If some people experience an inordinate love of reading and books known as bibliomania , others feel a real panic in front of the book. It is what is known as bibliophobia, a phobic disorder that triggers anxiety and anguish and that is very detrimental to the social and intellectual development of the person who suffers from it. We tell you more about bibliophobia or fear of books in our dictionary of phobias .
What is Bibliophobia
Bibliophobia is the fear of books or reading. But it is not only that you do not like to read or that you do not want to accumulate books on the shelves of your house as bibliophiles do, but a rejection or adversity that comes accompanied by high anguish and anxiety . The reaction is to avoid feeling that fear and therefore avoid books and reading .
Can you avoid reading? Well, many people do not read a book in their entire life because they do not like to read . But throughout life and especially during the first years, you will hardly be able to avoid a few textbooks, at school, in high school or in any training you do.
Symptoms of bibliophobia
The person who suffers from bibliophobia cannot have a book in front of him. You cannot open a book because in doing so you experience all the symptoms of anxiety. Increasing nervousness when he senses that he has to face the dreaded situation and that it changes to shortness of breath, palpitations, excessive sweating and dizziness . That person may even have a panic attack from finding a book in their hands.
Bibliophobia is not a phobia that you can get around or ignore. The limitations that it entails are obvious, especially if it occurs in children. And in addition, it causes psychic consequences such as low self-esteem due to the invasion of irrational thoughts about books. We cannot forget that a phobia arises because that person thinks that he or she is in serious danger. And by the time you become aware that your fear is irrational and inordinate, the distorted thoughts have already invaded your entire mind. To do?
Causes of bibliophobia
Before looking for a solution, it is convenient to investigate the causes of this terror of books or reading . Generally, you have to go back to a traumatic experience in childhood. If a child has learning disabilities and is a little behind in reading skills than his peers, he can have such a hard time in class that he wants to avoid this situation at all costs.
And an untreated childhood phobia will most likely accompany that person into adulthood. Sometimes bibliophobia arises later in life due to an anxiety disorder that multiplies fears almost randomly. Anxiety sees danger in any stimulus, even reading.
Treatment of bibliophobia
Psychological help is needed to overcome a phobia such as the fear of books. Cognitive behavioral therapy is very effective , since it works the initial thought that presents books as a danger to later transform the behavior or avoidance behavior.
This therapy is accompanied by gradual exposure techniques so that the person suffering from the phobia gradually gets used to having a book, opening a book, reading a book and observing that nothing bad happens. And due to the high degree of anxiety that any phobia generates, you also have to resort to relaxation techniques that should be practiced regularly.
And you? Do you suffer or have you suffered from bibliophobia ? Tell us about your case in the comments, you can help other readers!
