Last Updated on April 13, 2023 by Mike Robinson
Eremophobia is an excessive and irrational fear of being alone. Like any other expression of fear, the fear of loneliness is an emotion everyone can experience. Humans are genetically programmed to relate to others, so we can experience certain feelings of unrest when this does not happen.
Individual differences and personal realities influence how each person responds to loneliness. Some people are more drawn to quiet times alone, while others are the complete opposite. In other words, some people look forward to and enjoy moments of solitude, and some try to avoid them since they are not comfortable alone.
Regardless of how much someone prefers to be alone, everyone occasionally experiences some level of loneliness anxiety. Even though you can enjoy being by yourself most of the time, you would undoubtedly feel some anxiety if someone told you that you should remain alone for an entire year without being able to see family or friends.
Therefore, fear of loneliness need not always imply eremophobia; rather, it can be a normal reaction.
Characteristics of Eremophobia
We refer to eremophobia when the fear of loneliness is unhealthy. Eremophobia is, therefore, a type of anxiety disorder that falls under the category of “specific phobias.” Surely you’ve heard a lot about these types of disorders, especially phobias popularly known as spider phobia, phobia of heights, or blood phobia.
The psychological condition known as “eremophobia” shares many of the same traits as other phobias. The feared stimulus is the only thing that sets eremophobia apart from a similar phobia, like the fear of spiders. In spider phobia, the person gets scared and anxious when they are near a spider, but in eremophobia, they get fearful and anxious when alone.
The feared stimulus in eremophobia is not an object or a specific thing (like a spider) but a particular situation. Therefore, eremophobia is more like other specific phobias like claustrophobia (fear of being in a small space), the fear of flying, or the fear of tunnels.
Normal Fear vs. Eremophobic Fear
As has been said so far, being afraid of being alone can be a normal fear or a disorder like eremophobia. It is essential to be able to tell them apart because if we have eremophobia, we will need to get treatment to get over our fear, but if we don’t, we won’t. Most of the time, the most objective way to tell if a type of fear is unhealthy is to look at how it affects the person’s life.
So, you probably don’t have eremophobia if you’re afraid of being alone, but it doesn’t make a big difference in your life, and you can deal with it without too much trouble. It can be challenging to determine whether a person’s fear is pathological or not solely based on this assessment because it is pretty vague and subjective.
To distinguish between the two clearly and unmistakably, we must carefully consider the traits of eremophobia. We can ask which characteristic of the fear we can classify as eremophobia and which ones we cannot. There are two fundamentals we must consider. What is the nature of the experienced fear and the characteristics of the anxiety displayed?
Analyzing Eremophobic Fear
Fear and its characteristics are the most studied aspect of phobias and provide the most information for diagnosis. Therefore, it is crucial to examine the nature of the fear someone experiences to understand both the presence and absence of eremophobia.
To know for sure that someone has eremophobia, the following signs must be present:
It is disproportionate to the situation.
Although it probably provides the least information to distinguish eremophobia from the common fear of loneliness, this criterion is one of the most significant.
Fear must be disproportionate to the situation to be considered eremophobia. Although being alone poses no real danger to the individual, it will elicit intense fear in those with eremophobia.
Indeed, being alone need not be dangerous in and of itself. However, to classify the fear as eremophobia, the fear must be extreme and disproportionate to how dangerous the circumstance is.
The person is unable to rationalize or explain it.
This second criterion is much more helpful in determining whether eremophobia is present. The person with this anxiety disorder has an intense fear of being alone, which they cannot rationalize or explain. When alone, fear completely consumes them, and they cannot pinpoint the source of these feelings of dread.
In actuality, eremophobics frequently are keenly aware of how absurd and irrational their fear is.
The fear is uncontrollable.
In addition to being completely illogical and irrational, the person who experiences eremophobia is also unable to control their fear. This makes it impossible for the individual to control or reduce it. When a person is alone, these feelings automatically appear and only go away when they enter a social setting.
If you are afraid of loneliness but can control your fears when you are alone, you probably do not have eremophobia.
You avoid situations of being alone.
As we have said before, the only way to eliminate their feelings of fear when they are alone is not to be alone.
Thus, the eremophobic will avoid, by any means, being in situations where they are alone.
When they are alone, they do everything possible to change the situation and eliminate feelings of anxiety and fear.
But if you are alone and can eliminate anxiety through methods other than avoidance, you are less likely to suffer from eremophobia.
The fear persists over time.
For eremophobia to be present, it is crucial that the feelings of fear and the signs of anxiety that arise when you are alone continue over time.
Eremophobia is not a passing disorder that appears and disappears. It is a persistent disorder, so people suffering from it experience fear whenever they are alone, without exception.
So, if you only feel scared when you’re alone in some situations but not others, it’s unlikely that you have eremophobia.
Anxiety Response from Eremophobia
The anxiety response is another key point that allows us to differentiate eremophobia from a normal fear of loneliness. Because their primary symptom is an exaggeratedly high response to nervousness and anxiety, specific phobias are categorized as anxiety disorders.
Physical symptoms
The physical symptoms of eremophobia include the following:
- An increased heart rate
- Increased breathing
- Excessive sweating
- High muscle tension
- Headaches or stomach pain
- Feelings of suffocation when alone.
Usually, these symptoms are different for each person. However, the common symptom for eremophobics is that the fear must cause physical signs of very intense anxiety.
Cognitive symptoms
A string of highly negative thoughts about loneliness and one’s capacity to handle it always accompany eremophobia.
These thoughts are powerful when the person is alone and starting to feel anxious.
Behavioral symptoms
We must mention two primary behaviors to discuss eremophobia. The first is to avoid altogether situations where one will be alone, and the second is to leave a lonely situation as soon as possible.
What Causes Eremophobia?
There are three ways in which you can acquire eremophobia. They are classical conditioning, vicarious learning, and the transmission of information.
Researchers agree that the sub-conscious impact of these three factors is what causes eremophobia to manifest:
- Having traumatic or unpleasant experiences while alone
- Imagining unfavorable scenarios involving other people who are alone
- Learning negative facts about loneliness
Avoiding lonely situations is cited as the main barrier keeping the person from confronting and overcoming their fears. This avoidance reinforces the phobia’s continued existence.
Treatment Options
Anxiolytics are generally not recommended as the primary treatment for this disorder because psychotherapy is much more effective.
Cognitive behavioral therapy is a highly effective psychological intervention for this disorder, which can completely cure the phobic reaction to loneliness.
Also read Batophobia: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatments.
This treatment exposes the subject to periods of loneliness so they can learn to confront their fears of being alone. Their behavioral tendencies receive the most attention during psychotherapy sessions. Later, relaxation exercises can help you reduce your anxiety response and regain control, and cognitive therapy helps control your negative thoughts about loneliness.
