Impulse phobia results in the anxiety of losing control and committing an insanity or an aggressive act towards others or oneself. Are you afraid of killing someone? Is it impossible for you to hold a knife near an individual? These shameful thoughts often plunge someone who suffers from an impulse phobia into deep loneliness, for fear of being misunderstood or judged by those around him.

It is characterized by the obsessive and recurring fear of doing the irreparable by harming someone or yourself. Petriated with anguish at the idea of ​​harming those around him by showing aggression. The patient isolates himself and is unable to perform certain daily tasks because he is so afraid of taking action. 

Impulse phobia is not considered a phobia by doctors, but an OCD, which is obsessive-compulsive disorder. Constantly prey to the fear of hurting or of having injured, the fatal scenarios revolve in the head of the patient subject to this anxiety disorder.

We can distinguish three types of impulse phobias: 

• The fear of being subjected to a stroke of madness, an aggressive drive, and of harming a stranger or his relatives;
• Fear of inadvertently committing serious violence; 
• The fear of hurting yourself.

When the patient is assailed by these mental images and this panicked fear of not being able to control themselves, several symptoms may appear:

• Tremors;
• Palpitations ;
• Cold sweat ;
• Dizziness;
• Nausea;
• Crying;
• Anxiety attack ;
• Avoidance strategy: isolation and flight for fear of taking action.

Anxiety disorder is activated by intrusive thoughts which can be in the range of physical or even sexual assault. Some patients convince themselves that they are mad or that the mental ruminations that assail them reflect a real desire to take action, when it is not. An anxiety-provoking situation punctuated by the constant questioning that the patient inflicts on himself.

Specialists have not identified specific factors that can determine the exact causes of impulse phobias. According to a study conducted by Natalia Koszegi, psychologist at the Research Center of the University Institute in Mental Health of Montreal, it is observed that 50 to 60% of patients present at least one comorbidity. 63% suffer for example from a mood disorder and 76% also have an anxiety disorder. 

Traumatic events, a major life change or stressful situations can also cause a strong need for control and paradoxically a panic fear of not being able to control yourself. We observe in particular the appearance of this OCD during the postpartum period. Young mothers subjected to an emotional tsunami and a severe drop in hormones are terrified of harming their newborn baby.

Supported by a therapist, the patient can begin cognitive and behavioral therapy. This type of support consists of exposing and placing the patient in a situation facing obsessive thoughts in order to realize that it is only a fear and not a reality.

Meditation can also be of great help in learning to observe one’s flow of thoughts, without judging them, and thus better manage it.

Drug treatment may also be prescribed. Antidepressants, even if the patient has not been diagnosed with depression, can help regulate emotions by lowering the patient’s level of anxiety.