We have told you about many interesting phobias that may sound interesting, from ombrophobia to frigophobia. The phobia we are going to talk about today is hafephobia, which, if done, can drive people to “fainting” and has the potential to affect one’s life in an extremely negative way.
Haphephobia has a very simple definition: the fear of being touched. Because of this disorder, which is not as easy to describe, people’s biggest fear is to be touched by those around them. As you can imagine, this phobia affects the person in many areas, from social life to doctor examination. Let’s take a closer look at the details of hafephobia.
Haphephobia, what exactly is it?
People with phobia have an incredible fear and aversion to being touched. So one of the worst things that can happen to them in this life is to be “touched”, which can be described as an ordinary thing in everyone’s life.
People suffering from this phobia are uncomfortable not only to be touched, but also to be touched. In some cases, this disorder may be specific to only one gender. For example, while a woman may not be comfortable with her fellow humans touching her, she may be highly disgusted when men touch her.
Things can get very serious when this phobia is triggered. .
If an extremely disturbing phobia such as haphephobia is dealt with without a solution, extremely bad results can occur. While the lightest of these is freezing, the worst can go to involuntary running or fainting.
Childhood traumas may be the main source of hafephobia.
According to experts, there may be many reasons behind a person’s phobia, but the most common among them is childhood traumas. Bad events such as sexual harassment in the past can trigger this phobia, but the main source of the problem is never “fully” identified.
Haphephobia can turn into “agoraphobia” over time
As you can imagine, hafephobia affects the person negatively in many ways in daily life. The biggest reason for this is that this phobia leads to agoraphobia, that is, anxiety disorder over time.
When agoraphobia and hafephobia are combined, the person may tend to avoid or even not enter places that have the potential to be touched. For example, in case the bus is crowded and people may touch it unintentionally, these people may refrain from using public transport throughout their lives.
The same is true for doctor’s examinations. People who do not like the doctor’s touches during the examination, or even disgusted, may give up going to the doctor even when there is a vital situation.
For another example, let’s take the sexual life. Many people with this phobia tend to withdraw when it comes to sexual life, even if they can establish an emotional bond with the other party. However, until now, hafephobia people who can continue their sexual life if they take the first step have been seen quite common.
So, is there a cure for this ailment?
Just like many phobias, there are many treatment methods for hafephobia. The first of these is therapy-oriented treatment, as this phobia is mostly caused by traumas. Exposure therapy is mostly applied to people who choose this method to get rid of hafephobia. In this method, the patient is exposed to feared situations in the company of experts.
At the same time, the method called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and drug therapy often help to eliminate hafephobia.
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