobe is sure that his “quirk” can be condemned by others, perceived by them with a negative. He is afraid that a panic attack may happen in public. As a result, heliophobes choose an avoidance type of behavior - they try to exclude from their life any situations in which they may experience panic. In practice, this means the following: exclude sun exposure.

With a minor phobic disorder, when a person is afraid that the rays of the sun will cause him severe burns or cancer, heliophobe can wear closed clothing, gloves, sunglasses, a hat, trying not to leave exposed skin. In this form, almost all year round he will leave the house to go to work, study or to the store.

If initially the fear is universal, and the patient is afraid of the light of the sun in general, he can switch to a nightlife, as Balzac did - to find work on a night shift, visit only convenience stores and shopping centers, completely close the windows with dark shutters or blackout curtains. Mild degrees of heliophobia are manifested by the need to go outside on a sunny day, necessarily with an umbrella to protect against rays, in the excessive use of sunscreens. Heliophobe you will never meet on the beach.

What happens if a “dangerous” situation still catches a person, it’s not so difficult to understand. The brain picks up a false signal of danger, a large amount of adrenaline is produced. The pupils dilate, tremors, excitement, anxiety appear.

In severe cases, vomiting occurs, loss of balance, consciousness. If a person remains conscious, he obeys the commands of the deep central part of the brain - the limbic system. And this means that he will show maximum speed, endurance, like an avid Olympic athlete, to escape and hide from dangerous circumstances as soon as possible. Then, when the adrenaline level returns to normal, the person himself does not understand why he ran, what threatened him, he feels inferior, tired, some begin to feel a sense of shame and guilt.

Needless to say, such phobes have no desire to relive such attacks repeatedly, and therefore they are ready to show the wonders of invention, if only they no longer find themselves in frightening circumstances. Avoiding behavior in this mental disorder is fraught with serious consequences: the sun's rays contribute to the production of vitamin D in the body, and during life in the dark the symptoms of hypovitaminosis D.

Nocturnal lifestyle does not contribute to the normal production of melatonin, since this substance is synthesized only during sleep at night. Numerous hormonal disturbances in the nocturnal lifestyle exacerbate the mental problem, anxiety and constant “combat readiness”, the expectation of danger lead to the development of delusional states. Gradually, it seems that sunlight actually causes physical pain.

Fear drives a person into a framework that does not allow him to live fully - he cannot go on vacation, and sometimes study or work, social contacts become scarce, rare. About creating a family, raising children, and there is no question.

Psychiatrists are involved in the diagnosis and diagnosis. To do this, they use special tests for anxiety level, as well as conversation and examination of the state of the brain by CT or MRI.

The exact reasons that can lead to the development of this type of phobia are not known to doctors, since the ailment is not as common as, for example, fear of a confined space (claustrophobia) or fear of spiders (arachnophobia). There are suggestions that the disorder develops as a defensive reaction in the formation of incorrect attitudes.

If a child was severely sunburned in childhood, received severe sunburns that hurt for a long time, he might have developed a pathological relationship between the sun and pain, danger. Usually such children are very impressionable, melancholy, anxious, they have a rich and painful imagination.

Cases are described when heliophobia developed against the background of heat stroke with hallucinations, which a person suffered in childhood. After that, the sun can begin to be perceived as something mystical. Sometimes panic fear, for its reasons, goes into another negative experience, for example, the child experienced a severe shock, fear from the attack of the animal, but at that moment his attention was concentrated on the sun (it was on a sunny day outside).

A person with sluggish schizophrenia or before the onset of the disease can manifest rather pronounced heliophobia. And the fear of the sun begins to precede delusional disorder with a mass of unscientific and frankly ridiculous justifications (I'm afraid of sunlight, because it can make me black or burn to the ground).

Optional contact with the sun causes the development of a phobia. Sometimes an impressionable child can form incorrect beliefs when watching a film in which the sun killed or when contemplating the strong destructive effects of drought, sunburn in others.

The more often the baby hears, the more likely it is that he may begin to be afraid of sunlight and heat. If there are relatives in the child’s family who are afraid of the sun, then there is a high probability that the child will simply take it on faith and use it for a similar model of behavior and worldview. It has long been proven that the object of fear of mom or dad causes unconscious excitement in the child.

This type of phobia is required requires a professional approach to treatment. It is almost impossible to cope with such fear on your own, and inept attempts to do so can aggravate a phobic disorder. Therefore, you need to contact a psychiatrist.

Usually, treatment takes place on an outpatient basis, only severe forms require a hospital stay. The most effective method is psychotherapy with the obligatory identification of the underlying children's causes of phobia. Additionally can be assigned antidepressants with confirmed fact of increased anxiety and depression.