Hodophobia Symptoms, Causes and Treatment

The hodophobia it is a persistent and irrational fear of traveling: flying, sailing, driving and trains. People who suffer from this phobia avoid or minimize this kind of travel. Feeling far from home or the idea of ​​distancing yourself too much, produces anxiety in people who suffer from this phobia.

Hodophobic people live in fear of the idea of ​​getting lost during the trip, among many other causes, causing in itself an instantaneous loss of control and blockage. Next, I will delve you a little more into the world of hodophobia and how to know how to detect it.

Symptoms of hodophobia

Like the rest of phobias, in this case there are also a series of alterations in the person who suffers from it, being direct signs that something is not working in us.

Physical symptoms can include anything from excessive sweating, shaking, irregular breathing, nausea, diarrhea to headaches..

These mild symptoms could aggravate the situation if they are interrelated with other more serious ones, such as an uncontrollable panic attack..

The terror that is experienced in the moment, can lead to a state of confusion and anguish, and it is an individual sensation that can have nuances depending on each person.

That is, some people, when faced with this fear, may experience physical warning signs such as those I mentioned earlier (sweating, nausea, headache, dizziness, etc.) but other people may experience such an internal blockage that they are paralyzed when facing a situation related to their phobia.

Other symptoms of hodophobia could be:

• Dry mouth
• Fainting
• Muscular stiffness
• Loss of orientation
• Feeling of impending disaster

When fear becomes progressive until it becomes a disorder in which anxiety lies in the emotional state of the person, social problems arise that will not allow the individual to unfold in the society that surrounds him..

Causes

As is common in phobias, the affected person has usually experienced trauma at some point in their life related to a stormy experience. In our case, a bad experience related to a trip.

That traumatic event I'm talking about is later automatically associated with all related events that we experience throughout our lives. For example, someone who has had a traumatic experience related to water probably develops some kind of related phobia and has a fear of swimming or getting into a pool..

Thus, in this case, the hodophobic person also has some bad experience in the past that has conditioned the way to solve similar situations in the future..

In general, phobias of this type arise from a combination of external factors (traumatic events) and internal predispositions (heredity or genetics). Thus, within the possible causes to be enumerated, I would highlight the following:

• Road accident
• Loss of a loved one while traveling

On the other hand, there is a physical condition that can also cause similar symptoms and is often mistaken for hodophobia. It is known by the name of motion sickness, and refers to a disorder caused by movement. It is produced as a result of visual stimuli in movement, producing a specific physical and emotional reaction, which translates into an imminent panic attack.

Its main symptoms, very similar to those I mentioned in hodophobia, are malaise, nausea and vomiting, sweating, headache, lightheadedness, cold and even increased heart rate.

Diagnosis 

Normally, phobias begin in childhood, so it is vital to detect the problem as soon as possible, since, although it is difficult to anticipate its appearance, it is possible to take a treatment that reduces the problem gradually, until it disappears. It is important that the treatment is carried out in an appropriate way, since a bad practice can trigger an irreversible panic disorder.

It should be noted that we should only interpret these sensations as an alarm signal, if they come to condition our day to day. That is, when fear becomes irrational and uncontrolled, psychological treatment is required..

It is important to highlight the fact that a large part of the cases of hodophobia are self-diagnosed by the same person. The individual realizes that the fear of travel is irrational and that these conditions the normal exercise of their interpersonal relationships, constituting this phobia the basis of their daily routine.

Treatment

When the fear of traveling becomes so deep to condition every detail of the subject's life, there are various therapeutic techniques to treat this phobia:

• Hypnotherapy: It is a therapy based on the use of hypnotism. Hypnosis focuses on reducing the subject's levels of attention to free him from mental and emotional ties. In this way, you will be able to answer a series of questions formulated by the professional, without being conditioned.
• Exposure therapy: it is one of the most effective procedures for the treatment of anxiety. It is a very useful technique to work with obsessive compulsive disorders, panic disorders and specific phobias. The result of exposure to certain stimuli ends up generating new learning and possibilities for improvement in the subject.
• Progressive muscle relaxation: According to this technique, the nervousness caused by a state of alert, generates in our body a state of muscular tension. Therefore, this therapy is based on the relaxation of the different muscle groups, to gradually control our stress levels.
• Support groups: It is a group therapy with other people who are in the same situation with this phobia. Through the techniques used in the support group, it is possible to work on the assertiveness of the participants by promoting interaction between them.
• Cognitive behavioral therapy: it has become one of the most used therapies among psychologists due to its scientific evidence in disorders such as phobias.
• Medicines: In the most severe cases, medical treatment may be prescribed to control panic states..

Complications

The fact of suffering from this or other phobias can trigger a series of reactions that in the long run constitute serious health problems:

• Physical effects: the stress associated with phobias, contributes to the development of complications such as: high blood pressure, asthma or even digestive problems.
• Psychic effects: the fact of not being able to tolerate certain situations or activities that other people have normalized, makes us withdrawn in relation to our personal and professional environment and in relationships with other people. In this way, we can experience certain problems related to the loss of self-confidence, even reaching permanent depressive states..
• Substance abuse: many people who are absorbed by their phobia, use drugs or alcohol as an escape route to escape from their high degree of stress. Logically, the consumption of these substances lead to greater problems in the life of the person.

Other related phobias

In addition to hodophobia, there are other types of fears related to travel and driving that will surely surprise you. Here are some of them:

• Acrophobia (fear of heights): Fear of traffic on overpasses, such as driving on mountain roads, can appear in people who suffer from vertigo.
• Tachophobia (fear of speed): Driving at a high speed creates a feeling of loss of control in some people.
• Gephyrophobia (fear of going into tunnels): The passage through long tunnels where the subject takes time to see the exit, causes symptoms related to claustrophobia (fear of closed spaces).
• Amaxophobia (fear of driving): It is a psychological emotional disorder related to the fear of driving. The subject experiences a series of reactions that prevent him from conducting normally.
• Fear of other drivers: It refers to the fear that the subject feels about the danger that other drivers represent. For example, the collisions that many drivers have suffered by another vehicle, creates in them a state of excessive awareness.
• Fear of the co-pilot: It is based on the fear of driving as a copilot or passenger, possibly as a result of some traumatic experience on the road, as in the case of accidents. This excessive concern also extends to trips as a passenger by bus or any other means of transport..
• Fear of generating collateral damage: This fear is very common in parents with young children. In fact, there are many people who prefer to travel alone to avoid risking the lives of their loved ones..
• Fear of weather conditions: The state of the storm that can impair driving (rain, storms, fog, etc.) makes the driver vulnerable.
• Fear of dead ends: Many people avoid roads where they have no possibility of escape due to the speed that is reached, as is the case of highways. They also tend to avoid driving on roads that do not have a wide shoulder to stop. This fear can trigger obsessive behaviors in the subject, such as, for example, having previously studied the roads on which they are going to circulate to reach a specific place..