The Venustraphobia , Also known as chaliginephobia, is encompassed within anxiety disorders as a manifestation of social phobia And consists In the irrational fear of beautiful women. Do not confuse it with gynophobia which is the fear of women in general.
Tachycardia, dry mouth, a sudden exaggerated blush on the cheeks accompanying a certain inability to articulate sentences with meaning... Who has not happened to this before being a tremendously attractive person?
A priori being with a beautiful woman does not have to cause any problem, on the contrary, it is always nice to have good company. However, there are People for whom an apparently harmless situation is an ordeal.
If you think this is happening to you and being surrounded by beautiful women causes you great discomfort, it is very probable that you are suffering from venustraphobia.
Characteristics of venustraphobia
It is normal that when you meet someone you like and attract you, you get nervous, colorado and even stutter, due to the large amount of Chemicals that the brain is now segregating the fruit of excitement.
The problem comes when those symptoms are experienced very intensely and cause such discomfort that prevent any contact with women Attractive and beautiful.
Although it may affect women, it is men who suffer most from this phobia. Symptoms can be manifested even without any contact with Women, simply observing them in photographs or movies.
People who suffer from this problem often also feel shame and shyness, feelings similar to those of an anxiety attack and tend to Avoid any kind of situations involving attractive women in order to be safe.
So, if when you find yourself surrounded by beautiful women gives you some shame but you are able to face the situation, calm, do not suffer this problem.
And the truth is that can be quite annoying because approximately 50% of the world population are women. In addition, the book of tastes It is not written so within that percentage, the number of women considered attractive and attractive can be very high.
symptom
The symptoms produced by venustraphobia are those of the problems grouped within the anxiety disorders:
- Tachycardia.
- Feeling of shortness of breath.
- Excessive sweating.
- Sickness.
- Tremors.
- Fear of losing control.
- Sensation of disconnection from reality.
It is necessary to take into account that the problem does not manifest itself in the same way in all the people, because it depends on its characteristics, of what it has originated The problem, the environment in which it develops, etc.
In the end what is important is the degree of discomfort that is felt and how much it interferes in the life of each one.
Emergence and maintenance of venustraphobia
In general, most phobias occur as a result of experiencing some negative or traumatic event, except in some cases where the mere Observation of such an event may be sufficient to trigger them.
In the case of venustraphobia, being involved in embarrassing situations due to the lack of skills to deal with women of certain Attractive, having been mocked by some of them or a failed relationship, may be the source of the problem.
However, these types of problems can not be reduced to a mere cause-and-effect relationship (negative event -> fear) because, unfortunately, fear Has the capacity to feed back to itself. That is, most of the things you do to avoid being afraid, end up encouraging and delaying your demise.
In fact, the most frequent response and, after all, more natural when one is afraid is flight. So people avoid what causes them Dread to reduce discomfort.
However, even if it is paradoxical, the relief you feel to have avoided meeting such a beautiful woman is helping you to follow Being afraid and even increasing next time.
Other things that affect the maintenance of venustraphobia (and of any phobia) are the cognitive distortions: ruminations, beliefs Catastrophic, self-critical, anticipation of aversive situations... That do nothing but feed the monster.
Among the most common cognitive distortions in this disorder we can find:
- Divination of the thoughts of others :"He is thinking that I should go."
- Make negative predictions without enough evidence :"I'm going to see her and I'm sure to start stammering."
- Look at the negative and ignore or disqualify the positive aspects :"I went to talk to her and why? I've made a fool of myself once more."
- Generalization :"I will never be able to talk to any woman."
- Magnify or minimize the situation :"It was horrible, the moment he looked at me I turned very red and I did not know where to go. He will not want to see me again."
- Emotional Reasoning :"If it makes me feel so bad, it will be for something."
- Personalization :"He has not stopped talking to me because he knows I'm a weirdo."
- Dichotomous thinking or"all or nothing" :"If I can not even talk to a woman who is beautiful, I will fail at everything."
- Negative tags :"I am worthless","I am useless".
- Requirements :"I should be braver."
In the end, these negative experiences and thoughts lead you into a vicious circle: You meet an attractive woman with whom you do not know How to relate and begin to appear negative thoughts of self-criticism, anticipation of anxiety, anxiety, etc.
This causes you to actually produce that anguish and anxiety until you finally end up avoiding this kind of annoying situations. Without However, you can not avoid always meeting with women that you find attractive, so you will repeat this situation over and over again.
The most annoying of anxiety disorders like this is not so much the discomfort you feel at exposure to the negative stimulus, as the circle Vicious to which the anxiety is submitted to you.
For once you have experienced it, you are distressed in such a way that you end up distressing at the possibility of feeling anguish. And when you perceive that you are Distressing, just to think, you feel that it is an uncontrollable anguish.
Until finally, the anguish itself becomes the worst enemy, beyond even the situations that began to provoke it.
Treatment
Venustrafobia is a disorder little known in itself to be identified as a variant of social phobia, so it is usually involved in Similar form.
There are several techniques to combat this type of phobia, both from the branch of psychiatry and from psychology:
Pharmacotherapy
The most used in these cases are the Antidepressant drugs (SSRIs) and Anxiolytics , Which can Serve as treatment for cases of extreme gravity.
However, numerous studies have demonstrated a greater efficacy of pharmacological treatment when it has been supplemented with psychological therapy, rather than In solitary. It is not advisable to use it during treatment with exposure techniques.
This is because the drugs act on the organism decreasing the symptoms of anxiety, which makes you feel good at the moment. Do not However, it does not eliminate the problem because the inability to interact with attractive women is still present.
Cognitive-behavioral techniques (CBT)
Within the techniques recommended from the cognitive behavioral approach we can find:
- Cognitive Therapy : Is based on the Cognitive restructuring , Through which you work on automatic and negative thoughts. It will Teaches the patient to identify them and then provide alternatives to those thoughts in order to eliminate the discomfort they produce.
- Relaxation techniques : The objective is to make the person able to remain calm and reduce activation in the face of phobic situations. Most used are the Jacobson Progressive Relaxation And the Schultz Autogenic Training.
- Exposition : Is considered the star product in the approach of phobias.
It consists of gradually exposing the patient to attractive women so that they can gradually become accustomed to their presence and in turn go Learning to control their fears until they disappear.
To do this, a list of situations must be made and ordered according to the degree of discomfort they produce. Once done, the first one is chosen Situation of the hierarchy that the patient will face.
- Social skills training : In many cases the people who suffer this disorder is because they lack the appropriate abilities to deal with women and, Especially if they attract you.
Social skills training is usually the pre-exposure step, in order for the patient to have sufficient tools to do Facing the situation.
Venustraphobia in film and television
In spite of being a little known disorder like so, yes that has been exploited much in the cinematographic field and in series of television.
You can find multiple movie frames in which there is a male character who is frightened by the presence of attractive women.
Without going further, the actor and film director Woody Allen, is very assiduous to this type of arguments in which he himself represents the neurotic character Which is intimidated by women.
If you remember the mythical anime series Dragon Ball, the character of Yamcha suffers from this disorder, not being able to even see Bulma without faint.
Also, in the series The Big Bang Theory appears the personage of Raj, who has a high inability to relate with women who seem to him beautiful.
Other examples are the films in which the protagonist is the typical misfit that every time he sees the head of the cheerleaders is blocked and gets Very anxious, until he manages to overcome his fear and speak to him.
Did you know...?
A study carried out by the University of Valencia together with that of Groningen used a sample of 84 male students who Measured the levels of Cortisol (Hormone released in stressful situations) before and after spending time alone with an unknown woman who It was attractive.
These men, who were restricted to alcohol and other stimulants for 24 hours to avoid some kind of interference, should Being in a room next to two more people and a sudoku as entertainment.
Participants assumed that these two people were the researcher and another participant like them. Thus, when the researcher left the room with The pretext of going for another hobby, left the subject and the other person alone.
The researchers realized that the cortisol levels of the participants increased more when the person they stayed with was a Attractive woman, than when it was a person of the same sex.
The conclusions reached by the research team related this increase of cortisol with the perception by the subjects that being at Alone with an attractive woman was an opportunity to bond with her.
"This study shows that personal interaction with attractive women can influence the secretion of cortisol."
The results show that for men to spend even five minutes with an unknown woman that appeals to them, it causes them such level of Stress that can affect the heart.
These effects are worse for those who consider that they do not"play in the same league"as the women in front, even though they try to attract their Attention.
The level of anxiety experienced by these men can be compared to that of parachute jumping. Your cortisol levels are even increased More, increasing the possibility of suffering a heart attack or cardiac arrest.
In fact, if they happen to get away with the girl in question, it can be even more damaging. Since exposure continues to physical stressors Or psychological problems can cause chronic high levels of cortisol, which can have very negative effects on health.
References
- Alfano, Candice A., Beidel, Deborah C. (2011), Social anxiety in adolescents and young adults: Translating developmental science into practice. American Psychological Association.
- Beck, J. (2010), Interpersonal processes in the anxiety disorders: Implications for understanding psychopathology and treatment, American Psychological Association.
- Beidel, Deborah C., Turner, Samuel M. (2007), Shy children, phobic adults: Nature and treatment of social anxiety disorders American Psychological Association.
- Feske, U., Chambless, D.L, (1995) Cognitive behavioral versus exposure only treatment for social phobia: the meta-analysis, Behavior Therapy, 26, 695-720.
- Rapee, R.M., Heimberg, R.G., (1997), A cognitive-behavioral model of anxiety in Social phobia, Behavior Therapy, 35, (8), 741-756.
- Veale, D., (2003), Treatment of social phobia, Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 9, 258-264.