What is Cherophobia or Fear of Happiness & How is it Treated?

Cherophobia can be defined as the fear of happiness, joy, bliss, or celebrating. Chero is a Greek word, which means to rejoice happiness or gaiety whereas Phobia in Greek means fear. Cherophobia or fear of happiness is the name given to a specific fear.

Cherophobia or fear of happiness generally emerges from a blend of external events especially traumatic incidents and internal predispositions which can be genetics or hereditary. Cherophobia or fear of happiness can be traced back to a particular triggering event; generally a traumatic incident happened at a very young age. Cherophobia or fear of happiness have more perplexing causes that are not entirely known right now. It is believed that genetics, hereditary qualities, and brain chemistry consolidate with life experiences to play a noteworthy part in the development of cherophobia or fear of happiness.

• History of compelling traumatic incidents – sudden passing of family/companion, sudden loss of money related backing can cause of cherophobia or fear of happiness.
• Genetics or heredity.
• A traumatic experience at a young age.
• Major clinical depression.
• Anxiety disorder.
• Schizophrenia.
• Extreme measure of guilt and hatred against self and society.

In cherophobia or fear of happiness, the signs and symptoms vary from person to person relying upon their level of apprehension. The signs and symptoms mainly include extreme dread, anxiety and anything connected with frenzy, for example, rapid breathing, shortness of breath, sporadic pulse, sweating, dry mouth, nauseam excessive sweating, inability to well-spoken words or sentences, and shaking. Mainly these signs and symptoms rely on the level of fear experience. The level of fear depends upon:

• Mild to moderate kind of fear when- knowing that the individual will be exposed to happy or blissful circumstance later on, extreme restlessness and fear begins to create in the psyche. Being exposed to the symptoms differs by individual relying upon their level of fear.
• Moderate to extreme fear – On all of a sudden being exposed to a cheerful circumstance, extreme restlessness or fear emerges.

The restlessness and fear decipher into the accompanying signs and symptoms:

• Extreme nervousness is a symptom of cherophobia or fear of happiness. Mind shelled with a huge number of musings, the overwhelming on the most proficient method to maintain a strategic distance from this circumstance.
• Shortness of breath, fast breathing, sporadic pulse, sweating, unreasonable sweating, sickness, dry mouth, queasiness, failure to eloquent words or sentences, and shaking is also seen in cherophobia or fear of happiness.
• Another symptom of cherophobia or fear of happiness is extreme restlessness. Individual not ready to sit at one spot, and he/she flees from the circumstance.

Signs and symptoms of cherophobia or fear of happiness can be physical, emotional and mental. The nervousness and fear can go from mild sentiments of worry to a full blown panic attack.

• Obsessive thoughts.
• Difficulty considering something besides the fear.
• Really awful pictures and/or films of joy.
• Feelings of falsity or of being isolates from yourself.
• Fear of losing control or going insane.
• Fear of blacking out.

• Anticipatory anxiety is an emotional symptom of cherophobia or fear of happiness. Persistent agonizing over up and coming occasions that include joy.
• Another emotional sign of cherophobia or fear of happiness is terror. An industrious and overpowering trepidation of the same.
• A serious intuition to leave the circumstance (which is intense when its simply in the psyche) is also a symptom which is seen.

While not usually experienced in the meantime as cherophobia or fear of happiness scene, we find that overall when they consider their past; most patients have raised levels of one or a greater amount of: Anger, fear, hurt, sadness, and guilt.

• Dizziness, shaking of hands and legs are symptoms of cherophobia or fear of happiness.
• Shortness of breath or covering sensation.
• Palpitations, rapid beating of heart, or quickened heart rate.
• Chest pain or uneasiness.
• Trembling or shaking.
• Feeling of gagging.
• Sweating.
• Nausea or stomach trouble.
• Feeling precarious, bleary eyed, dazed, or black out.
• Numbness or shivering sensations.
• Cold or hot flashes.

A truly aggravating episode from the past is often the underlying cause of cherophobia or fear of happiness. The psyche will, in a few circumstances, create the fear without an evident cause. The answer to this is to reveal the deep source and replace those negative memories with positive ones. The risk factors for cherophobia or fear of happiness are:

• Individuals who have inclinations of anxiety are at risk for cherophobia or fear of happiness.
• One who seems quite ‘nervous’.
• If you encounter adrenal inadequacy.

There are no lab tests for diagnosing cherophobia or fear of happiness. Rather, the analysis depends on an exhaustive clinical meeting and demonstrative rules. Your specialist will make inquiries about your manifestations and take a therapeutic, psychiatric and social history.

In case this fear is creating antagonism in your life. The specialist may ask the accompanying inquiries:

• Do you get sick just by the thought of joy or when you have an attack of cherophobia?
• Do you immediately get dry mouth and clammy palms?
• Does your heart start to pound?
• Do your legs swing like elastic under the heaviness of your own body?

Exposure therapy is most effective treating cherophobia or fear of happiness. If you think you suffer with cherophobia or fear of happiness, you need to make an appointment with your general physician about it who can then suggest you a psychotherapist. Most of the therapist starts the treatment with exposure therapy along with some medicines.

Exposure therapy is a type of cognitive behavioral treatment. It includes placing yourself into progressively unpleasant situations including your specific fear and beating your apprehension with new learning. The procedure generally has five stages:

• Evaluation. You portray your trepidation to your advisor and recall anything in your past that may have added to it.
• Feedback. Your specialist offers an assessment of your cherophobia or fear of happiness and proposes a treatment arrangement.
• Develop dread order. You and your advisor make a rundown of situations including your trepidation, every more exceptional than the last.
• Exposure. You start presenting yourself to the things on the rundown, beginning with the minimum alarming circumstance. You begin to understand that frenzy decreases inside a couple of minutes of experiencing your trepidation.
• Building. As you get to be agreeable at every stage, you proceed onward to progressively troublesome circumstances.

The uplifting news is that this treatment is quite successful in treating many people with cherophobia or fear of happiness; however it implies finding a specialist who can be trusted to lead a cherophobia or fear of happiness through some extremely troublesome circumstances. Utilizing extra cognitive behavioral treatment systems can offer assistance. For instance, a specialist can help a patient understand that their contemplations about joy are twisted and show them to think more practically. He or she may likewise show profound breathing or unwinding activities to diminish the fear.

Talk therapy or psychotherapy is the next best way to treat cherophobia or fear of happiness. On the off chance that self improvement systems have not worked, converse with your general physician. You may require proficient assistance from a specialist (a specialist who has practical experience in emotional well-being conditions) or other therapist. For some individuals, the best treatment for fears is talk therapy.

There are various types of talk and obviously the viability of any treatment depends upon who you are working with.

Your general physician may elude you to a psychiatrist. Most of the psychiatrists are viewed as qualified to work with cherophobia or fear of happiness and some represent considerable authority in treating fears. The process can be slow and sometimes the results can be poor, because no matter how proficient the psychiatrist is, he/she is not trained to deal with severe type of phobias.

Behavioral treatment includes several face to face sessions with a trained therapist who knows how to treat cherophobia or fear of happiness. The guideline of this methodology involves exposure and a steady desensitization to cherophobia or fear of happiness. Amid the sessions, you figure out how to endure the nervousness activated by exposure with the assistance of unwinding systems.

The amount of exposure is mainly increased amid your sessions. For instance, the early sessions may include just envisioning or taking a gander at photos of joy.

Your specialist may request you to work on your thoughts about what is going on. For instance, when the anxiety connected with fear starts, and you feel dazed, you may consequently get to be frightened and think you are in risk. Your therapist helps you to supplant this with a more realistic thought, for example, “It is just dizziness and will soon fade away.”

For a few people cognitive behavioral therapy or CBt is a good option for treatment of cherophobia or fear of happiness. This includes activities to adjust the unseemly patterns of thinking you have created and the conduct that stems from them.

As per a leaflet from the American Psychiatric Association this is what you can anticipate from a qualified specialist – in the event that you “carefully follow the outlined treatment plan”.

• Noticeable change in 15 to 20 weeks.
• An enormous improvement within one year is seen with cognitive behavioral therapy.

Medicines are progressively used to treat even gentle cases of cherophobia or fear of happiness. Any specialist can recommend a range of meds and drug alternatives for cherophobia or fear of happiness.

Different medicines are used to treat phobias like cherophobia or fear of happiness, including customary anti anxiety drugs such as benzodiazepines, and more up to date alternatives like antidepressants and beta-blockers.

Medications can appear to be extremely compelling in the short term; however they are not a cure. Anxiety medication can give impermanent alleviation, yet it does not treat the fundamental reason for the turmoil. When you quit taking the medication, typically every one of the symptoms of Cherophobia return in full constrain.

• Beta Blockers: Beta blockers for cherophobia or fear of happiness are utilized for relieving performance anxiety. It works by blocking the passage of adrenaline as soon as it develops when you are anxious. They can control the physical symptoms but cannot influence the emotional symptoms of anxiety.
• Antidepressants: Antidepressants can be useful when the cherophobia or fear of happiness is debilitating and severe. Three particular antidepressants which are widely used are Zoloft, Effexor and Paxil which are been endorsed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for cherophobia or fear of happiness.
• Benzodiazepines: Benzodiazepines are quick acting anti anxiety drugs prescribed for cherophobia or fear of happiness. But they are addictive and sedating, so they are commonly endorsed just when different drugs have not worked.