SPECTROPHOBIA: SYMPTOMS, CAUSES, TREATMENT - ECONOMÍA - 2025

The espectrofobia is the disorder that is defined by an excessive, irrational and persistent fear of ghosts. People suffering from this psychopathology have an abnormal fear of ghosts and spirits and, above all, of the possibility of being in contact with them.

Although it may suffer from a minor psychological disorder, spectrophobia can have a very negative impact on a person's life. It can affect your day-to-day, behavior and actions in multiple specific situations and places.

It also often causes a state of high anxiety and the experience of unpleasant and distressing sensations in various contexts. For this reason, it is very important to properly intervene in this disorder, with the aim of eliminating the phobic fear of ghosts and the anxious consequences of the alteration.

At present, spectrophobia is a well-documented psychopathology. In addition, it has psychological interventions that are highly effective for its treatment.

Characteristics of spectrophobia

Spectrophobia is a rather peculiar type of specific phobia. In fact, it is much less prevalent than other more known types such as blood phobia, spider phobia or heights phobia.

However, it shares many characteristics with these disorders and only differs in the feared element, that is, in the things for which the individual has a phobic fear.

In spectrophobia, the feared elements are ghosts and spirits, so that individuals who suffer from this alteration have an excessive fear of coming into contact with these stimuli.

Unlike the other types of specific phobia, ghosts and spirits are not everyday items that people come into contact with on a regular basis.

In fact, these feared stimuli of spectrophobia are more conceptual and abstract than tangible and real.

What does a person with spectrophobia fear?

In spectrophobia, the feared element is well defined: ghosts and / or spirits. However, the situations in which you experience anxiety can be somewhat more ambiguous.

Generally, people do not come into contact and visualize ghosts with relative frequency. In fact, individuals who claim to see seen spirits are a minority exception.

This leads to the belief that a person with spectrophobia never or almost never experiences an anxiety response, since they never or almost never come into contact with ghosts.

However, in practice this is not the case. There are many situations in which an individual with spectrophobia may present highly anxious responses due to their fear of ghosts.

These can be categorized into two main types: situations that indicate the possibility of a ghost appearing and exposure of information related to ghosts.

Situations that indicate the possibility of a ghost appearing

People with spectrophobia are often very fearful of certain situations that are related to the appearance of ghosts.

Specifying fear-producing situations is subjective. That is, it depends on the contexts that the individual associates with ghosts.

However, the most feared spaces in spectrophobia are the reflections of mirrors (for fear of a spirit being reflected), places with little light, forests with multiple shadows and the appearance of unexpected noise or movements.

Exposure of information related to ghosts

On the other hand, spectrophobia does not require the "real" appearance of a spirit or ghost for the individual to experience intense fear. Any type of exposure to elements related to ghosts generates heightened feelings of fear.

These aspects can include ghost movies or shows, tales about spirits, comments about paranormal events, etc.

Symptoms

Spectrophobia causes anxious symptoms whenever the person is exposed to their feared situations. The manifestations of anxiety are usually very intense and affect both physical components and psychological and behavioral components.

Physical component

The first anxiety response is experienced at the body level through a series of modifications in the physical functioning of the body. All physical alterations respond to an increase in the activity of the central nervous system. That is, to the increase in body anxiety.

The most typical are the increase in the heart and respiratory rate, which can cause manifestations such as palpitations, tachycardia, sensations of suffocation or hyperventilation.

Likewise, it is common for the muscles of the body to tighten more than usual, and sweating increases in different regions of the body. On the other hand, other symptoms may appear such as: nausea, vomiting, dizziness, headaches or stomachaches, cold sweats or a feeling of unreality.

Cognitive component

The physical symptoms are accompanied by a series of irrational thoughts about ghosts.

The negative consequences of coming into contact with spirits and the inability to cope with such situations are the main cognitive symptoms.

Behavioral component

Finally, the intensity of fear and anxiety symptoms causes a direct effect on the person's behavior. The discomfort caused by the dreaded situations is so high that the person with spectrophobia will avoid exposing themselves to them constantly.

Likewise, when he is not able to avoid exposure, he will initiate escape behaviors to flee from said situations.

Causes

The etiology of this disorder is similar to that of other specific phobias. In this sense, there does not seem to be a single element that originates psychopathology, but rather there are several factors that can be related to its development. The main ones are:

Conditioning

The phobic fear of ghosts can be conditioned in different ways. The most powerful seems to be classical conditioning. That is, through direct exposure to traumatic experiences related to ghosts.

However, in the case of spectrophobia, direct exposure to spirits and ghosts is often rare. In this sense, vicarious and verbal conditioning take on greater importance.

Vicarious conditioning refers to the visualization of images and situations. Watching shocking movies or images about spirits and ghosts can contribute to the development of spectrophobia.

On the other hand, verbal conditioning refers to the information that is acquired through the sense of hearing. Being raised in contexts or through educational styles where elements related to ghosts and spirits are very present can be a risk factor.

Genetic factors

Certain studies suggest that anxiety disorders may have an important genetic basis.

In the case of spectrophobia, it has not been described exactly which genetic factors could be related to the development of the disease, but there is a certain consensus in stating that having a family history of anxiety disorders could be another risk factor.

Cognitive factors

Finally, some elements related to cognition and the way of thinking of people can also contribute to the development of spectrophobia.

The most important are: unrealistic beliefs about the harm that one can receive, attentional bias towards threats, low perceptions of self-efficacy and exaggerated perception of danger

Treatment

Currently, there are treatments that allow this type of psychopathology to be adequately intervened.

Psychotherapy (through cognitive behavioral treatment) is the therapeutic tool that has shown the greatest efficacy in treating specific phobias.

These treatments are based on intervening on the main behavioral component of the disease. That is, the avoidance of feared situations.

The psychotherapist designs a program for exposure to ghost-related situations. The exposure is carried out in a controlled way and allows the individual to get used to the stimuli and overcome the fear that it originates.

On the other hand, in many interventions the exposure is usually accompanied by the application of relaxation techniques to reduce the state of anxiety and the physical symptoms of the disorder.

References

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