Contents
Fear of undressing or undressing: the phobia that surfaces in summer
Psychology
Disabilityphobia prevents those affected from experiencing nudity with serenity due to an irrational feeling of fear, suffering or anxiety at the idea of having to undress
Lighter clothing, short garments or with straps that expose arms, legs or even the navel, swimsuits, bikinis, trikinis … With the arrival of high temperatures, the number of layers and garments that cover our body is reduced. This can be rewarding for those who see it as a kind of liberation. However, other people can experience it as torture. This is the case of those who feel a deep discomfort when they find themselves in situations in which they are forced to undress before the gaze of others as in the beach, In the Swimmingpool, In the doctor’s office or even by keeping sexual intercourse. What happens to them is called disabiliophobia or phobia to undress and prevents them from experiencing nudity with serenity. Typically, these people feel an irrational sense of fear, suffering or anxiety at the very idea of having to remove their clothes. “In extreme cases it can happen even when they are alone or there is no one around and they get distressed just thinking that someone can see their naked body”, reveals Erica S. Gallego, psychologist at mundopsicologos.com.
Causes of the phobia to take off clothes
A common cause is having experienced a traumatic event that has left a deep mark on the memory of the person, such as having suffered an unpleasant experience or in a changing room or in a situation in which he was naked or naked or even in circumstances where that he was the victim of a sexual assault. «Having suffered a negative experience related to nudity can lead to the appearance of fear of exposing oneself without clothes. On the other hand, the suffering caused by being unhappy with the body can influence avoiding public exposure. In this sense, and due to social recession, young women can be significantly affected by it “, reveals the psychologist.
Other causes may be related to low body self-esteem, with a complex centered on some part of the body that it does not want to show, with a distorted view of its image or with the fact of suffering from an eating behavior disorder, according to Gallego.
In some cases, disabilityphobia can be a symptom of a major phobia, such as social phobia. The person, therefore, may be happy with his body, but feel fear of being the center of attention, even for a short period of time. This causes some people who suffer from this type of social anxiety to also suffer from episodes of fear of undressing.
Another possibility occurs in cases of low self-esteem in which that person only sees the defects of their body and convinces themselves that if they undress, they will provoke criticism and negative judgments in others.
People suffering dysmorphophobia, that is to say, a body image disorder, they tend to be fixated on their outward appearance and find serious defects in their body.
Other image-related problems include eating disorders. For those who suffer from them, nudity is also difficult to bear as they tend to be demanding with themselves and even often suffer from dysmorphophobia.
How to overcome this disorder
These are the points that are recommended to work on the fear of undressing:
– Recognize the problem and visualize its limits and consequences.
– Ask yourself what is the cause of the problem.
– Talk with close people, friends, family and partner trying to make their phobia not a taboo subject.
– Learn to relax by practicing, for example, yoga or meditation, to develop effective tools in stress management.
– Go to a professional to work out the fears, as well as their causes and consequences.
Psychological therapy is, according to Erica S. Gallego, the best option to treat a specific phobia. In this sense, the expert explains that in the therapeutic work, the treatment most in line with the patient will be chosen, which will generally be a cognitive behavioral therapy coupled with a systematic desensitization, in which the peso is provided with the resources with which it will be able to practice to gradually expose itself to the phobic stimulus.