Gelotophobia

Modern psychologists increasingly encounter cases of social isolation and virtualization of communication - for many reasons, problems caused by impaired social adaptation come to the fore. Many young people do not have sufficient skills for independence and direct contact with each other. Therefore, such social fear as gelotophobia often manifests itself at a young age: this condition is defined by medicine as a pathological fear of looking ridiculous and causing laughter in others.

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Epidemiology

Gelotophobia is always associated with other mental problems. Until now, specialists cannot accurately determine the nosological affiliation of the disease.

Since clinical symptoms of gelotophobia can be found in both healthy people and mentally ill patients, it is practically impossible to indicate the percentage of people suffering from this type of fear.

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Causes gelotophobia

It is generally accepted that the following risk factors most often lead to the development of gelotophobia:

• constant ridicule and "jabs" in childhood;
• hypertrophied "ego" is a feature of the human psyche;
• complete lack of a sense of humor and/or self-criticism.

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Risk factors

If we look at the problem more deeply, the main traumatic factors can be considered:

• difficult childhood (absence of parents, early “growing up”, lack of understanding from loved ones);
• psychological trauma in adolescence;
• ridicule by parents or friends for one's appearance or mental abilities;
• early physical maturation against the background of later social maturity;
• strong pressure from close people or the public regarding the child’s “non-compliance” with family or social parameters and ideals;
• overprotection and imposition of a sense of shame as one of the measures of education;
• increased control by educators and punishment for the slightest offense or even without it;
• perfectionism;
• long-term depressions that give rise to self-doubt and self-abasement.

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Pathogenesis

In addition to the hereditary factor, gelotophobia can be provoked by a lack of security in childhood, or the negative influence of the environment. Lack of positive emotions, insufficient emotional peace, lack of stability provoke fear, mistrust, anxiety. In other words, the primary feeling of fear turns the child's focus from the world to his own personality.

As a result, there is a fear of other people, a fear of opening up and demonstrating self-giving. A person develops a tendency toward self-isolation, toward isolation.

Experts have found that the immediate onset and dynamic development of gelotophobia sooner or later lead to a state where the patient completely loses the ability to not take seriously even the most harmless remarks and jokes addressed to him.

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Symptoms gelotophobia

Gelotophobia can occur as a separate disease or as part of a syndrome. The essence of this condition is that a person is afraid of being laughed at, even in the absence of a reason to be laughed at. The patient is sure that he really looks funny - his anxiety about this is very noticeable.

Patients with gelotophobia withdraw from society and try not to take part in social events. Any laughter from others, or even a smile, can cause them to panic. The first signs of such fear are muscle tone, a lump in the throat, trembling hands, tachycardia, and even stuttering. Gelotophobes avoid direct eye contact when meeting, trying to quickly end the conversation and leave.

Patients either lack a sense of humor or have a peculiar one. It is either a great rarity to hear them laugh, or vice versa. The fact is that many patients laugh too often and with a large share of "theatricality", making jokes only in relation to close people, and taking other people's humorous remarks "with hostility".

A person suffering from gelotophobia often has additional characteristics such as narcissism and introversion, perfectionism and fear of public speaking.

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Stages

Currently, psychologists distinguish 4 stages of gelotophobia.

The disease begins with the fear of suffering from other people's ridicule. After a certain amount of time, periods of panic attacks appear: in such a situation, a person begins to fear not only ridicule, but also his own shame before society in general.

The third stage is psychosis with elements of persecution mania. This stage is already a consequence of extensive damage to the psyche. The gelotophobe tries to protect himself, by any means avoiding the source of fear - society. At this stage, aggression on the part of the patient can be detected, directed at any laughing or smiling person.

There are known types of gelotophobia that are associated with other mental illnesses. In this case, psychosis is considered the cause of the disorder. In this case, gelotophobia can develop as a side symptom of another pathology.

Complications and consequences

The consequences of gelotophobia are mainly manifested by the fact that patients begin to react negatively even in cases of good-natured and sincere attitude towards them. Such people lose the ability to rejoice, their self-esteem falls - while their innate wit is almost always preserved.

A person suffering from gelotophobia may withdraw into themselves, avoid a particular society, or society in general. Confidence in one's own inferiority, absurdity, "otherness" pushes a person away from the social world, narrows their social circle, provokes frequent depressions and mental suffering.

In the future, a patient with gelotophobia may face problems of misunderstanding and even rejection from others.

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Diagnostics gelotophobia

The main way to diagnose gelotophobia is to conduct a personal conversation between the doctor and the patient - this will help to fully reconstruct the picture of the disease.

The patient must be truthful to the doctor: it is very important to tell what sensations appear when meeting other people, to describe your physical and emotional state. To successfully get rid of the obsessive state, it is desirable to establish the cause of the pathology. Therefore, the doctor needs to know about all the traumatic moments in the patient's life that could serve as an impetus for the development of gelotophobia.

Specific methods for recognizing gelotophobia are:

• audio reproduction of laughter with assessment of the patient's reaction;
• demonstration of photographs of laughing faces, as well as photographic interpretations of humorous situations.

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Differential diagnosis

Differential diagnosis can be carried out with gelotophilia, delusional ideas, paranoid syndrome, paraphrenic syndrome, dysmorphophobia, dysmorphomania.

Treatment gelotophobia

It is almost impossible to cure gelotophobia on your own. In most cases, the disease occurs with all sorts of anxiety states, combined with physical discomfort.

For a lasting and reliable cure for gelotophobia, you should consult a qualified psychiatrist, because the main method of treating the disease is psychotherapy. Psychotherapeutic sessions will help eliminate anxiety and worry associated with the misinterpretation of others' laughter.

The doctor will be able to convince the patient that his fear has no basis. During the treatment, the patient's incorrect thoughts are corrected, redirected to the right channel.

In some particularly advanced situations, the doctor may resort to drug treatment.

Medicines are prescribed not as the main treatment, but as a means of reducing the severity of the symptoms of the disease. Usually, a stable effect from medications is observed only with their long-term use. You cannot stop taking medications on your own, or make adjustments to their dosage and frequency of use - this can lead to a return of fear, and even to an increase in its intensity.

To treat gelotophobia, your doctor may prescribe the following medications:

• beta blockers;
• antidepressants;
• tranquilizers;
• neuroleptics.

	Method of administration and dosage	Side effects	Special instructions
Fluvoxamine	Take 50-100 mg once a day for several months.	During treatment, vomiting, loss of appetite, sleep disturbances, tachycardia, muscle and joint pain may occur.	Fluvoxamine is prescribed to children from 8 years of age.
Meprobamate	Take orally 0.2-0.4 g up to 3 times a day.	Treatment may be accompanied by digestive disorders and drowsiness.	There is a possibility of developing addiction to the drug.
Triftazin	The drug is taken orally, according to an individual regimen. The duration of administration is 3-9 months or more.	During treatment, headache, dizziness, extrapyramidal reactions, dyspepsia, and decreased blood pressure may occur.	Treatment with Triftazin should be strictly individual, depending on the course of the pathology.
Non-ticket	Nebilet is prescribed to improve the patient’s well-being during phobic attacks, 1 tablet once a day.	Long-term use of the drug can cause depression, visual impairment, heart failure, and impotence.	Nebilet is not used in pediatric practice.

Vitamins

Medicinal treatment of gelotophobia may be incomplete if vitamins are not included in the therapeutic regimen. Often, their deficiency directly affects the psycho-emotional state and stability of the nervous system.

• B-group vitamins help a person cope with emotional overload, reduce nervous tension, and normalize metabolic processes. It is especially important to take this vitamin group for those who smoke or regularly drink alcohol.
  • Vitamin B¹ calms the nervous system, relaxes muscles, and has anticonvulsant activity. This substance is present in large quantities in pork, offal, buckwheat, and oatmeal.
  • Vitamin B² prevents nervous headaches, insomnia, mood swings. It is found in large quantities in dairy products, beans, greens and apricots.
  • Pyridoxine (B ⁶ ) serves as a preventive measure against depression and stress. It can be obtained by regularly eating eggs, beans, nuts, fish, bananas, and seeds.
  • Vitamin B¹² regulates daily human adaptation, prevents destructive processes in the nervous system. Deficiency of this substance can be compensated by eating chicken meat, offal, egg yolk, seafood.
• Vitamin E smooths out the impact of stress on the nervous system and also has a calming effect. It can be found in nuts, beans, eggs, wheat germ.
• Vitamin A eliminates excess tension and improves sleep quality. You can get the vitamin from asparagus, nuts, plant foods, and unrefined vegetable oils.
• Ascorbic acid is involved in the production of hormones against stress. There is a lot of vitamin C in kiwi, citrus fruits, chili peppers, berries.

Physiotherapy treatment

Physiotherapy can be used as a stabilizer for the psycho-emotional status of patients, and a comprehensive approach can help increase the effectiveness of other types of treatment and reduce the dosage of medications.

The following physiotherapy methods have stabilizing and calming properties:

• therapeutic electrophoresis with bromides, seduxen;
• electrosleep;
• interference therapy (treatment with interference currents);
• manual therapy, massage;
• medicinal baths.

Other procedures can also have a positive effect on the psyche of patients:

• psychorelaxation with audio visualization;
• drug electrophoresis with the use of psychostimulants;
• pulsed electrical stimulation.

A tonic effect can be achieved through such procedures as thalassotherapy, massage showers, pine aromatherapy, aerotherapy, and pearl baths.

Folk remedies

Of course, the most effective way to cure gelotophobia is through psychotherapy. However, a comprehensive impact on the pathology can speed up and improve the positive result. Folk methods will also help.

• To get rid of the fear of ridicule, it is important that the body receives a sufficient amount of vitamins. Therefore, experts recommend eating up to 200 g of carrots per day. You can replace it with 200 ml of fresh carrot juice.
• A good effect is given by a tincture of the rhizome of the zamaniha (1:10). The tincture is taken 35 drops 3 times a day before meals.
• The dried rhizome or leaf of ginseng is poured with alcohol (1:10) and infused for 2 weeks. Take 18-20 drops three times a day.
• Infuse 1/3 cup of beetroot juice in a cool place for three hours, then mix it with the same amount of honey and consume this volume throughout the day in three doses, half an hour before meals.
• To eliminate nervousness and irascibility, drink fresh motherwort juice, 40 drops up to 4 times a day, half an hour before meals.

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Herbal treatment

Common mint has significant calming properties; essential mint oils have the same effect.

Valerian rhizome and hawthorn fruits reduce nervous excitability, but they are better perceived by the body in the form of alcohol tinctures. Take such tinctures 25 drops 4 times a day until a stable therapeutic effect is achieved.

Melissa and thyme leaves are used in dry form: they are brewed using a water bath and drunk instead of tea. Usually take 1 teaspoon of dry leaves per 200 ml of water.

You can relax and improve your sleep by taking dill tincture 20-40 drops three times a day. In addition, dill works well when added to baths or as an inhalation.

If you don't have time to brew or infuse herbs, you can buy ready-made combination herbal preparations at the pharmacy. These include Afobazol, Persen, Novo-Passit, Tenoten, Donormil. The listed products are easy to take, and you don't need a doctor's prescription when buying.

Homeopathy

Treatment of gelotophobia with homeopathy is not always accepted by traditional medicine. However, there are repeated cases of the effectiveness of these drugs. In order not to harm and to help the patient as much as possible, drugs, including homeopathic ones, should be prescribed by a doctor.

• Nervoheel is a complex homeopathic remedy with calming, antidepressant and anticonvulsant properties. The drug stimulates the body's internal defenses and normalizes its functions. The standard dose is 1 tablet under the tongue, 1 hour after meals, three times a day. Duration of treatment is 1.5-2.5 months.
• Valerianaheel is a complex drug that has a sedative and slight antispasmodic effect. For phobias, take 15 drops of the drug three times a day, previously dissolved in 100 ml of water. The duration of taking the drops is at least 1 month.
• Cerebrum compositum is a homeopathic remedy that reduces mental stress, eliminates irritability, neurotic reactions, anxiety. The drug is administered intramuscularly or subcutaneously, 1-3 times a week, 2.2 ml (1 ampoule), for 3-6 weeks.
• Notta is a drug that eliminates anxiety, fear, and stabilizes the nervous system. Notta is taken 10 drops diluted in 1 tbsp. of water, three times a day, 1 hour after meals. The course of therapy is from 1 to 4 months.

Prevention

Gelotophobia and prerequisites for the disease develop in early childhood. Therefore, prevention should be done, first of all, by parents, whose task is to be more attentive to their own children.

You can't mock your children's failures or appearance: such behavior leaves an irreparable mark on their soul. A child seeks support, first of all, in their parents - so it is very important not to push the baby away, but to constantly prove to him that he is loved and will never be betrayed.

If a child shares his thoughts or fears with his parents, he should be listened to, but not ridiculed: do not let his fears win.

If possible, it is necessary to protect the whole family and children from negative emotions, aggressive computer games, watching thrillers and crime programs.

It is important that the child eats quality and varied food. Regular active recreation for the whole family is encouraged.

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Forecast

The prognosis for the life of patients is relatively favorable. Complete recovery from gelotophobia is not often observed. However, timely medical attention, correct diagnosis and adequate therapy can significantly improve the condition of patients, weaken or eliminate painful symptoms.

Without proper treatment, gelotophobia becomes chronic and resistant to therapy.