POGONOPHOBIA: SYMPTOMS, CAUSES, TREATMENT - ECONOMÍA - 2024

The pogonophobia is a specific phobia that refers to the irrational fear, persistent and disproportionate beards, people with beards or facial hair. The word pogonophobia comes from the Greek "pogon", which means beard, and "phobos" which means fear.

Although in some cultures the beard is associated with good social status, sexual potency or wisdom, in others it can be related to lack of personal hygiene or radicalism. It is a phobia that can affect people of any gender and age, but according to studies it mainly affects women.

This phobia has special relevance in the field of Psychology. In 1920, John B. Watson, one of the fathers of Psychology and founder of the behaviorist current, together with his pupil Rosalie Rayner, carried out a series of experiments at John Hopkins University, to demonstrate how classical conditioning worked in human beings.

The experiment consisted of presenting a baby with different furry animals associated with a loud and unpleasant noise. Later this noise was associated with people with beards (specifically Santa Claus was used).

In this way, the baby associated the hairy animals or the beard with the noise that caused fear, and finally when these stimuli were presented, alone without the noise, they produced in the child the same fear as if they were accompanied by the unpleasant sound.

Watson and his student demonstrated that the phobia could be provoked and learned in humans, in the same way that a few years earlier it had been demonstrated with animals.

Symptoms of pogonophobia

As with all phobias, the symptoms and their severity will depend on each person, but the most common are those that appear when viewing a person with a beard, mustache or in some cases with light facial hair:

• Extreme anxiety Constant fear and concern about the possibility of facing the feared situation and not knowing how to face it correctly.
• Panic, understood as extreme fear of the beard or just imagining it.
• Excessive sweating
• Nausea and / or vomiting.
• Diarrhea, stomach problems and pain.
• Difficulty breathing.
• Chest pain and / or punctures.
• Shaking chills.
• Dry mouth.
• Catastrophic thinking, images and / or expectations. These thoughts are usually aimed at anticipating failure if faced with the stimulus they consider threatening.
• Avoidance, flight and / or escape from places or situations in which it is possible to face the feared stimulus. In this sense, it can be detrimental to a normal life and can lead to the loss of friendships and satisfactory social relationships.

Causes

The causes for developing a phobia are usually multiple and varied and depend on different factors that are related. The most common that can trigger the appearance of irrational fear are:

Possible negative or traumatic experiences

These are experiences normally lived in childhood (according to some studies, it usually occurs between four and eight years of age) and that are related to a person with a beard, mustache or abundant facial hair.

Although the traumatic event has been with a specific person, and in a certain situation, our mind generalizes to other people with similar characteristics and in their presence the same fear response appears as the first time.

Cultural motives

As we mentioned before, in some cultures the beard is associated with power, status or wisdom. But on other occasions it is related to a neglected appearance, lack of hygiene, sick or homeless people, etc.

Often times, the phobic person associates someone with a beard with this second group and therefore they tend to avoid them. It seems that as a general rule, shaven people inspire greater confidence and seriousness, which is why most politicians, both in our country and abroad, do not usually wear beards.

Since the September 11 attacks in the United States, an increase in this phobia has been observed, because the terrorists who committed the attack mostly had a very thick beard.

Learning

Beard phobia can also be learned by observation. That is, if the parents or people of reference have this phobia, it is very possible that it ends up being transmitted to the children, who learn that people with beards have to be feared or that they are not trusted.

In some cases it has been commented that phobias may have a genetic component that is inherited, since on many occasions parents and children share the same phobia. Numerous studies have shown that there is no genetic component and that the reason why parents and children are afraid of the same situations or stimuli is due to learning.

In this case, the child learns that people with beards or facial hair are to be feared because it is the pattern of behavior that they have learned from their parents or their reference persons.

Neurobiology

Some theories show that in some areas of the brain, such as the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, dangerous events are stored and later, in similar situations, those stored sensations are recovered, causing the same reactions as on the first occasion they occurred.

In the specific case of the amygdala, it has been shown that it can trigger the release of fight or flight hormones, which put the body and mind in a state of great alertness and stress to face situations that are considered threatening or dangerous.

Treatment

As in the case of other phobias, suffering from pogonophobia can be very disabling for the person. In addition to the stress and anxiety involved in being continuously on the alert to avoid or face these situations and, taking into account that the stimulus may appear at any time, it also tends to damage family and social relationships.

Nowadays in our society, it is more and more common for men to wear beards and in many cases very crowded, so this fashion is a serious problem for people with pogonophobia.

Whenever a phobia causes us discomfort and we have to modify our habits or daily life for it, it is advisable to go to a professional to be able to treat it, eradicate it and thus recover a normalized life.

There are different treatments depending on the orientation of the therapist. Depending on the person and the severity of the phobia, the recommended treatment will be one or the other.

Exposure techniques the dreaded stimulus

The objective of this technique is to gradually expose the person to the stimulus they fear, in this case the beard, until it does not cause them any fear or anxiety.

It is usually done gradually, starting with the stimuli that cause the least discomfort, for example seeing a photo of a person with little facial hair, until reaching the most feared, for example touching a person's thick beard.

In this way, it is achieved that, just as the person at the time associated the beard with something dangerous or feared, he can verify for himself that he is not in danger when facing these situations, and thus little by little fear is disassociated or learning that the beard is not synonymous with danger.

In general, it is considered that any treatment for phobia must include this technique to deal with it.

Systematic desensitization

This technique has some aspects in common with the previous one. It is also about getting the person to stop associating the beard with fear or fear. For this, a list of all the situations related to the beard that cause fear is made.

The list is made in collaboration with the therapist and the situations are ordered from least to greatest degree of discomfort. The patient begins by coping the first time, either live or in imagination, and does not move on to the next situation on the list until the level of anxiety and discomfort has completely diminished.

Usually, this technique is used in conjunction with relaxation techniques that are applied after facing the stimulus to help decrease the level of arousal that has caused the anxiety.

Hypnotherapy

This technique is intended to locate in the subconscious of the person the first moment that the phobic stimulus, in this case the beard, caused fear. It is about being able to locate that moment with all the details, what happened, how events unfolded, why, etc.

Once identified, the objective is to associate these manifestations of fear with others that are positive, gradually achieving that the fear of the beard is reduced or even disappears.

The ultimate goal is to break those negative associations that have been established with a beard or facial hair.

Neurolinguistic Programming Techniques (NLP)

The ultimate goal of this technique is to be able to eliminate the feeling of anguish and anxiety associated with the beard. It is about imagining the scene that causes discomfort in such a way that that anxiety is generated in the person.

For example, the patient visualizes sitting next to a person with a very thick beard, looking at him and even reaching out to touch him.

Once the complete scene has been visualized, it begins to rewind it over and over again as if it were a movie, from a spectator role of what is being visualized, and each time the images go by more quickly. This exercise is repeated until imagining the situation no longer causes anxiety or discomfort.

Cognitive and behavioral techniques

Among these techniques, the most used are Albert Ellis's rational emotional therapy, Meichenbaum's stress inoculation training or Golfried's rational systemic therapy.

The objective of these techniques is, on the one hand, to know the reason that originated the phobia and why that fear is being maintained over time. And on the other hand, detect the thoughts that contribute to discomfort and anxiety in order to modify them for other more realistic, adaptive and that do not generate discomfort.

These techniques are routinely combined with exposure to achieve successful therapy.

Drugs

Most studies and researchers agree that there is no pharmacological treatment of choice for the treatment of specific phobias. In most cases, drugs are used as an adjunct to other types of therapy, usually in conjunction with exposure techniques.

The types of drugs used are benzodiazepines and beta-blockers that suppress triggering symptoms (such as palpitations or hyperventilation).

On the other hand, some studies have indicated that the use of medications can be counterproductive in the success of therapy. This is because it is believed to make habituation to the phobic stimulus impossible, which is the basis of most treatments.