por What is apeirophobia?
The apeirophobia It is the excessive and irrational fear of the infinite, of the concept of infinity and the cosmos. It is often related to thanatophobia, which is the fear of death. Apeirophobia generates great discomfort and serious anxiety problems.
When we talk about apeirophobia, it is appropriate to point out that this psychological alteration corresponds to a certain group of anxiety disorders, that is, to a specific phobia.
Characteristics and symptoms of apeirophobia
The most important factor in this type of problem is not so much the feared element but the anxiety response it produces.
PTo determine the presence of apeirophobia, one must focus on the fear that the person experiences when exposed to the idea of infinity.
To affirm that someone suffers from apeirophobia, they must experience the following type of fear when exposed to their feared stimulus:
– Fear is out of proportion to the demands of the situation.
– Fear cannot be explained or reasoned by the individual.
– Fear is beyond voluntary control.
– The fear reaction leads to avoidance of the feared situation.
– The fear experienced persists over time.
– Fear is totally maladaptive.
– The fear experienced is not specific to a certain phase or age, so it lasts over the years.
Diagnosis of apeirophobia
The conditions that must be met to diagnose apeirophobia are the following:
– Presenting a pronounced and persistent, excessive or irrational fear, triggered by the presence or anticipation of the object or the specific situation that triggers the idea or thought of infinity.
– Exposure to the phobic stimulus almost invariably causes an immediate anxiety response, which can take the form of a situational panic attack or more or less related to a given situation.
– The person suffering from apeirophobia recognizes that the fear they experience regarding the idea of infinity is excessive or irrational.
– The phobic situation(s) are avoided or endured at the cost of intense anxiety or discomfort.
– Avoidance behaviors, anxious anticipation, or discomfort caused by the feared situation(s) interfere markedly with the person’s normal routine, with work, academic, or social relationships, or cause a clinically significant discomfort.
– In children under 18 years of age, the duration of these symptoms must have been at least 6 months.
– Anxiety, panic attacks, or phobic avoidance behaviors associated with specific objects or situations cannot be better explained by the presence of another mental disorder.
Causes
Apeirophobia is a rare type of specific phobia, so the characteristics of this mental disorder have been little studied.
However, due to the enormous similarities that all specific phobias have, there seems to be some consensus in admitting that the causes of apeirophobia do not have to differ from other specific phobias.
All types of specific phobia, including the less common cases, belong to the same mental disorder, with possible common causes and, most of them, with the same response to the indicated psychological treatments.
Through the multiple studies carried out on the pathogenesis of specific phobias, we can mention six main factors that would explain the acquisition of apeirophobia. These are:
direct or classical conditioning
This factor would explain how when faced with a neutral stimulus, such as the idea of infinity, the person is capable of pairing it with an aversive stimulus that causes anxiety.
The idea of infinity would be paired with aversive independent elements to the point that the person would end up responding to it in a totally phobic way.
For this to happen, many factors can be involved: traumatic early experiences, rigid thinking styles, certain educational styles, or personality types that need excessive control over their own lives.
vicarious conditioning
According to this theory, apeirophobia could not be acquired through experiences lived in the first person, but through learning or external visualization of elements that are capable of pairing the idea of infinity with aversive stimuli.
In these cases, it is especially important that during childhood, the parents or someone close to them experienced this type of phobia or some type of fear similar to apeirophobia.
Likewise, behaviors or styles of functioning excessively modulated by fear or the need for control witnessed by the person during their childhood or adolescence could also participate in the acquisition of apeirophobia.
verbal information
Another aspect that has proven to be relevant in the acquisition of specific phobias is the verbal and direct information to which a person is exposed.
If an individual is exposed to repetitive manifestations or information about the negative meaning that ideas of infinity have, they could end up acquiring apeirophobia.
Non-associative theories
Other theories refer to the genetics of phobias and to affirm that fear is an innate element in people.
The fear response is an innate element that, despite the fact that it can manifest itself in different ways in each person, all human beings possess it and experience it during our lives.
Thus, a part of the phobia could be explained through a genetic predisposition to experience apeirophobia.
Although there does not seem to be a high specificity in terms of the genetic transmission of phobias, it does seem that the fear response in a general sense may contain important genetic components.
cognitive factors
These factors seem to be especially important in the maintenance of apeirophobia, and not so much in its genesis.
In other words, cognitive factors most likely do not explain the acquisition of apeirophobia, but they can explain why this alteration is maintained over time.
In fact, unrealistic ideas about the damage that can be received if exposed to the feared stimulus is the main factor that maintains specific phobias.
Likewise, cognitive factors explain the attentional biases that people with apeirophobia present, by paying more attention to any threat related to the phobic element.
Finally, the main indicator of recovery from apeirophobia lies in the exposure of the person suffering from this disorder to the feared elements.
Treatment
The treatment of specific phobias, as established by the Clinical Psychology Society (APA) is fundamentally based on two intervention techniques.
Exposure
The first one focuses on exposing the person to the situation that generates phobia. That is, exposing the person to their feared element in order to get them used to the phobic stimulus and eliminate their irrational thoughts about their fears.
Irrational thoughts about the sensation of danger or fear produced by the phobic element are maintained because the person’s own fear makes him unable to expose himself to the stimulus and verify that his fearful thoughts are not real.
When the person is exposed to his feared element for a long time, he gradually sees that his thoughts are irrational and reduces his anxiety response until the phobia is completely extinguished.
However, apeirophobia presents a barrier in its exposure treatment, since a person with this type of phobia cannot be exposed to their fears live, since these are not made up of real elements, but rather by thoughts about ideas of infinity.
Thus, people with apeirophobia present a phobic anxiety response when exposed to thoughts about the universe, infinity, or the sensation of falling into an endless void. These elements are not tangible, so we cannot directly expose the person to their feared stimulus.
Virtual reality
Exposure in apeirophobia must be done using virtual reality. With this technology, the person can be exposed to infinite situations that generate phobic anxiety through computer programs.
exhibition in imagination
Another treatment methodology consists of exposure in imagination, where the person exposes himself to his feared thought through imagined situations that the therapist guides him.
relaxation techniques
Finally, in parallel to the exposure treatment, two more treatments can be performed.
One of them, relaxation techniques, are especially effective in reducing the person’s anxiety levels prior to exposure to their feared elements.
Before starting exposure therapy, a relaxation treatment is carried out so that the person is exposed to their fears with the lowest possible level of anxiety.
cognitive techniques
Finally, cognitive techniques can be applied to finish modifying irrational thoughts that have not disappeared during exposure therapy.
References
Amutio, A. (2000). Cognitive and emotional components of relaxation: a new perspective. Behavior Analysis and Modification.
Craske, MG, Barlow, DH, Clark, DM, et al. Specific (Simple) phobia. In: Widiger, TA, Frances, AJ, Pincus, HA, Ross, R., First MB, Davis WW, editors. DSM-IV.