Is female a gender that makes you feel scared, terrified, and shattered. Does it make you feel unconscious? Then you are on the right page as you are suffering from a phobia called GYNOPHOBIA.
What is Gynophobia?
Basically, phobia means scared or being terrified of something and gynophobia simply means fear of women. There are many phobias and it is one of a type. It’s nothing much threatening but arouses a feeling of humiliation inside a man when exposed to a woman making him feel submissive, weak, and not so manly.
Symptoms of Gynophobia
It’s not a really difficult task to track down its symptoms and can be frequently observed in our day to day life such as-
- Terrified: A sense of fear just popped inside your head whenever a thought of women dwelled in your mind.
- Concern: Whenever a woman approaches, you become impatient, your body starts to shiver making you think something will definitely go wrong.
- Less focused: When you are not able to focus on your daily chores just because of women.
- Suffocation: Unable to breathe, heartbeat increases whenever a woman approaches you
What Causes Gynophobia?
Suddenly one day your doctor approached you and told you that you are suffering from gynophobia. Your heart stopped don’t know what to do, a new name just added to your book. A new complex psychological phobia, fear from a woman, a gender we mostly have to get surrounded in our workplace, market, society, and everywhere around.
Till now its causes are unknown but some of the common causes doctors have figured out are –
- Past experiences: If a person has gone through any bad experience with women physically or mentally such as abuse, rape, neglection or assault Then he is more prone to suffer from this phobia
- Genes: If your past generations have also suffered from this phobia then you are more inclined to be affected by it as it has affected your DNA.
- Environment: It also can be the cause for this behavior because you have learned or seen in your surroundings, as this also contributes a major role.
- Experience: A previous negative occurrence by a woman close to you or whom you adore very much.
- Youth age: Childhood is a very critical age, and if a child has gone through a harsh humiliation or trauma Then the incident can leave a very bad experience for a much longer period of time.
How much serious is it?
It’s not a simple phobia and neglecting it won’t do any good. The phobia will just get worst in the future if neglected now. It will often or surely become a major obstacle in one’s life if taken lightly.
- Can diminish you from achieving your daily important goals.
- Can act as a bridge by blunting your communication skills with your loved ones. So it’s really very necessary to refer mental health care for proper treatments.
Treatment
It’s not a show in which only doctors have to perform, the patient should also work very hard to overcome his fear and to become the person he had always dreamed of. Some of its treatments are –
1. Talk therapy
One of the most common methods to treat gynophobia is talk therapy. It is a form of psychotherapy performed by licensed psychologists. In this method, the psychologist tries to overcome the fear of a person of women by friendly communication.
2. Exposure therapy
In Exposure Therapy, the doctor tries to expose all the traits of a woman their behavior, mood swings, ways of communication, and try to teach you how you should respond to all these changes. They try to give you a brief idea of a woman so that you can prevail over your fear and after some time you are exposed to a real-life woman to check your progress in handling your fear.
3. Medicines Therapy
This therapy is one of the best ways to cure gynophobia or any other kind of phobia. But if you want to speed up your recovery then you can take medications prescribed by your therapist. One of the most common catalysts to speed up your therapy is Beta-blockers. One of the most recommended medications to lower down your anxiety or depression but it should be taken in a controlled amount and as per therapist prescriptions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is gynophobia a rare phobia?
It’s not a rare phobia and anyone can be affected by it if they have gone through a turmoil of bad experiences that have been directly or indirectly taken place because of a woman.
How much time does it require to get cured?
There is no specific time limit as to how much time will it take to get cured. It depends on which stage you are in and how much time your therapist thinks they should give to you.
Can it be fully cured?
It depends on how effective your therapy is and how much persistent you are to cure yourself and to fade away from your fear of women.
Is the treatment effective?
Yes, all the treatments and therapy mentioned above are really useful but it’s not only the treatment but how much effort you yourself are taking to cure it.
Is it possible that after proper treatment this phobia can still affect me?
It can only be possible if you have not taken enough pains to gain your desired outcome. You must have thought that your phobia has vanished but it was somewhere hidden inside you. So you should consult your therapist again and this time can really make this phobia go away.
What is gynophobia in simple words?
Gynophobia means fear of women. It could be any type of fear like; them looking at you, coming close to you, talking to you, touching you, etc. It basically means dislike towards women. Any male can have this phobia there is no age group, from child to adult to an old man anyone can have this fear.
What are all the symptoms of gynophobia?
Symptoms of gynophobia include:
- Overwhelming fear.
- Uncontrollable anxiety.
- The anxiety of closeness.
- Not wanting to socialize with women.
- Stiffness in the chest.
- Sweating.
- Fast heartbeat.
- Loss of breath.
- Dizziness when you are near women.
- Upset or gloated stomach.
How should we realize if a kid is suffering from gynophobia?
They will start crying and refuse to leave their male parent. People don’t realize it until the kid grows up and start explaining to them that they don’t like being with women in particular.
Symptoms can be: –
- Starts crying around women.
- Becomes clingy.
- Pulls hair.
- Refuses to eat.
Seeing a doctor in Gynophobia would help?
Gynophobia will just look like a simple personality disorder, but in the future, it will become a huge obstacle for you to grow as an individual. You should consult a doctor if women are causing you anxiety. Your doctor can refer you to some mental health specialist to look after your case, but you should see a doctor if you feel you are suffering from gynophobia.
How gynophobia can affect your everyday activities?
Gynophobia can affect your daily life in many ways. Some of them are:
- It can negatively affect your work at your workplace and your performance at your school and college.
- Hinders social interaction and relationships.
- Spoils your other day-to-day activities.
Is it possible to treat gynophobia?
Yes, it is possible to treat gynophobia. There are some therapies to treat gynophobia, like Exposure therapy, Behavioral therapy
Medications– psychotherapy could be a very good treatment for gynophobia. Medications will help you reduce your anxiety and panic attacks. They are used for a speedy recovery.
How is gynophobia developed?
Cause or development of this phobia can include: –
- Previous bad experiences with women
- Physical abuse
- Rape threats
- A feeling of being neglected
- Sexual harassment
- Assaults
- Genetics
- Surrounding plays a very big role
- Behavior learned from parents towards women
Is it possible to cure all the phobias?
Almost all phobias can be treated and cured. Few phobias can be cured through gradual exposure to that person’s phobia to see how he reacts and find ways to treat it. Some phobias are cured through psychotherapy and then some other phobias are treated and cured with the help of medications.
Is gynophobia a real phobia?
Yes, gynophobia is not that common phobia that’s why few people think it isn’t a phobia, but gynophobia is a real phobia. It is a phobia and fear of women.
Can a woman suffer from gynophobia?
Gynophobia is a fear of women, it doesn’t mean it necessarily has to be a phobia in which only men fear women. Women can suffer from gynophobia too; women can have a dislike towards a woman. This means whether it’s a man or a woman, anyone can have gynophobia.