
The word ‘Dementophobia’ is used to denote the fear of insanity. It is derived from the Greek words Dementos and Phobos which mean ‘insanity’ and ‘fear’ respectively.
An individual having Dementophobia experiences extreme anxiety or a panic attack when s/he encounters a thought about going insane, or even a movie scene depicting insane person/situation. Excessive fear of this type can affect one’s day-to-day life. Often, the fear of going insane prevents the individual from leaving his/her house, or holding a steady job. Most patients of this type tend to be socially withdrawn and severely depressed.
Causes of fear of insanity
In most cases, a family history of the disease is the likeliest cause of fear of going insane. History has shown time and again that society is very cruel to people suffering from mental disorders like schizophrenia, manic depression etc. In the early 19th and 20th centuries, the only solution to tackle insanity was to throw the patient in an asylum-where inmates were given electric shocks and shackled all the time. So, a person having witnessed such cruelty towards a family member or a friend, or seen it portrayed in mass media, movies or news reports etc can be scared stiff of going crazy himself.
A very traumatic event in childhood such as murder, abuse, or rape etc can also lead to fear of insanity phobia.
Many famous talented and brilliant geniuses are known to have had mental breakdowns. Cases like actor-comedian Robin William’s recent suicide, (the brilliant comedian allegedly gave up on life after battling lifelong depression and also due to a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease) could also aggravate the fear of insanity. Another famous case of a star descending to the depths of depression is that of famous singer-songwriter-dancer-actor Michael Jackson. From record breaking performances to facing allegations of child abuse, pedophilia, dependence on narcotic substances, reclusive behavior, numerous divorces and relationships, obsession with cosmetic surgery etc also stresses upon the fact that genius/fame/talent and wealth eventually lead to insanity. Thinking such thoughts over and over or watching these role models succumb to depression and insanity can trigger Dementophobia in individuals.
Stressful situations also aggravate excessive thoughts about going crazy and could turn into full blown fear of insanity. The phobic mainly believes that insanity could cause ‘crazy’ or abnormal behavior, tics, losing focus, saying crazy things etc which could lead him/her to be ridiculed or ostracized by society. This is true to an extent: society is often uneducated and unsympathetic about mental illness. Stereotypes such as ‘all mentally ill people are violent, abusive etc’ can cause us to shun all categories of mentally ill people. This belief is often true to an extent: many cases of Schizophrenics being ‘controlled by demonic forces or voices in the head’ asking them to do certain, violent, things has been reported. A very famous case is that of the murderer of John Lennon, Mark Chapman. The latter believed he had been asked by some “higher force” to commit the cruel act. The number of Dementophobia cases actually increased following this famous murder. It also led to more misconceptions and stigmatization of mental diseases.
Today, however, modern medicines can help prevent insanity and its symptoms, though they have to be taken regularly and often for life. Movies or news stories depicting violent crimes being committed by patients after going off their meds can however intensify one’s Dementophobia.
Symptoms of Dementophobia
Dementophobia also produces a variety of mental and physical symptoms which typically include:
- General feeling of doom, depression, anxiety
- Full blown panic attack-shaking, heart palpitations, breathlessness etc at the thought of going insane. This is aggravated when interacting with an insane person, or watching or reading reports about them.
- Fear of being institutionalized, ridiculed by society etc might make the phobic lose touch with reality or become socially withdrawn.
Overcoming the fear of insanity phobia
It can be quite tricky to control and treat the fear of going insane. However, a mixture of medicines and counseling therapy has been known to prevent anxiety associated with the condition. The downside of medicines is that they can increase the phobic’s belief that s/he is crazy, making it a ‘catch-22’ situation.
Therefore, it is important that the sufferer educates him/herself about various mental disorders, particularly the one s/he is fearful of getting. Many modern therapies like Cognitive behavior therapy are also proven to be very useful in helping phobics understand the meaning of their fear. Other useful therapies for treating Dementophobia are Hypnotherapy and NLP or neuro linguistic programming. Both these can help get to bottom of the phobia and minimize the fearful thoughts and symptoms related to it.
Great stuff!
I have visited several of these fear sites and still, not saying this isn’t helpful, but I wanna know the cures for these so people can actually get CURED for this stuff.
Besides that, this is a truly astonishing website I’ve seen since Wattpad.
It is very helpful.. Thanks.
I think have this fear, however I don’t think that researching mental disorders helps. I’ve just confirmed I had this fear when I had a panic attack shortly after being exposed to the song “Psycho” by Muse the other day. However, I’ve had a strange affinity of researching mental disorders for a few years now, and it didn’t seem to help when I had a panic attack. Another thing is that not all encounters with insanity and mental disorders create extreme anxiety or panic attacks. A lot of times when I see images of straight jackets and old insanity “curing” mechanisms I might just cringe or have slight anxiety. Corrections and criticism aside, I still haven’t fully recovered from my panic attack. I’ve been intermittently shaking throughout the day with fluctuations in heart rate. What can I do to help this?
PS I’ve also had this massive headache all day if that has anything to do with it.
One more thing, there are no traumatic events in my life necessarily to have caused this, so I’m wondering what started it? I have a feeling it may have to do with being medicated with ADHD, however this isn’t as much of a problem because I’ve had it since I was 7 and I have multiple friends that have ADHD, OCD, anxiety, and various other lower key disorders. I was bullied in elementary school because of my more…eccentric behavior due to a lack of ADHD meds. I was often ridiculed for being a “weirdo” and was once even called that by my fourth grade teacher. On the other hand I’ve blocked out and dealt with most of those memories, and they never affected me at the time. I don’t know.
I’ve never had any trauma either, just a few bullies in my childhood. It just happened. During the night this fear seems to increase. It’s not that much worse, but going through it every day is really hard.
I used this for notes for an essay. This is awesome!!!
Howdy there! This is real helpful other than.. uh.. some stuff kinda hit me. But it gives me a general idea.
People become what they believe. They become what they focus on, so stop looking at what might be wrong with you and go for what you want to make right. We all have issues, some more than others, but put your mind on what you can do right, not on what you need to fix. Don’t get stuck in analysis-paralysis.
This comment was so triggering for me.
This article describes exactly what happens to me and i completely relate to it from my personal experience.. now i successfully cured dementophobia.
I must say this article really helped me a lot.
How did you cure this particular fear?
How did you cure it?
I think I have this dementophobia. My mum had mental illnesses. We don’t know the cause.
I have suffered greatly from this for 7 years. It has felt like a terrible affliction. I am relieved to say that I am just now recovering from it because I am finally confronting my early childhood rape trauma, which provoked this phobia. I remember every time I feel triggered that I am merely experiencing anxiety and panic and that it will ease up. It always does.
Hi, can you help me out with this?