The Hodofobia Is a persistent and irrational fear of traveling: flying, sailing, driving and trains. People who suffer from this phobia, avoid or minimize this type of travel. Feeling away from home or the idea of distancing yourself too much, produces anxiety for people who suffer from this phobia.
Hodofobic people live with the fear of losing themselves during the trip, among many other causes, causing in itself a loss of control and instantaneous blockade. Next, I'll go a little deeper into the world of hodophobia and how to detect it.
Symptoms of hodophobia
Like the rest of phobias, in this case also a series of alterations in the person who suffers it, being direct signs that something is not working in us.
Physical symptoms may range from excessive sweating, tremors, irregular breathing, nausea, diarrhea up to Headaches .
These mild symptoms may aggravate the situation if they are interrelated with more serious ones, as may well be a panic attack uncontrollable.
The terror that is experienced at the moment, can lead to a state of confusion and anguish, and it is an individual feeling that can have nuances depending on each person.
That is, some people, when confronted with this fear, may experience physical warning signs like the ones I mentioned before (sweating, having nausea, headache, dizziness, etc.), but other people may experience such internal blocking Are paralyzed when faced with a situation related to their phobia.
Other symptoms of hodophobia could be:
- Dry mouth
- Fainting
- Muscle stiffness
- Loss of orientation
- Feeling imminent disaster
When fear becomes progressive until it becomes a disorder in which anxiety lies in the emotional state of the person, social problems arise that will not allow the individual to unfold in the society that surrounds him.
Causes
As is common in phobias, the person affected usually experiences a trauma at some point in their life related to a stormy experience. In our case, a bad experience related to a trip.
That traumatic event of which I speak, is automatically associated with all related facts, that we live throughout our lives. For example, someone who has had a water-related traumatic experience will probably develop some kind of related phobia and are afraid to swim or get into a pool.
So in this case the hodofobic person also has some bad experience in the past that has conditioned how to solve similar situations in the future.
In general, phobias of this type arise from a combination of external factors (traumatic events) and internal predispositions (inheritance or genetics). Thus, among the possible causes to be listed, I would highlight the following:
- Road Accident
- Loss of a loved one during the trip
On the other hand, there is a physical condition that can also cause similar symptoms and is often confused with hodophobia. It is known by the name of Motion sickness , And refers to a disorder caused by movement. It occurs following visual stimuli in motion, producing a concrete physical and emotional reaction, which results in an impending panic attack.
Its main symptoms, very similar to those I mentioned in hodophobia, are malaise, nausea and vomiting, sweating, headache, dizziness, cold and even an increase in heart rate.
Diagnosis
Usually, phobias begin in childhood, so it is vital to detect the problem as soon as possible, since, although it is difficult to anticipate its occurrence, it can lead to a Treatment that reduces the problem Gradually, until it disappears. It is important that the treatment be carried out in a suitable way, since a bad practice can trigger in an irreversible panic disorder.
It should be noted that we should only interpret these feelings as a sign of alarm, if they come to condition our day to day. That is, when fear becomes irrational and uncontrolled, psychological treatment is required.
It is important to note the fact that most cases of hodophobia are self-diagnosed by the same person. The individual realizes that the fear of travel is irrational and that these, condition the normal exercise of their interpersonal relationships, constituting this phobia the basis of their daily routine.
Treatment
When the fear of traveling becomes so deep as to condition every detail of the subject's life, there are several therapeutic techniques to treat this phobia:
- Hypnotherapy: It is a therapy based on the use of hypnotism. Hypnosis focuses on reducing the subject's attention levels to free him from mental and emotional attachments. In this way, he will be able to answer a series of questions formulated by the professional, without being conditioned.
- Exposure therapy : Is one of the most effective procedures for the treatment of anxiety. It is a very useful technique to work with obsessive compulsive disorders, panic disorders and specific phobias. The result of exposure to certain stimuli ends up generating new learning and possibilities for improvement in the subject.
- Progressive muscle relaxation: According to this technique , The nervousness caused by a state of alert, generates in our body a state of muscular tension. Therefore, this therapy is based on the relaxation of different groups of muscles, to gradually control our stress levels.
- Support groups: It is a group therapy with other people who are in the same position with this phobia. Through the techniques used in the support group, you can work Assertiveness Of participants encouraging interaction between them.
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy: Has become one of the most used therapies among psychologists because of its scientific evidence in disorders such as phobias.
- Medicines: In more severe cases, medical treatment may be prescribed to control panic attacks.
Complications
The fact of suffering this or other phobias, can trigger a series of reactions that in the long run constitute serious health problems:
- Physical Effects: The stress associated with phobias, contributes to the development of complications such as: arterial hypertension , Asthma or even digestive problems.
- Psychic effects: The fact of not being able to tolerate certain situations or activities that other people have normalized, makes us withdraw in relation to our personal, professional and in the relations with other people. In this way, we can experience certain problems related to the loss of security in ourselves, even to permanent depressive states.
- Substance abuse: Many people who are absorbed by their phobia, use drugs or alcohol as an escape route to escape their high degree of stress. Obviously, the consumption of these substances lead to greater problems in the life of the person.
Other related phobias
In addition to hodophobia, there are other types of fears related to travel and driving that will surely surprise you. Here are some of them:
- Acrophobia (fear of heights) Fear of high-pass traffic, such as mountain road traffic, can occur in people with dizziness.
- Tacophobia (fear of speed): Driving at a high speed generates a feeling of loss of control in some people.
- Geophirophobia (Afraid to get into tunnels): The passage through long tunnels where the subject takes to see the exit, causes symptoms related to claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces).
- Amaxophobia (fear of driving): It is a psychological emotional disorder related to the fear of driving. The subject experiences a series of reactions that prevent him from conducting normal driving.
- Fear of other drivers: It refers to the fear that the subject feels about the danger that the other drivers represent. For example, collisions that many drivers have suffered from another vehicle creates in them a state of excessive sensitization.
- Fear of the copilot: It is based on the fear of driving as a copilot or passenger, possibly as a result of some traumatic experience on the road, as in the case of accidents. This excessive concern also extends to travel as a passenger by bus or any other means of transport.
- Fear of generating collateral damage: This fear is very common in parents with young children. In fact, there are many people who prefer to travel alone to avoid risking the lives of their loved ones.
- Fear of weather conditions: The weather conditions that can impair driving (rain, storms, fog, etc.) make the driver vulnerable.
- Fear of escape routes: Many people avoid roads in which they do not have possibility of escape by the speed that is reached, as is the case of the freeways. They also often avoid driving on roads that do not have a wide shoulder to stop. This fear can trigger obsessive behaviors in the subject, such as getting to study previously the roads through which it will circulate to reach a particular site.