Monophobia: freedom from the fear of being alone
When it comes to anxiety disorders, such as monophobia, the effects the disorder can have on a person’s daily life are crippling. What starts out as an eccentric trait can quickly become a serious condition that influences nearly every aspect of a person’s life. In the case of monophobia, the fear of being alone, this can lead to lonely behaviors, panic attacks, and cause a person’s social, emotional, and mental well-being to come crashing down around them.
When you see stories in the news or on television about these disorders, it is always about the latest treatments or expensive programs that guarantee success. Of course, these come at a substantial monetary cost and can often involve flying halfway around the world. Worst of all, almost none of these programs are guaranteed to cure your anxiety. Few even guarantee that they will improve your symptoms.
What these programs don’t tell you is that many of the most powerful methods available to control your anxiety and its symptoms are within you. With a little work and patience, it is very possible to significantly control and reduce your symptoms using proven methods such as deep breathing, desensitization, and meditation. While professional assistance may be required for extreme cases or as occasional assistance throughout your healing process, you can create lasting results on your own. If you feel unable to handle the process on your own, there is no harm in seeking professional help.
The key to this is finding the root of your monophobia or anxiety problem. Most phobias are based on a traumatic life experience. Most of the time, this is an event that occurred during their childhood. Common causes of monophobia include the death of a parent at a young age and abandonment. Once you know what’s causing your anxiety, you can start working to reduce your symptoms.
For many people with monophobia, the best results come from exposure therapy. This is a method of therapy that involves exposing yourself to your anxiety triggers and then staying in the situation for as long as possible. You can start by simply having the person comforting you leave the room. When it becomes too much to bear, ask them to come back. Every time you repeat this, try to add a few minutes to your time. This provides an easy to track way of monitoring your progress. Before you know it, you’ll be able to go long periods without anxiety. Eventually, the problem may even be resolved permanently.