Contents
Hello dear readers! Sophophobia is an irrational, panicky fear of gaining knowledge. It makes itself felt both at school, university, and in self-study.
And today we will consider what provokes the development of this type of phobia, as well as what exactly it is.
What is it like?
Fear of learning is most common among children. They have no choice at their age, everyone needs to get a secondary education.
But even adults have panic attacks, as soon as they even think about how to improve their skills or change their profession, or even, finally, find it.
If the fear of studying accompanied a person from an early age, and did not appear already in maturity, then he experiences some difficulties with work.
In particular, not wanting to gnaw at the granite of science, he has to earn a living by physical labor.
Accordingly, some dreams and plans have to be put aside, because it is not so easy to be realized professionally, having built a career and gained recognition in a purely working field.
Symptoms
Behavioral
In schoolchildren, the first manifestations of sophophobia begin with the words: “I don’t want to go to school.” In some cases, certain items cause rejection.
For example, a child is not able to cope with a foreign language, which is why he is afraid of this subject directly.
Everything that is connected with school and resembles it causes disgust mixed with horror. That is, the building itself, chalk, satchels, desks, uniforms, and even classmates.
In this case, he is looking for any ways that will help to avoid such a terrible fate — study.
Therefore, he invents that something hurts him, that no homework was asked, and in general, they made a weekday a day off in honor of some event.
If the excuses do not work, or the parents no longer believe, he skips classes. He gets ready in the morning, leaves the house, but does not reach school, but goes to a place where he can be alone with himself.
Often friends join him, who for some reason are also in no hurry to learn this world with the help of teachers.
In adults, this disorder can be traced, with a categorical refusal to attend advanced training courses, mastering a new profession, or simply unwillingness to occupy another position.
Just because you have to learn something, and then try to save face by not making mistakes.
Even hobby groups cause panic. Despite the fact that you really want, for example, to be able to dance beautifully, fob will not agree to enroll in a dance studio under any pretext.
He will argue that he is devoid of ambition and is provided with everything necessary for life, therefore, he does not need to prove that he is smart and capable of something. That he is simple and does not pretend to career heights. Not everyone can be executives or millionaires.
Somatic
At the sight of what resembles a school, a university, and just at the thought of classes, the fob has a panic.
He quickly wants to be in a safe place where no one will torment him, and get moralizing about how important it is to get an education in this life and the like.
He develops anxiety, that is, he looks as if he is expecting a dirty trick and danger at any moment. Twitches at every sound, warily looks at the interlocutor, around.
Naturally, the nervous system is depleted, which is why any little thing can cause tears. Because of this, his authority among peers and relationships with them suffer.
During a panic attack, the arms and legs shake, often the voice. Breathing becomes frequent and superficial, the pressure rises, the heartbeat increases.
Such changes in the body do not go unnoticed, so it starts to hurt in the chest area, because the load on the heart increases. And then it seems that a heart attack is about to happen.
It is still difficult to breathe, a person is afraid that he will suffocate. There is hyperventilation of the lungs due to frequent short breaths, and therefore such sensations.
Often the stomach hurts, it begins to «twist». There is nausea, vomiting, dizziness, diarrhea or loss of consciousness. It looks as if all body systems are momentarily switched off.
For example, a fob enters a room, sees a blackboard, a strict teacher, and simply goes limp, faints from fright.
There is a nervous tic when some facial muscle twitches, most often in the eye area. Throws in sweat, heat and the skin becomes crimson.
Causes
Family
When a child begins to experience difficulties in learning, he turns to adults who take care of him.
That is, he complains that it is difficult, incomprehensible, boring, and in general, he cannot establish a common language with either teachers or classmates.
According to statistics, more than two-thirds of schoolchildren experience difficulties with learning at some time. Even advanced and capable. And if they do not receive support in the family at such a moment, then this may well give rise to the development of sophophobia.
Lack of emotional contact with parents causes psychological trauma. After all, he has no experience how to cope with difficulties.
Accordingly, it turns out that he is deprived of support, he cannot lean on something at the moment when he is weakened, confused, frightened.
Complaining to mom or dad and getting an answer, for example, that he is just a lazy person and will be deprived of something important as a punishment for not having good grades, he will only be convinced that studying is evil.
Type of upbringing
Violence also affects the occurrence of this disorder. When adults force the kid to do what they think is important, prestigious.
Instead of motivating and engaging, they use an authoritarian model of behavior.
For example, they argue that mathematics is extremely important in life, especially since in the future at the university it will be useful for mastering a certain profession, which, by the way, they themselves have already determined, not focusing on the desires of their child.
And they hire tutors, make them devote all their free time to problems, mathematical examples.
And even worse, they take away what the child really loves and what brings him pleasure. Let’s say they stop paying for robotics courses until he pulls up his grades at school. Or they are not allowed to play with friends, because they distract from the most important thing.
Such methods, except for disgust and aggression, do not give anything else. Yes, the kid will pull up academic performance, but at what cost? His health, both physical and mental, will suffer.
Plus, relations will deteriorate, both with himself and with his relatives, whom he will not be able to trust in the future. For one simple reason — they do not hear it.
Teachers
Teachers who do not quite like their work, or do not have the necessary knowledge and skills in order to arouse interest in their subject, can be said to “mutilate” students.
Because it is difficult to concentrate and be curious about how the world works if the teacher dictates something in a monotonous voice for a long time.
And even worse — it makes you take notes on every word. Screaming, underestimating and humiliating.
In general, in this case, the kid has to commit violence against himself, forcing him not only to reach the class, but also to sit out for 30-40 minutes in completely unbearable conditions.
Naturally, at any mention of training, he will have fear. Because it’s hard to keep up with that.
Plus, if you add other difficulties, for example, at home and in relationships with friends, it is not surprising that at some point the psyche can fail. Which will provoke the appearance of sophophobia and other types of disorders.
Peer aggression
If for some reason relations with classmates and classmates did not work out, then the child will develop a strong reluctance to go where he feels uncomfortable.
Especially if he is being bullied. That is, systematic harassment, when one side acts as an aggressor, and the other becomes a victim.
Ridicule, humiliation, beatings, slander, threats or ignorance — all this is a manifestation of bullying. And a phobic disorder is not the worst thing that can happen as a result.
Often, such violence leads to the emergence of a number of other diseases against the background of experiences that are dangerous or incurable, as well as to suicide.
Treatment
Be considerate to your children or to yourself. At the first sign of sophophobia, be sure to seek help. Qualified.
This means that you should not hope that the symptoms will go away on their own. Phobias don’t just disappear on their own. It is necessary to work with fears and medications if necessary.
A psychotherapist will provide support and help to find out what exactly provoked the development of the disorder.
This will allow you to select individual methods for changing behavior patterns, reactions to stimuli that do not make it possible to realize your needs. As well as techniques for relaxation, calming.
The psychiatrist will prescribe antidepressants, sedatives and tranquilizers, sleeping pills.
In general, these are the drugs that help improve the emotional and physical state. After all, getting rid of nightmares, the state of health will become better, the fob will get enough sleep and restore the spent resources.
The level of anxiety will decrease, and he will be able to experience a completely different range of feelings, not just anxiety and horror.
Recommendations
If it’s about relationships with peers, and perhaps with teachers, think about it, what if a change of school will help restore peace of mind? In some cases, home schooling is highly recommended.
Mental health is more important than grades, right? Therefore, focus on what you managed to understand, learn new things, and not on what place the baby took in the ranking.
If you punish him and deprive him of joys for the lack of desire to gnaw at the granite of science, this will give a completely opposite effect. He will hate even more what he has to suffer and endure.
Encouragement in the form of permissiveness, cash payment is also not welcome. Yes, it is necessary to increase motivation, but at the same time it is important to form the value of training.
So that he himself understands why he needs it. Otherwise, by solving examples, only to get an hour of playing the console, he will learn little.
Completion
There is a disorder somewhat similar to sophophobia. It lies in the irrational fear of directly knowledge.
That is, a person is afraid to develop, become smarter, learn something new about himself and the world around him. And it’s called gnosiophobia.
Go to the «Fears and Phobias» section, and you will understand that there are just countless of them.
Some surprise and touch (yes, even this happens, for example, the fear of balloons), and some respond a little. For example, who is not afraid of the likelihood of getting cancer?
In general, subscribe to site updates, we try to post a new piece of information every day, which may well be useful in life.
Take care and be healthy!
The material was prepared by a psychologist, Gestalt therapist, Zhuravina Alina