You like the kisses? Kissing is an act of love and affection. It may seem that everyone likes kisses, give and receive, but it is not. There are people who suffer from philemaphobia , which is nothing more than an irrational and inordinate fear of kisses . These people try by all means to avoid what other people want so much: a kiss. We tell you what filemaphobia is in our dictionary of phobias .
What is philemaphobia
Filemaphobia is the fear of kisses, kissing or being kissed. And we are not talking only about passionate kisses that require an intimacy that we may not be prepared for, but a simple kiss on the cheek as a greeting or when you are introduced to someone.
People with filemaphobia consider kissing to be dangerous . Why? This fear may be related to the spread of diseases, for example, but also to the inability to establish close ties with other people. We have already seen how in haphephobia there is this fear of touching or being touched by others.
Symptoms of philemaphobia
When a person with filemaphobia is exposed to this dreaded situation in which they are going to have to kiss someone or receive a kiss from someone, they experience all the symptoms of anxiety . Dizziness , palpitations, dry mouth, excessive sweating, feeling of unreality or even a panic attack. All for a kiss? No, all for a phobic disorder.
To the physical symptoms are added psychic symptoms such as low self-esteem and distorted, obsessive and invasive thoughts. The person with filemaphobia is aware that their behavior is not functional or logical, but they do not know how to change it. All you want is to avoid that stimulus that is the kiss so that your anxiety does not trigger .
The consequences of suffering from filemaphobia can be perfectly imagined. The inability to give or receive a kiss makes it practically impossible to have a partner, although this is not necessary in life, right? However, it is necessary to have friends and have a social circle, a circle that will disappear as the person with a phobia of kisses stops attending events in which, without a doubt, they will have to expose themselves to a kiss.
Causes of philemaphobia
What can cause this fear of kisses? As with all phobias, we can look for its origin or cause in a traumatic experience lived in the past. A painful and emotionally charged situation that that person relates to the act of kissing.
But suffering from an anxiety disorder can also develop a phobia. Anxiety makes you live in permanent alert in the face of any danger, so fears can arise from the most unsuspected stimuli. Even the kiss, that act that for the vast majority of people is one of the best things in life.
Treatment of philemaphobia
You cannot spend a lifetime avoiding kisses , so seek psychological help to overcome filemaphobia . Cognitive behavioral therapy is the most effective to overcome phobias, since it works from that first distorted thought that ends up invading any loophole of reason or reality.
From the thought, the avoidance behavior can be modified and for that the gradual exposure techniques have very good results. They consist in subjecting the person with a phobia to the feared stimulus, in bringing them closer to the situations they avoid, starting with simple situations and in an environment of their trust.
