Have you ever felt afraid when you were alone? Well, if you are in a scary place, this is quite natural, for example, you are in an empty house that has not been inhabited for a long time, or a place filled with bad people. However, if you are in a safe and comfortable place but are still afraid of being alone, it may be a sign of autophobia. What is autophobia? Check out the following explanation.
What is autophobia?
Autophobia or monophobia is the fear of being alone or lonely. When alone, even in a very familiar place such as home, people who experience this condition will still feel anxious.
People with autophobia always feel that they need someone else to stay with them, so they can feel safe. In fact, even if the person experiencing this condition is aware that he is actually in a safe state, he will feel afraid of other things, such as:
- Thief or robber.
- Foreigners.
- Not loved.
- Undesirable.
- life-threatening disease.
- Voices of unknown origin.
Well, actually, any condition that belongs to a phobia is a condition that requires treatment. The reason is, if you don’t get the right treatment right away, this feeling of fear can worsen.
As with various other phobias, autophobia can also affect your physical and psychological condition. Therefore, it would be nice to immediately address the condition if you or someone close to you has shown symptoms of one of these mental disorders.
Signs and symptoms of autophobia
While feeling afraid and anxious about being alone, there are several psychological and emotional health problems that may be signs and symptoms of autophobia.
Symptoms of this phobia can be a combination of several things and may get worse over time. Some of the possible conditions of autophobia symptoms are:
- Too worried about being left alone.
- Fear of various possibilities that do not necessarily occur when alone.
- The body shows physical symptoms such as shaking, sweating, chest pain, dizziness, heart palpitations, hyperventilation, nausea and these conditions appear when they want to or when they are alone.
- Feeling like someone is terrorizing you when you’re alone.
- A great desire to get away from a place when you are alone.
- Anxiety disorders when alone.
Yes, even if you are not alone, if an autophobic person thinks about the condition when he is alone, he may suddenly feel anxious. The condition occurred as if he was really alone.
Causes of autophobia
Actually, there is no explanation how this autophobia can occur. The reason is, autophobia is an unreasonable anxiety that is formed when someone is afraid or worried that they will end up alone.
In fact, there are no conditions or threats that make him truly alone. However, this did not help make his condition better. That is, even though there is no certain condition that can threaten the condition, the person will still feel afraid of himself.
Diagnosing autophobia
According to Dual Diagnosis, people who experience autophobia are usually reluctant to have their condition checked by a doctor. In fact, not a few avoid conversations about their fears with experts.
This is a sign, actually people with autophobia unconsciously realize that their fear is unreasonable. To be able to know the condition he has, one of the things he needs to do is the desire to be free from that fear.
Therefore, if you feel you are experiencing autophobia, it is better to immediately consult a doctor. If indeed you have mental disorders, your doctor will recommend a mental health professional.
After meeting with a mental health specialist, usually the doctor will do a psychological examination first. Not only that, the doctor will usually ask for information related to your medical history.
The goal, the doctor needs to find out if there are physical problems that may be affecting your mental health. After that, the new doctor will conduct a psychic evaluation, where the doctor will ask many things related to daily activities and the feelings you have.
Treatment options for autophobia
Usually, this condition will be more easily resolved with psychotherapy or psychological therapy. The two most common types of therapy for dealing with phobias are:
1. Exposure therapy
This psychological therapy overcomes certain attitudes that form over time. The main goal of this therapy is to improve the quality of life so that your phobia no longer limits your living space.
A psychologist will help you overcome this phobia by constantly making yourself up. However, do not worry because the psychologist will do it under safe conditions.
Over time, if you get used to it and have a greater tolerance for the fear of being alone, then the psychologist will ask you to do it in real situations.
2. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
In this therapy, a mental health therapist will help treat this condition by getting you used to it on your own. In addition, the therapist will also help you fight and accept the condition when you are alone, but slowly.
Not only that, the therapist will also help shape your mindset towards the fear of being alone so that when the therapy session is over, you can try to overcome the fear itself.
This is one therapy that can increase self-confidence in overcoming the phobia or fear itself. The more often you go to therapy and try to do it yourself, the easier it will be for you to overcome the fear if it comes up again.
In addition, treatment can be in the form of taking drugs
Although it is not one of the therapies, but you can also take drugs to help relieve the symptoms of this phobia yourself. Mental health professionals who help with this condition will usually prescribe medication at the start of therapy.
In addition, the therapist will also tell you when is the right time to take this drug. Then, the length of time to use this drug depends on the development of your health condition.
Here are some types of drugs that you can use to relieve symptoms of autophobia:
- Beta blockers.
- Sedative.