Sociophobia: features, types and methods of struggle

The concept of “sociophobe” has firmly entered our daily life in recent years. And many of us often use it in speech, not quite accurately imagining what it is and how this concept differs from introverts and sociopaths.

Sociophobia is called a fear of society, a fear of society. The name comes from the Latin word "socius" (common) and the ancient Greek "φ? βος ”, which means“ fear ”,“ fear ”. Sociophobia is a form of anxiety disorder of the personality, manifested in an inexplicable and without reason fear of doing something in society - to speak to the public, to perform some action under the gaze of others. Sometimes fear arises even to outsiders who do not care about a person, for example, to passers-by on the street. A sociophobe can be afraid of both real observation from the outside, and circumstances conceived by him (it seems to a person that everyone on the street or in a shopping center is watching him).

Most sociophobes are well aware of their problem, they are aware that fears have no reason, but can not cope with them. Some are afraid of only certain situations (for example, the need to speak to an audience), while others are afraid of a wide range of situations related to society.

I'd like to say that sociophobes are not born, but this, alas, is not so.Up to half of all people with such a problem have genetic prerequisites, and they have signs of social phobia in childhood, usually up to 11 years old.

In most cases, fear of society is not the only problem, because appearing relatively early, sociophobia entails other personality disorders, as well as mental disorders. Sociophobia often becomes drug addicts and latent alcoholics, dependent on computer games, fall into clinical depression. In the world medical literature, the phenomenon has another name - “the disease of missed opportunities”, later you will understand why.

It is difficult for social-phobes to realize themselves in the profession, creativity, build strong and trusting relationships with people. They are constantly experiencing great anxiety when it becomes necessary to leave their “shell” and come into contact with the outside world, or rather, one of its constituents — by other people like themselves.

Social phobia refers to persistent disorders, it is repeated many times. And among the great many phobias known to mankind, this is one of the most common. In different situations, individual manifestations of public fear are found in about 5-16% of people, but only 1-3% of the fear of their own kind flows into the clinical form. There are no gender differences - both men and women are equally affected by this fear. In severe form, this form of social fear leads to disability.

Sociophobia can only be called a mental illness with a big stretch, more often experts attribute it to mental disorders of an anxious type. But this does not in the least reduce the need for treatment. Quite often, the surrounding sociophobe problem is not taken seriously, and a person’s refusal to go shopping or talk with a neighbor who flooded the apartment the day before is perceived as an excuse, a manifestation of laziness. Experts in the field of psychology and psychiatrists are unanimous in this matter: social phobia is not pretense, not a whim, but a real problem, personality disorder.

Like neurosis, sociophobia needs diagnosis and treatment, however, no one can guarantee complete deliverance. Like all other mental disorders of an anxious type, social phobia tends to return when a person suddenly finds himself in a traumatic emotional or psychological situation. But the correction allows you to live better and even achieve considerable success in a certain narrow specialization.

It is hard to imagine, but the famous Hollywood comedian Jim Carrey suffered from social phobia in his teens and received treatment from a psychotherapist. A similar problem in the puberty was dealt with by both actress Kim Bessinger and Robert Patinsson. The great scientist Leo Landau could not get rid of sociophobia, which did not prevent him from achieving the highest results in physics and becoming a Nobel Prize laureate. Suffered from sociophobia, according to historians, writers Nikolai Gogol and Hans Christian Andersen.

The most famous sociophobe of recent years is the mathematician Grigory Perelman. He is satisfied with his St. Petersburg "Khrushchev", in which he feels safe, and therefore categorically refuses offers to take part in international conferences. He was awarded a million dollars prize for achievements in the field of exact sciences, but the man never came to Paris for her.No one has ever managed to interview the great mathematician - he runs away as soon as he envies a journalist or someone who is clearly heading for him.

In other words, sociophobes cannot be considered stupid, reason and consciousness do not suffer from them. With the phrase "mental illness, disorder", many imagine an insane person who hardly understands who he is, what he is, and why. This is not about sociophobia. They clearly see their mission, they are often very talented, have extraordinary abilities, but they can only be revealed when they are not paid attentionwhen their life is hidden from prying eyes.

Do not confuse sociophobes and introverts. Introverts are a good quarter of the world's population. These are healthy people who are completely self-sufficient, they do not feel bored alone with themselves, they are immersed in themselves and their work and do not need extensive social contacts, they just need a favorite book, remote work, a warm cat at their side in their favorite armchair. But if circumstances require, the introvert easily, albeit reluctantly, leaves his comfort zone, safely contacts people, communicates, and establishes social ties. Another question is that he is waiting in the shower for everyone to finally leave him alone, so that he can again go into his “sink”.

If you look at social phobia from a medical point of view, as psychiatrists, psychotherapists and specialists in the field of psychosomatics do, then the mechanisms of such irrational fear will become clear. At the end of the last century, neurophysiologists from Italy discovered "mirror cells" - special groups of neurons that are responsible, as it is easy to understand from the name, for imitation. This is what underlies the human ability to empathize with others, to empathize, that is, it is the basis of empathy. Without empathy, a person is not capable of fully interacting with his own kind, to build trusting relationships with other members of society.

Any anomalies, paradoxes and disturbances in the functioning of mirror cells cause disturbances in empathy. A person is isolated - he cannot exchange with other emotions, and then he realizes that he cannot exchange information. Even a simple conversation that “today is great weather” is not only an exchange of words, but also an exchange of emotions. One interlocutor sends the other positive emotions of admiration (even if not of the most sincere) on a sunny morning, and the other either supports them, accepting and empathizing, or has a different point of view, in which case he also accepts the interlocutor's emotion, but he has a different response. The sociophobe is not like that. Mirror neurons do not provide imitation, do not cause "reception and transmission" of emotional messages.

If someone decides to laugh, make fun of a healthy person, with a high degree of probability, those parts of the brain that are responsible for aggression, anger, ancient zones that are responsible for protecting their territory from outside threats are activated in response. In a sociophobe, the brain works differently: in response to ridicule or a taunt from another, the brain zones that are responsible for fear and anxiety immediately act, and the center of pain is often activated, which causes real physical pain.

Thanks to popular series such as “House Doctor”, “Sherlock” and others, people began to widely use another concept - “sociopath”. Moreover, in the overwhelming majority we do not imagine the difference between sociophobes and sociopaths, believing that these are simply different sides of the same coin.

Sociopathy is a completely different diagnosis. If fears are the basis of sociophobia, then sociopathy is more likely their absence. The sociopath does not give a damn about society, he will undoubtedly go over his head to achieve his goal, he does not care about social norms and rules, he is capable of impulsive actions "to spite others." They are aggressive towards their own kind, but charming like no one else. And therefore, they successfully manage to find admirers, fans, and invariably cripple the lives of everyone to whom they are approaching.

A sociopath does not care about your problems - he does not know how to empathize in principle (mirror neurons suffer here, but in a slightly different way). He can portray that he is interested in your problems, but only if he needs you to achieve his goals. If not needed, he will not make efforts on himself and depict a living human participation.

Guilty Sociopaths Unknown. Even if they have done a lot of unsightly and even frankly mean, they will always find a million excuses for their actions, blaming all the responsibility on others (“Yes, I beat the seller in the store, but he was to blame because he looked at me brazenly, made a remark , breathed wrong. ”)

To make the difference more clear, it is worth talking about the most famous sociopaths in the world. These include Adolf Hitler, one of the most famous maniacs of the world-wide - Andrei Chikatilo, the most famous killer children John Venables and Robert Thompson, who were sentenced to life in prison at the age of nine.

Cruelty is characteristic of sociopaths to one degree or another almost always, as well as pathological lies even in small things, as well as sharp mood changes. But do not think that you can easily recognize a sociopath in a crowd. Calculating a sociophobe is much easier - according to his fear and strange behavior. It is more difficult with a sociopath - these are, as a rule, very intelligent, well-educated, intelligent and very charming personalities, egoists, but very convincing - when they say they unwittingly believe them.

The main difference is that a sociopath cannot live without society. But he needs to be pushed around by someone, scoffed at someone, it is vital for him to dominate his own kind, to feel the only ones who have been given almost divine powers - to control the lives and destinies of others. A sociophobe without society feels much better.

By the severity of manifestations, several types of sociophobia are distinguished. In severe forms, the disturbances are manifested by uncontrolled panic attacks, and with a moderate course of the disorder, a person has internal reserves in order to assess his feelings more or less sensibly and even cope with some manifestations of fear, although this is very, very difficult.

The anxiety state is characteristic of sociophobes almost constantly. But some nuances of perception of reality allow us to distinguish two groups of sociophobia:

• outlined form - fear appears only in certain situations of the same type, for example, if necessary, talking to a cashier in a supermarket or when speaking to the public, having an interview for a job, passing an oral exam;
• a generalized form - panic and fear appear in a huge number of very different situations created by society.

There are phobias that appear temporarily, but may worsen in the future, and there are long-term and persistent types of disorders.And one sociophobe is only afraid to read poetry in front of the class, and the other will refuse to leave the house at all. In one, fears tend to subside, while in others they are constant, daily.

Why sociophobia develops, science is not known for certain. Researchers who at different times tried to investigate the essence of this phenomenon came to approximately the same conclusions - there is a certain hereditary predisposition. But here is a specific gene that could be "assigned" responsible for this mental disorder, has not yet been identified. Psychiatrists have noticed that members of a family in which there is someone who is sick with social phobia are 70% more likely to encounter the same problem. And then teachers and psychologists made their contribution, who suggested looking for a reason not only in the nucleotide paradoxes and genome, but also in education. It is absolutely proven that a parent with social phobia or other anxiety disorder passes on his model of perceiving the world to the child.

A study was conducted with twins who were adopted by different families. Surprisingly, if one of the twins fell ill with social phobia, similar problems were discovered in the near future in the second. Also, shy and anxious adoptive parents gradually formed similar qualities and anxiety disorders in adopted children (studies were conducted in 1985 and 1994 by Bruch and Heimberg and Daniels and Plomin).

In a child and adolescent with established sociophobia, as psychiatric practice usually shows, authoritarian, demanding parentswho are emotionally excluded from it. There is another extreme - mother and dad who overly care for the child. In both cases, the lack of emotional closeness and the lack of basic security become the starting mechanism for starting the disease. The longer a child lives in fear of punishment, disapproval from adults, the more dangerous the world begins to seem to him. Overly caring parents lead the child to the same denominator by other actions - they take care of him too much, try to protect him from the world, because of this, the baby has a clear vision for the future - the world is very dangerous, scary, nightmare, it cannot survive.

If in the first case, the parents do not really care what the child feels, then in the second - the very opposite. Mom will come up with a lot of reasons why you can’t talk with strangers, you can’t go out without a hat, you can’t be late for a walk, you can’t pet cats on the street. As a result, imaginary and real dangers are mixed together for the child and become one black, menacing mass of evil, from which you can only be saved in one way - by hiding away.

But these are the prerequisites. As for the provoking reasons, it should be noted that in most cases the disease started in a child after he entered into a tough or even cruel confrontation, a conflict with others, became a victim of public ridicule (both peers and adults). Most adult sociophobes claim to be outcasts as a child, they laughed at them - because of the appearance, financial situation of their parents and for other reasons. In adults, social phobia can develop after a long stay in similar situations.

Another interesting study conducted by specialists from the UK showed that in newborn children, it is possible to identify such features of the nervous system as behavioral inhibition. This means that such children are more focused on themselves than on the perception of the world around them. About 10-14% of people have such temperament from birth, and it is among them who are then those who get sick with sociopathy (this does not happen to everyone).

Experience also plays a large role in the occurrence of a violation, not only personal, when the person was humiliated and offended, but also a stranger, when the sick person became only a witness to someone else's public humiliation or bullying. The transfer of this experience to yourself also provoked the development of the disease.

There are several groups of signs that are characteristic of true sociophobia. They are divided into:

• cognitive;
• behavioral;
• physiological.

Cognitive symptoms: a person experiences real horror from one prospect that someone or him will evaluate him or what he does. They are extremely focused on themselves, monitor their appearance, they themselves constantly monitor their words and behavior. They have excessive demands on themselves. They are trying with all their might to make a good impression, but at the same time they have no doubt that they will never succeed under any circumstances.

They are in tension, scrolling through their heads hundreds of times possible event scenarios, dialogs, analyze and understand "in the cogs" what and where they did wrong. Thoughts are obsessive in nature, it is almost impossible to get rid of them, switch to something else.

The notions of the classical sociophobe about himself are not adequate: they see themselves worse than they really are. Sociophobes remember the bad rather than the good for longer and in more detail, and this is one of the striking differences from a person with a healthy psyche (a healthy person remembers bad memories faster, while good ones can be stored in memory for decades in detail).

Behavioral symptoms - this is what others can notice, because only the sociophobe knows about the cognitive. To say that such a person is shy is somewhat wrong. Sociophobia differs from shyness characteristic of many children and adolescents, because with shyness in general, a person’s life does not suffer, which cannot be said about social phobia. Sociophobic stubbornly avoids contact, most zealously he refrains from communicating in small or small groups. Going out for him is torture. A true sociophobe does not talk with strangers, even if they turn to him, but he is not aggressive, he simply speeds up his step and evades the answer in the literal sense of the word. If you press it against the wall, you can see that the sociophobe never looks into the interlocutor’s eyes.

The physiological symptoms of sociophobia are very similar to those for any anxiety disorder: this is increased sweating, fast tears, nausea in an anxious situation, shortness of breath, trembling hands and feet, changes in heart rate. Often the gait is disturbed in patients (they constantly monitor themselves, and therefore follow their steps as if from the outside). The gait may be different depending on whether one person or walks past a certain group of people.

Often, a sociophobe will have a red face - evenly or stained when he is worried, and he himself will notice all these symptoms after himself, and therefore he will be even more nervous, realizing that others also see this.

As already mentioned, rarely is social phobia “walking” on its own. Statistics show that every fifth sociophobe has problems with alcohol. 17% of sociophobes additionally suffer from severe forms of depression, 33% of patients additionally experience panic disorder, and suicide attempts have been recorded in 23% of people with social phobia. In some cases, sociophobia "coexists" in one person with Asperger's Syndrome and autism, sometimes with bipolar personality disorder.

The first signs of the disease are usually found in adolescence, and at first they look insignificant, inconspicuous.And if you pay attention to this at this stage and provide timely assistance, there is a chance of a complete cure. But for the majority, the disorder still turns into a chronic resistant form or progresses.

The most noticeable symptoms of social phobia are in people aged 30-45 years. Such patients carefully plan their day so as not to go to the toilet in a public place, not to eat in the presence of others. Many are forced to quit their jobs in order not to meet with colleagues and clients. For some, it can be difficult to even communicate by phone and skype (although most sociophobes are quite capable of a telephone conversation).

There is a special test for social phobia. It consists of 24 questions-situations over the past week. If the situation described in the test occurred in the past 7 days, the person describes it, if this was not the case, he describes his possible behavior in such a situation. For each item, the level of anxiety is evaluated in points. It is called the Leibovich test. It is available free of charge on many resources.

Do not make yourself diagnoses yourself. Only a doctor can recognize a person as a social phobia, who not only listens to complaints, but also receives data from special questionnaires. It is noteworthy that not always people with such a problem come to an appointment directly with a psychiatrist or psychotherapist. Sometimes they turn to an ordinary district physician or even a cardiologist with complaints of palpitations, dizziness. An experienced doctor of any profile can quickly distinguish somatic pathologies from anxiety disorder. In this case, he will direct the patient to the desired address.

It is common practice to treat social phobia on an outpatient basis. If a person with a fear of society is placed in an unfamiliar hospital environment with other patients and a large team of unfamiliar health workers, you can only worsen his condition. For treatment, cognitive-behavioral therapy is used, in which the specialist helps the patient find his erroneous attitudes and thoughts and, with the help of special exercises, eliminate or reduce them. Then a person begins to be deliberately gradually and carefully immersed in situations in which he was previously terrified. This part of the treatment is carried out in groups in the form of role-playing games, trainings.

With concomitant depression, a similar treatment is carried out simultaneously with the use of medications - antidepressants or tranquilizers. Tranquilizing tablets are needed to stabilize the mental state at the time of fear. They try to prescribe such strong drugs in courses of a maximum of 3-4 weeks. Antidepressants help normalize appetite, mood, establish sleep. They can be taken in courses of 4 months or more at the discretion of the doctor.

It should be warned that experts are not too flattering about the medical treatment of social phobia. And antidepressants, and tranquilizers, as well as benzodiazepines, which are recommended for severe forms of the disorder, only eliminate the symptoms, but in no way treat the root cause. Without a psychotherapeutic course, pills will only help for a time limited by the time they are taken. The course will end and fears will return. The stronger the drug, the higher the likelihood of a relapse of the disease after the end of its intake.

In treatment, hypnosis, relaxation methods, and physiotherapy are widely used. But no medicine and doctors will help to get rid of the problem if the person has no motivation. Therefore, only with one's own desire to overcome fear of society, forecasts are assessed as favorable.It’s hard to say how long the struggle will go: one manages to overcome his phobia in a few months, others have to continue treatment for several years. It is individual and depends on the person, on his desire to cope with the problem and on the form and type of mental disorder.

Cases of sociophobia, when a person turns late, after many years of fear, are considered unfavorable in medicine. For such a long period, phobia causes severe social maladaptation and, as a rule, is already combined with certain concomitant mental diagnoses, with alcoholism and drug addiction.

The question of how to treat sociophobia on your own is not too correct. It does not occur to you to remove appendicitis for yourself at home or to fix an open fracture for yourself. Mental disorder is not psychological instability. Here the advice of psychologists urgently love your neighbor and appreciate every day you live does not work. Mental disorder requires qualified correction after the doctor and only the doctor can establish all the circumstances and the severity of the violation.

The task of relatives and friends, friends and comrades of a social phobia is not homegrown motivation with the requirements "stop pulling rubber", "pull yourself together" and "do it right now." He cannot pull himself together, even if he would be glad to do it. The most appropriate help is to convince a person to go see a psychiatrist or psychotherapist. This will be the first step to healing. During long-term therapy, social phobia also needs support, approval.