Bibliophobia: Symptoms, Causes and Treatment

The Bibliophobia Is the response of exaggerated and irrational fear to books, or to reading specific texts.

This type of phobia is caused by negative experiences with books, or reading, which can be generated by lack of understanding of the text, neurological disorders developed in early childhood, mockery or some kind of physical and psychological abuse by not reading correctly...

This phobia produces diverse symptoms such as excessive sweating, anxiety and tremors that cause discomfort and significant difficulties in the environments where the individual develops.

Causes of Bibliophobia

Historical causes

The term bibliophobia has been known since antiquity. It is found in texts from the eighteenth century, where it was believed that the irrational fear of books came from multiple factors such as restrictions, lack of reading, superstitions, prudery, jealous apprentices, pedantry and political fears.

It was also believed to be caused by the absence of experiences with books during childhood, although they had discovered that there were cases of children who had been exposed to the books and also presented bibliophrobia. That is, these experiences did not immunize the phobia.

In addition, it was believed that this resounding rejection was originated by the lack of freedom to choose a book, since previously they were not allowed to read all kinds of texts. There were banned books because their content went against the beliefs of a society or culture. In the same way, there were obligatory readings that allowed indoctrination.

According to Jackson (1932), this phobia was caused by superstitions, since there were people sacrificed for their knowledge, as Galileo during the Inquisition . It was also fostered by the pedantry of certain well-known writers, who preferred to find the means to prevent a new knowledge from arising that denied one that they had proposed.

In addition this was also produced by political fears, to experiment and observe how they set fire to libraries, letting you know that if you decided to opt for these readings your life could be in danger.

At present, where the restrictions are much smaller, the scientific advances have been able to demonstrate other causes to generate bibliofobia.

Traumatic experiences in childhood

Bibliophobia is associated with traumatic experiences of childhood, such as mistreatment or bad experiences with a literary genre.

Such experiences may be related to some physical or psychological abuse - bullying - that the child is exercised because of his difficulty in reading.

Negative experiences may be associated with a literary genre or subgenre. For example, with some suspense book that produces Anxiety and fear in the child , Generating irrational terror or widespread imminent rejection.

Illiteracy

Concealed illiteracy can also be a trigger for bibliophysics. Some people who do not know how to read properly prefer to omit it for shame or avoid an alleged rejection.

Interests of the individual

It will also depend on the interests of the individual and the understanding of the text. If we instigate the person to read books that are not at their level of knowledge, or their interest in them is void, they are likely to develop aversion to such texts, as to others of the same genre.

One of the causes of greater incidence could be a misdiagnosis or an unrealized diagnosis.

That is, in some children can present the bibliophobia because of the difficulty they have in reading, which may be the product of a neurodevelopmental disorder such as: specific learning disorder ( dyslexia ), Attention deficit disorder With or without hyperactivity, communication disorder and intellectual disability.

In addition, we may encounter reading difficulties in children with language developmental disorders:

• Specific learning disorder C On difficulty in reading. This is characterized as dyslexia, a neurobiological and epigenetic disorder that affects the learning of written reading, as well as the efficient recognition of words expressed through a visual pattern.
• Attention-deficit / hyperactivity disorder : Impaired inattention and / or hyperactivity and impulsivity that interfere in their development and daily functioning.
• Language disorder : Difficulties in acquiring and using language, to express and understand it. The limitations include school or work performance, effective communication, socialization, and combination of these.
• Phonological disorder : Difficulty interfering with speech production and intelligibility.
• Disorder of childhood onset fluency : Alterations in fluency, rhythm and temporal organization of speech.
• Intellectual disability : Limitations of intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior. Limiting the activities of daily life. It can be mild, moderate, severe or profound.

Disorders with which it is related

Bibliophobia may be related to disorders such as: epilepsy , Alzheimer , schizophrenia or Bipolar disorder .

• Epilepsy : According to the International League Against Epilepsy (2014), it is a brain disease defined by a pathological and enduring tendency to present recurrent seizures.
• Alzheimer disease : Degenerative mental illness that begins in the elderly (over 50 years). Its symptoms correspond to loss of memory, confusion, difficulty in thinking, and changes in language, behavior and personality.
• Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders : This spectrum is marked by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thinking, very disorganized or abnormal motor behavior, and less prominent negative symptoms (decreased emotional expression and decreased activity on its own initiative).
• Bipolar disorder : People experiencing manic episodes or crises and major depressive episodes or major depressive episodes and hypomanic crises.

symptom

People with Bibliophobia feel irrational fear or hatred of books or reading, As we mentioned earlier. The most common symptoms are:

• Excessive sweating
• Fear of Fear
• Feeling of panic: irrational and excessive fear that can cause the flight, paralyze the subject, or end in a panic attack
• Feeling of terror
• Anxiety: constant worrying feeling, which produces recurrent thoughts, fear, panic, excessive sweating, tremor in the extremities
• Accelerated heart rate: accelerated palpitations called tachycardia
• Hyperventilation: shortness of breath, seen as fast and short breath
• Tremors throughout the body or extremities
• Diffuse or confused thoughts: about the situation or the object that produces them.

Treatments

In the Bibliophobia multiple treatments are applied to date. As primary treatment we have the medication, at the moment that the person is suffering persistent and repetitive discomfort.

It is prescribed by a medical psychiatrist to decrease and decrease the symptoms that accuse the individual. It should be kept in mind that the signs disappear for a certain time, while taking the appropriate medication, although the disorder with medication is not cured.

Another treatment option is psychotherapy, corresponding to some streams. The most used in phobias are behavioral therapy, Cognitive-behavioral therapy Y Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). There are also alternative therapies, such as hypnotherapy and energy psychology.

Behavioral and cognitive-behavioral therapy

Behavioral therapists treat phobias with classical conditioning .

Cognitive-behavioral work the"here and now", directly with the symptomatology that the person is presenting. In phobias it is commonly used relaxation , Cognitive restructuring and gradual exposure.

Likewise, within the cognitive-behavioral chain, systematic desensitization is more successfully applied, where the therapist gradually exposes the person to his or her phobia. First, it is done in a fully controlled environment, such as the office, then homework is sent home.

NLP

NLP is based on the mental processes, and on the use and value we give to the word, that is, the way of expressing reflects the internal representations of our problems. In this current work is the reprogramming of beliefs, behaviors and thoughts, making the person aware of his words, gestures and facial expressions that cause and detonate irrational fear

Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy is an alternative treatment based on relaxation, intense concentration and focused attention on one or several topics that you want to try to make a modification of thoughts, emotions evoked by a particular situation or object, or to find the psychological cause of disorder.

A very high state of consciousness is called trance. The therapist will guide the person in targeting their painful thoughts, emotions and memories to explore them and find the trigger of symptoms.

Hypnosis is widely used to recover thoughts and memories that are in the unconscious. However, there may be the danger of creating false memories without any therapeutic intention, so it is of vital importance not to carry it out in psychotic or dissociative disorders. If it can be carried out in sleep disorders , eating disorders, Onicophagy , Anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, phobias, substance-related disorders (tobacco, alcohol, etc.) and in Gambling .

Energy Psychology

Energy psychology is a therapy that is based on the mind-body connection. Therefore, it focuses on the relationship between thoughts, emotions, behaviors and the individual's bioenergetic system.

This current is the integration of the theory of meridian acupuncture, neurosciences, quantum mechanics and physics, biology, medicine, chiropractic and psychology. It has been used in anxiety disorders, depressives, phobias, pain, stress...

Bibliographic references

1. American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author
2. Energy Psychology - Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology. (2016)
3. Fisher, R., Acevedo, C., Arzimanoglou, A., et al. (2014). ILAE Official Report: A Practical Clinical Definition of Epilepsy. Epilepsy, 55 (4): 475-482
4. Frognall, T., (2010). Bibliophobia: Remarks on the Present Languid and Depressed State of Literature and the Book Trade. In a Letter Addressed to the Author of the Bibliomania, New York, United States of America: Cambridge University Press
5. Jackson, H., (1932). The Fear of Books, Chicago, United States of America: University of Illinois Press.
6. Bodenhamer, B., Hall, M., (2001). The User's Manual for the Brain Volume I: The complete manual for neuro-linguistic programming practitioner certification. Carmarthen: Crown House
7. [Links] Concept and Neuropsychological Basis of Dyslexia. Madrid.