Atychiphobia is an example of fear of failure. This may occur due to putting off or ignoring any activities or scenarios that hold the potential for an unsuccessful outcome. Someone who is suffering from atychiphobia may be scared to try new things, or embracing personal development for fear of failure.
What is the Primary Difference Between a Common Fear and a Phobia?
Fear and phobia both are characterized by emotional attachment which involves physical actions such as increased heartbeat, breathing, and pulse rate. The primary difference between a common fear and a phobia are:
| Fear | Phobia |
| Vital for survival | Impairs areas of functioning |
| Triggered by real danger | Caused by perceived threats |
| Dissipates after the source of danger absent | Lasts for at least 6 months |
| Classified as an instinct | Largely learned |
| Can easily be managed | Often requires medical intervention |
| Less terminologies | More terminologies |
| Usually mild to moderate anxiety level | Very high anxiety level |
| Universal experience | Affects 818% of the American population |
| Does not cause persistent worries | Causes persistent and debilitating rumination |
What is Atychiphobia?
Atychiphobia comes from the Greek word “atyches” which means unfortunate. Someone with atychiphobia tends to avoid any situations where possibility of failure exists, such as an exam, jobs or trying new things. Additionally, they are afraid of failing in relationships, failing in career development or may disappoint others.
This fear becomes self-fulfilling. For instance, if you are extremely scared of failing a test that you can never take, the test outcomes may indeed fail in the entire class.
Atychiphobia may lead to a wide range of emotional, physiological problems such as anxiety, depression, shame, panic attack or less self-love. Overall, this may negatively impact how you perform in school or work, how to communicate with friends or families.
Atychiphobia may lead to a wide range of emotional, physiological problems such as anxiety, depression, shame, panic attack or less self-love. Overall, this may negatively impact how you perform in school or work, how to communicate with friends or families.
It is difficult to know how many people have phobias like atychiphobia. Statistics indicate that approximately 1 in 10 American adults and 1 in teenager deal with specific phobia disorder in their life.
Causes of Atychiphobia
Causes of atychiphobia include:
- Family Background: If you notice some mental disorder like phobias, anxiety, and depression run in your family. You may have these conditions.
- Trained Behaviour: You might grow up in an environment where someone taught you that failure was unacceptable or less than perfection was failure.
- Have Other Phobias: Some phobias occur together. For example if you have fear of school (scolionophobia) you may also have atychiphobia.
- Painful Experience: If you have suffered from abuse as a result of failure, you may have this experience again. Alternately, you may feel that prior failure led to terrible results such as death or devastation.
Symptoms of Atychiphobia (Fear of Failure)
Here are some physical and emotional warning signs and symptoms of atychiphobia:
Physical Symptoms:
- Feel insomnia or sleepless night which is related to overthinking and anxiety
- Stress
- Easily panic and feeling difficulty in breathing
- Fatigue and tardiness due to lack of motivation
Emotional Symptoms:
- Extremely insecure and afraid of what will happen if they fail or go wrong.
- Procrastination towards work.
- When attempting any new task or risk feeling anxiety and fear.
- Sweating
- Nausea
- Indigestion
- Unable to make relationships.
There are not any tests to diagnose fear of failure. Your Yoga therapist can diagnose your conditions based on discussion with you for:
- Your notice symptoms
- How long are they facing these problems?
- How atychiphobia interferes in your life.
Your psychotherapist near me will collect your details about your fear of failure. They can ask following questions like:
- Have you avoided any tasks or activities because you are thinking that you may not complete this successfully?
- Have you ever been depressed, anxious, angry due to your fear of failure?
- Are you afraid of failure, protecting you from relaxation, deep sleep, or enjoying activities you used to like?
- Does your fear affect your personal life, school or work?
- When did you first feel fear of failure?
Your therapists will also try to determine if you have mental illness like:
- Avoid personality disorder
- Sadness
- Food-related illness
- Hypochondria
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Panic attack
Let’s Know The Treatment of Atychiphobia
There are various method used to manage a fear of failure, including:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): Your treatment with CBT therapy will help you change negative thinking about fear of failure. Your health care provider will help you to see that some things which may be considered “failure” are really positive opportunities for learning and growth. Therapists will give you helpful suggestions to handle fear and anxiety such as deep meditation.
- Exposure therapy: This therapy will help you expose yourself to a source of fear of failure. For instance, your therapist will ask you to rebuild a scenario where you feel you were unsuccessful in the past. You can try this in a healthy environment so that you can see there is no real fear of failure.
- Medication: If you have a mental illness such as depression, and insomnia, medication will help you to overcome this problem.
Summing Up:
Atychiphobia is a common fear that can impact on person’ life and prevent them from completing their goals and aspirations. Causes of atychiphobia can vary from person to person or may be affected by your past experience, societal pressure, and low self-love. Symptoms of fear of failure appear in different ways such as anxiety, self-doubt, laziness and strong desire for approval.
Unfortunately, there are many treatment options available to help individuals overcome atychiphobia such as CBT, exposure therapy, relaxation technique, stress management and self-love practice can be beneficial to reducing anxiety, depression. These all techniques will help you to build your confidence.
