Pedophobia or fear of children: causes and treatment methods

Concept of fear

The name of the fear of children is Pedophobia.
A person suffering from this fear is not only afraid to have their own children, but also refuses to communicate, talk and play with other people's children. Sometimes the phobia is so advanced and uncontrollable that even a doll can cause fear and panic. On the one hand, a phobia of children has practically no effect on a person’s life; on the other hand, it deprives the person of the opportunity to create strong and happy family relationships and puts an end to the birth and upbringing of their own children. In most cases, the phobia occurs completely unnoticed by prying eyes. The person controls himself and tries not to show negative emotions, excluding any interaction with children. It may also happen that his psycho-emotional state sharply deteriorates, and then he is completely under the influence of fear and a stressful situation. Trying to control myself, I become:

• closed;
• angry;
• overly aggressive;
• tearful and depressed.

At the physical level, this phobia also manifests itself and makes itself felt by a deterioration in well-being: a sudden headache, weakness, dizziness occurs, pulse and breathing increase, sweating and blood pressure increase. All this, of course, has the most negative effect on his nervous system, affecting his health in general.

Symptoms of a phobia

If people have a fear of small children, then they believe that such a child cannot be a full-fledged individual. Those suffering from a phobia believe that children cannot be communicated on an equal basis. Parents become overprotective when they want to demonstrate in public that everything is normal in the family.

The main symptoms of pedophobia include:

• panic attacks;
• manifestation of aggression;
• inappropriate behavior;
• depressive state.

Pedophobes make a lot of effort to hide their fears from the eyes of others. As soon as they see children, they immediately try to cross to another street, immediately leave the room, and sit in another corner of the room.

Individuals suffering from a phobia may experience frequent dizziness, weakness in the body, rapid heartbeat, and sweating. They have constant problems with sleep, when fear is activated, sweating begins, fainting occurs, and blood pressure rises sharply.

Please note that if you do not fight the fear of small children, such a phobia can cause significant harm to your health. The above symptoms affect the general physical and mental condition of a person.

How to overcome tokophobia and get rid of fear

How to cope with fear of childbirth? You need to understand that bearing and giving birth to a child is a natural process for a woman’s body. Nature has created all the necessary conditions to make this less painful and dangerous for a woman: an increased pain threshold, an increase in the hormones of joy and happiness (oxytocin and dopamine), physical changes in organs, etc. And modern medicine cares even more about the health of women and babies. For example, you can give birth under light pain medication.

Psychologist's advice

How to get rid of fears of childbirth and fear of giving birth? First of all, you must remember what caused the phobia. Maybe a feeling of guilt for having an abortion or fear from a friend’s stories, or maybe a miscarriage. Visit a gynecologist and get an objective picture of the likelihood of complications during childbirth specifically in your case. Follow the specialist's recommendations.

How to overcome the fear of childbirth, what else psychologists advise:

1. Do not regard childbirth as a feat or something unusual. This is a natural process for the female body. Nature took care of everything.
2. If you are a career woman with developed self-control, then treat pregnancy and childbirth as work. You must and can do this.
3. If you still like the idea of ​​feats, challenges and overcoming yourself, then regard childbirth in this way. Consider this as another stage of self-development, self-realization.
4. Communicate with loved ones and other women in labor, but avoid negativity.
5. Create a harmonious and calm atmosphere around you.
6. Use affirmations and master meditation.

What not to do:

take any medications without a doctor’s prescription, even herbal medications; use alcohol and other psychoactive substances to calm down; completely immerse yourself in the topic of pregnancy and childbirth, focusing on negative reports, stories, films.

It is important! If you cannot cope with anxiety on your own, then consult a psychologist. Male and female pregnancy phobia is treated with individual and group psychotherapy, art therapy, physiotherapy

It is important to understand the causes of fear, adjust the individual’s thinking, change the perception of pregnancy and attitude towards children.

When you urgently need to see a psychotherapist:

1. Anxiety makes you feel physically unwell.
2. Due to anxiety and fear, obsessive thoughts, you cannot concentrate on anything else.
3. Worry may cause you to suffer from insomnia or other sleep problems.
4. You have previously experienced symptoms of neurosis, depression, or been diagnosed with such symptoms.
5. You have become very whiny, irritable, and nervous. You have attacks of aggression.

Getting rid of a phobia on your own

How to overcome the fear of pregnancy on your own? The main method of getting rid of a phobia is information education. Research all sides of the issue using reliable sources. Visit a consultation with a gynecologist, psychologist, or pediatrician. Share each of your concerns so the psychologist can respond to you privately. Choose some courses for expectant mothers, take them, and completely immerse yourself in the preparation process. At them you will receive not only practical skills, but also the opportunity to ask exciting questions.

What else to do to overcome fear:

• sign up for gymnastics classes for pregnant women;
• refuse to watch, listen, or read scary stories;
• don’t try to hide your fear, pretend that nothing bothers you (this is normal, tell us about what worries you);
• choose a maternity hospital in advance, meet the staff, collect documents and a bag that you will take with you;
• Find a hobby that will distract you from your worries;
• prepare a recovery program (diet, exercise program, cosmetic procedures prescribed by specialists).

Explore celebrity pregnancy stories. Many of them did not drop out of the work process for a second, and in just a couple of months they regained their previous form. You can find a mommy’s blog (it’s popular now) and follow her example. In the first 1.5 years, the child takes up almost all of your time, but then you will be able to engage in self-development, find work at home, and complete distance vocational training or retraining courses. Thanks to the Internet, you can quickly regain your social and professional activity.

How to identify and treat pedophobia

Pedophobes are confident that the child has not reached the level where normal communication can be established with him. They show nihilism towards children. Parents show superficial affection towards their children and demonstratively take care of them.

The phobia does not have clear symptoms. As soon as a person is overcome by fear, panic attacks can immediately begin. To overcome the fear of small children, you need to use common sense.

A phobia has a physical manifestation:

• weak pulse;
• dizziness;
• dry mouth.

Such signs have a negative impact on the individual’s nervous system. It happens that a person may suddenly faint at the sight of a child. It is important to understand that there is no danger in children being near a pedophobe.

If fear is severe, a person cannot live normally. He needs to correct this pathology. To do this, experts advise contacting a psychotherapist or signing up for hypnotherapy sessions. The doctor will provide support and introduce you to similar people who have a fear of small children.

Reasons for fearing for children

Our world is full of dangers, and parents try to protect their heir from them for as long as possible. Often this results in even greater problems and phobias, so such an obsessive state must be fought. First we need to figure out why the fear for the child appeared. A phobia usually begins for the following reasons:

1. Negative experiences in the past. This could be the illness or death of a child; mothers are especially affected by a miscarriage or abortion for medical reasons.
2. Negative experience of someone close to you. If a misfortune occurs in the family or among friends with a child, then suspicious and impressionable individuals may succumb to panic, transferring this situation onto themselves and their baby.
3. The media also causes many parental fears. When horrific cases involving illness, injury or death of children are discussed in the news or on the Internet, many adults react very sensitively due to their keenly developed parental instincts.
4. The presence of other phobias can become the basis for the development of fear for your child. If a person himself is afraid of something, then subconsciously he tries to protect his baby from it.

This phobia affects not only parents, but also grandparents. In them this fear sometimes manifests itself even more strongly. In each individual case, the reasons may differ or be a combination of factors.

Adviсe

Start small - take responsibility for walking your dog.
To understand how to stop being afraid of being responsible, you can listen to the recommendations below.

Be optimistic. Everyone can make mistakes. This is not a reason to give up and be afraid to make responsibilities. Treat early mistakes as an opportunity to gain experience, become wiser, and act differently in the future. Correctly assess emerging complications and the risk of possible failures. Analyze your actions and identify mistakes. If you have to make a decision, you first need to think it over and weigh the pros and cons. Don’t put anything off until the next day, as your phobia will only get stronger. It's better to act immediately. Don't leave any tasks unfinished. No need to retreat at the first difficulties

It is important to see everything through to the end. Believe in yourself and your strength. Stop doubting your capabilities. Train your will

Start by dealing with small fears. Get enough rest. You need to be able to relax psychologically. Don't panic, feel comfortable. If you are trying to fight fear, you don’t need to take drastic measures right away. If you want to try to take responsibility, then you don’t need to start with serious things, take on something small. You can start by walking your neighbor's dog. You must be prepared for the fact that at work, you will be required to have a certain level of commitment. It should be taken into account that some professions require increased responsibility, for example, working with money. Therefore, it is so important to be able to rebuild yourself, to convince that people can cope with the obligations assigned to them, you are no worse, you can also handle everything. If you are offered help, do not push the person away. Think about it, there were probably cases when the responsibility taken was justified, and everything ended successfully. There is no need to dwell on your failures. Make sure whether responsibility really scares you or something else. For example, in a situation where you are about to move in with a girl or have a child, you may be repelled not by the obligation itself, but by the specific girl.

Now you know how to help if a person is afraid of responsibility

You need to understand that throughout your life you will have to take on certain obligations, which is why it is so important now to be able to overcome your fear. You must heal to the fullest

How to get rid of fear

Constant fear for their child puts parents in a state of stress, which can ultimately result in depression or another mental disorder. In order to live a normal life and not harm themselves and the baby, parents need medical help, regardless of what caused the development of the phobia. Psychotherapists usually use the following methods of dealing with fear:

1. Psychoanalysis helps to find the origins of fear. If a woman has already lost a child in the past, then she will be afraid of losing him and her happiness of motherhood. It is also possible that the parent was often sick in his childhood, and remembers the torment injections, pills and visits to various doctors caused him. In adulthood, he is afraid that his child will get sick and feel it all on himself.
2. Finding interests other than family. As a rule, obsessive anxiety and bad thoughts creep into the heads of men and women who have no interests other than their family and their offspring. Since the baby is the center of the universe for such a parent, the panic fear revolves around the fear of losing it. Psychotherapists advise taking up sports or a favorite hobby. Often for women after childbirth and a long maternity leave, going back to work becomes a lifesaver.
3. Awareness of fear comes through its analysis. During conversations with parents, a specialist gently but cogently explains to them that, in fact, danger surrounds us everywhere, and constant thoughts about it will not save the baby.
4. The cognitive method is an action by contradiction. The child is offered to find something to do without being under the control of the parent. At this time, the adult remains an outside observer and does not interfere in what is happening unless really necessary. This is how the psychotherapist shows his patient that not all the child’s activities can harm him.

The development of paranoia has nothing to do with a person’s age, gender or social status. Anxious thoughts can appear at any moment, but they need to be stopped in a timely manner, because such behavior greatly harms the child’s unformed psyche.

Drug treatment

In addition to psychotherapy sessions, you can get rid of fear with the help of sedatives. In case of emotional exhaustion or depressive disorders, the patient is prescribed a number of drugs that have a positive effect on his condition.

It happens that a parent himself tries to kill his baby, so as not to expose him to greater danger. If you have such thoughts, you need to turn to specialists for help. For severe feelings, patients are prescribed:

• antidepressants – to normalize the general emotional state;
• neuroleptics - to calm the nervous system and normal sleep;
• tranquilizers - to relieve panic attacks.

All these drugs are sold in pharmacies only by prescription, which means they are prescribed only by the attending physician. They must be taken according to the prescribed regimen.

Medication can help reduce anxiety

Phytotherapy

You can overcome anxiety with more harmless preparations based on herbal ingredients. They have no harmful effects on health and can be used by women during lactation and pregnancy. A decoction can be made from chamomile flowers, mint leaves and valerian root. It is taken several times a day before meals, 250-300 ml. Don't expect an immediate effect. After you start taking it, it takes about 3 weeks before the first visible results appear.

Alcohol infusions of St. John's wort, rose hips, motherwort and valerian also showed excellent results. They reduce the somatic manifestations of fear - rapid heartbeat, increased blood pressure and tremor.

Rosehip has the ability to relieve symptoms of fear

Independent ways of fighting

In order to overcome the fear of small children yourself, psychologists recommend using autogenic training. The individual must tune himself into the right mood, instill positive thoughts in himself. This is how the nervous system calms down.

You can also try meditation techniques. It is important to focus your thoughts on solving the problem. Visualization of interaction with children, pleasant time with them is allowed. You need to gradually tune in to the friendly wave.

The main meditation practices are:

• visualization
• affirmation
• breathing regulation
• muscle relaxation

When visualizing, thoughts are concentrated on children. By repeating the exercise, you can at least get rid of panic attacks at the sight of a child.

When affirming, you need to repeat the desired phrase many times. For example, a person every day repeats the thoughts that he is afraid of small children no longer lives in his heart, but on the contrary, he feels love for them, a feeling of kindness and affection. This is how thought forms are consolidated on a subconscious level, which has a positive effect on the human psyche.

Experts also note that if a phobia occurs, you should constantly regulate your breathing. For example, you can alternate between taking a deep breath and holding your breath. If you have pedophobia, hatha yoga may be suitable. This is the path to spiritual and physical improvement of a person. Proper breathing allows you to use the maximum number of muscles in the body, which subsequently relaxes them. Each cell of the body receives sufficient oxygen, and health improves.

Negative thoughts can keep not only the psyche in tension, but also its muscle tissue. To relax, you will need a set of exercises, massage and stretching. This way, excess tension is relieved, a person feels a surge of strength and energy, which allows him to achieve harmony on the physical and mental level.

Why is the problem common?

Maternal instinct has already been mentioned above. Crime reports on TV add fuel to the fire: they show stories about pedophile maniacs and people involved in kidnapping. Social networks are also not encouraging. They often post pictures and warnings about criminals operating in a particular area. Of course, all parents, having digested such information, increasingly repeat to themselves - I’m afraid for their children.

You need to understand that social networks are a powerful psychological tool. And most of the notes are made not to warn moms and dads, but to get likes and draw attention to some product or service. For example, a classic ad is placed on a warning page.

Fear of harming your child.

Hello, Oksana.

Firstly, I want to reassure you, fears for your baby indicate your excessive responsibility for him and your desire to protect him from any threat. Your fear for him is so exaggerated and does not contain any real confirmation that, without finding a real threat to his (fear) embodiment, you “constructed” the situation by finding suitable material in a completely different reality (a newspaper article), which has no nothing to do with you.

Secondly, let's touch on your mental disorders. In this format, we will not go deeper in search of the reasons for your violations due to lack of information. Obviously, they have their roots in your childhood, the analysis of which requires a lot of time and effort. Here I will provide you with information on how it works and describe some techniques so that you can alleviate your condition on your own. A person perceives reality through certain patterns formed throughout the person's experience. Otherwise, reality would be simply a stream of meaningless information for him. Our brain imposes a diagram on the situation, gives it a certain interpretation, based on the experience of each person and the significance of this situation for him. Therefore, different people can interpret the same situation differently. If the scheme corresponds to reality and leads to an adequate human reaction, it is called adaptive. However, under the influence of a stressful situation, the scheme of perception of reality can be distorted. The scheme becomes maladaptive, and the perception of reality is disrupted. (For example, a “negative filter” is installed, which allows only facts that we interpret as negative; “positive” facts remain outside the filter. This leads to depression). After activation of maladaptive schemes, a person risks losing control over reality. Fortunately, in your situation, you are quite capable of analyzing your condition, which means, under certain conditions, you will be able to control it.

Third. Let's return to your situation in which you are afraid of harming your child. This thought gives rise to fear and horror in you. It is the thought that provokes your feelings. But this is just your thought, not supported by any facts. Don't be afraid of her.

Every time it occurs, go to your child, hug him, smile at him and tell him how much you love him. This will not be a lie to the baby. Your judgment is contrasting (opposite), it is not caused by hatred, but by love and care for your baby.

Another way to get rid of a negative thought is to write it on a piece of paper, read it and tear up the sheet. Take a new piece of paper and write how much you love your child.

Third way. Take a small piece of ¼ notebook paper or a piece of paper for notes. On one side, write your negative thought “I can harm my child,” on the other side of the sheet, write the opposite judgment and support it with facts. For example: “I would never harm my child. I love him, I care about him, I protect him, I may be wrong about something, but it’s safe for my child.”

And the last method that I will give you in this answer is called “Advice to a friend” (in our case, a friend). You probably already guessed that you need to imagine or imagine a woman who came to you for advice with a problem (like yours). What advice would you give her? Calmly think about how to help her within an hour, and maybe during the day. Write down your suggestions. When you have enough ideas, start implementing your plans.

These techniques can be used for any negative thoughts that make your mood worse or cause you to experience strong negative feelings (fear, anxiety, etc.). Remember that your emotions depend primarily on your thoughts. And then your emotions provoke a certain behavior of yours. Work with your thoughts, and gradually you will feel better.

Very often women who strive to be ideal mothers face a problem similar to yours. The concept of an “ideal mother” is very vague, and often women rely on a fictitious, abstract image. In fact, the concept of an “ideal mother” exists, and it is not an abstract concept at all. If a child, being next to you, smiles, laughs and looks happy, then you are an ideal mother.

Rate the psychologist's answer: Rating 4.50 (2 Votes)

Why does a phobia occur?

There are several versions about the origin of the phobia. The first theory suggests that fear, which cannot be explained, appears in infancy. Often, when a brother or sister appears, the child develops jealous feelings. They believe that all attention will be directed exclusively to them. The older child lacks love and care. He is increasingly being sent to visit relatives for long periods of time, being evicted from his favorite room, and his personal belongings (clothes and toys) being given to the children born in the family.

The child is filled with resentment. If parents do not notice this in time, then as an adult this emotion will develop into pedophilia.

There is also the opposite theory, according to which parents are overprotective of their child. Due to excessive love, they buy him any toys, mobile devices, the best clothes, often do their homework for them, and praise them a lot and constantly. It turns out that such a child will not want his own procreation, since he will grow up to be an egoist, and when the person becomes an adult, he will continue to expect immeasurable love from his parents.

Description

Pedophobia is an anxiety-type mental disorder that is very difficult to rationally explain from a logical point of view. A healthy person experiences fear as a defense mechanism in the face of danger that really threatens him. But what danger can lie in children, since even the strongest of them is no stronger than an adult and cannot be dangerous?

However, with the fear of toddlers, which is called paedophobia, there is a strong and sometimes panicky fear at the sight of small children who have not reached adolescence. The phobia takes different forms, sometimes expressed in the refusal to give birth to one’s own offspring. Both men and women suffer from it.

Pedophobia is considered an isolated phobia, the object of fear of which is one - children. It is believed that pedophobes can live their whole lives without seeing a doctor, because avoiding contact with children is not so difficult. But it is almost impossible for a pedophobe to create his own full-fledged family with children. Even if there is a partner, the prospect of having children seems terrible, nightmarish to the person. And therefore, relationships with a partner often collapse.

But such forms, when meeting a baby causes horror, panic and inappropriate behavior, are isolated cases. More often, paedophobia proceeds more calmly, and it is quite enough for a person to avoid meeting a baby by simply crossing to the other side of the street or quickening his pace when parents with a stroller walk towards them.

But patients cannot completely eliminate the object of fear from their lives - children are encountered in stores, on the street, in pharmacies, they are shown on TV, and therefore anxiety gradually increases, causing more and more serious changes in the psyche and worldview of a person. The character changes - he becomes irritable, unrestrained, hot-tempered, the person is prone to depression for any reason. Children are annoying, and even if through the window you can hear them playing in the yard, laughing or crying, the pedophobe feels anxious and wary. It seems to him that there is danger somewhere nearby. Since fear is irrational and illogical, the patient himself cannot clearly explain to loved ones and acquaintances why he does not love and avoids children, and therefore becomes withdrawn.

Some, however, find an explanation that protects them from the need to tell the truth - they begin to deny the values ​​of marriage, family, claim that they have lost faith in everything or are simply “childfree”. There are a lot of social explanations that can be used to “disguise” the true circumstances, which are very embarrassing to admit.

Treatment options

In addition to the fact that pedophobia needs to be treated in a timely manner, it is also important to detect it in a timely manner. To diagnose the problem, you need to honestly answer the following questions:

• Do children cause affection?
• Do you want to have a child in the future?
• is the person ready to engage in education;
• Is it humane to give a child to be raised by his parents?

If a person feels severe psychological discomfort when imagining himself with children, it is recommended to visit a psychotherapist who will help accurately diagnose the problem.

In rare cases, paedophobia takes on an extremely severe form, when a person literally experiences uncontrollable horror at the sight of a baby or preschool child. Sometimes even a realistic baby doll can throw a person into panic. In this case, it is necessary to start therapy as soon as possible, because such panic fear has a negative impact on the psyche.

Psychotherapy

The specialist will be able to convince the patient that all his fears are far-fetched and groundless

The gold standard for treating various phobias is psychotherapy. In the case of pedophobia, the doctor’s task is:

• identifying the causes of fear;
• resolution of internal conflicts;
• changing a person's way of thinking;
• teaching the patient responsibility and the need to make decisions.

It is interesting that quite often pedophobia hides immaturity of personality and egocentrism. This can come from childhood and stem from unresolved jealousy of parents towards a younger brother or sister.

After the patient and the doctor have worked through the reasons for the fear of children and identified the internal conflicts that led to the development of the problem, cognitive behavioral psychotherapy or hypnosis may be chosen. In general, such measures are most often not required, because a person can overcome a mild form of pedophobia on their own, only by identifying the root of the problem and working through the causes with a doctor.

Medicines

Drug therapy is used only when the phobia becomes severe and is accompanied by panic at the sight of a child. In this case, it is necessary to eliminate the alarming symptoms and restore the functioning of the nervous system, for which tranquilizers and sedatives are used.

Self help

Mild forms of the disorder can be cured on your own. Here meditation, breathing exercises, and self-control will come to the rescue. A person is advised to communicate more with the children of close friends, as well as talk with young mothers who will make it clear that there is nothing wrong with giving birth and raising a child.

Such methods are not recommended for patients who experience aggression when they see children. In this case, qualified help from a psychotherapist and psychiatrist is necessary, otherwise the person may harm someone else’s child.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder: causes

Obsession (lat. obsessio - “siege”) is a thought or desire that constantly pops up in the mind. This thought is difficult to control or get rid of, and it causes a lot of stress.

1. concerns about possible dangers (external, such as fear of being robbed, and internal, such as fear of losing control and harming someone close);
2. excessive concern about precision, order, or symmetry;
3. sexual thoughts or images.
4. fear of contamination (from dirt, viruses, germs, body fluids, excrement or chemicals);

We recommend reading: Paid sick leave for civil servants after dismissal Almost everyone has experienced similar obsessive thoughts.

Reasons for developing a phobia

Having figured out what fear of children is called, we should consider the reasons for this fear. There are a lot of them; fear of children can develop both in childhood and in adulthood. Children's causes include:

• jealousy of parents towards a brother or sister;
• accidentally causing pain to a younger relative;
• overprotection from parents;
• features of education.

One of the most common reasons is childhood jealousy. Children are very attached to their parents and are not going to share them with anyone else. The sudden appearance of a little brother or sister destroys the established children's world, in which the parents belonged exclusively to the older child. They begin to pay less attention to him, he receives fewer gifts and care, and all this transforms into hatred of the younger one out of jealousy. As a rule, this jealousy goes away with age, but the fear of being left with nothing due to the appearance of a small child can become a real phobia.

A man who is aware of his sexual attraction to children may deliberately try to avoid any confrontation with them.

Another reason, which comes from childhood, is the fear of harming the child. This often happens in families where there are two children with an age difference of 3 to 6 years. In this case, the elder may accidentally injure the younger, for example, during a game. It also happens that younger children demand the attention of the older child and deliberately prevent him from going about his business. At this time, the older one brushes off the younger one, but, not calculating his strength, injures him. The stress experienced at this moment becomes fertile ground for the development of a phobia - the older child is afraid that the parents will find out and will scold him, worries about the health of the younger one, and at the same time feels extreme shame.

The reason for the development of paedophobia in childhood may be the parents' fixation on procreation. Quite often there are families where a girl is prepared for motherhood from early childhood, convincing that only the birth of children is her destiny. This is usually observed in very religious families. The fear of losing your life through the annual labor, diapering, diapering and constant child-rearing can lead to the development of a real phobia.

Pedophobia in adults can occur against the background of:

• loss of a child;
• fear of childbirth;
• tendencies towards pedophilia;
• misanthropy.

If a family has lost a child, often one of the partners develops pedophobia. Women encounter it more often. In this case, the psyche tries to close itself off from the grief it has experienced and is afraid of a repetition of the traumatic situation, so the person begins to be afraid. Quite often this fear manifests itself in the fear of having children, but a person can also be afraid of other people’s babies.

Fear of small children in men is often associated with partner childbirth. Some overly arrogant men try to see more than what is allowed by the doctor, and as a result they end up in a severe psychotraumatic situation in which the “child – pain” attitude is formed. Despite the fact that the woman in labor experiences pain at this moment (which is not at all necessary thanks to modern anesthesia capabilities), the man begins to be afraid of all children without exception.

The second reason for phobia in men is the fear of harming the child. This usually manifests itself in relation to very young children and infants, since a man is simply afraid not to calculate his strength when he takes the baby in his arms.

Psychologists also believe that paedophobia in men may be a consequence of a tendency towards pedophilia. Knowing his abnormal inclinations, the man is afraid not to restrain himself and cause harm, so he avoids children.

In addition to all of the above, the cause may be misanthropy. However, misanthropes do not like not only children, but all of humanity as a whole.

Fear for the child and intuition

It is difficult to talk about intuition from the point of view of objective science, but every mother knows from her own experience what maternal instinct is. Sometimes we, with some sixth sense, understand that the baby is in danger, and we turn out to be right

For an anxious parent, it is important to learn to feel the difference between the voice of intuition and obsessive anxious thoughts.

If you're walking down a deserted street late at night, remembering stories of being attacked by robbers and starting to feel fear, then you're screwing yourself over. If, being in a good mood and not thinking about anything bad, you suddenly feel excitement of unknown origin, you should listen to your feelings and look around.

Do these scary thoughts come true?

Common obsessive thoughts in OCD include phobias: killing or maiming, hitting someone on a vehicle, fear of harming oneself, anxiety for life, etc. People with this disease sincerely believe that their thoughts reflect their inner idea and innermost desires, and Because of this, they recognize themselves as vicious and criminal. This is wrong.

The thoughts that appear during OCD do not reflect a person’s true aspirations; they are only a manifestation of constant fear, an irrational phobia. Such fear, if it has any logical basis, is greatly exaggerated and insignificant.

The materialization of such fears is a fiction, and the disease is a reversible condition; OCD is amenable to psychological correction, that is, effective treatment.

Causes of children's fears

The prevalence of certain fears in each age group is associated with the stages of life that the child goes through. The body of a teenager is rapidly changing, he is faced with adult tasks - to choose his own path, responsibility, but he continues to be treated like a child, but for a baby the main concern is not to let the source of safety, warmth and love out of sight. Therefore, the most pressing fear for young children is to be left without a mother or another close adult who spends more time with them.

There are various reasons for children's fears. Many of them are natural and there is no point in trying to eliminate them intentionally. It is not for nothing that a child develops a sense of heights; once he falls from a slide, he begins to realize the danger. Pathological children's fears are often born from the attitude of adults towards dangers.

Overprotection

A child who is always told “come on, it’s better - I, you can’t” is afraid to show independence, and one phrase “don’t eat an unwashed pear, otherwise you will get sick and die” can give rise to a real phobia in a child who is used to taking adults at their word.

Making fun of fear

Perpetuates children's fear and disrespect for the child's needs. “I peed myself like a baby”—it’s dangerous to say this to a child. Humiliation can reinforce “toilet” fears and make them chronic.

Closedness

Parents' secrecy and reluctance to discuss problems can give rise to many fears. A child often understands that his canary did not just go to sleep with its paws up, but death, which is not customary to talk about, frightens the child much more than consolation and an honest conversation about the life cycle.

The constant presence of a neurotic factor

A child who is afraid of animals will not get rid of his fear if he is constantly taken to the zoo by force. Thus, fears only worsen in the minds of children.

Punishment for showing feelings

If a child is not allowed to cry, laugh loudly, or show emotion, any fear can become a chronic problem.

Infertility as a form of phobia

Some people have a fear of having their own children. The most common cause of such a phobia is a person’s past, events where he acquired his own insecurity. It happens that an individual does not feel financial support and has a low social status. Some people are simply afraid to take responsibility.

If a young couple cannot decide to have children, then in this case they cannot do without the help of a psychotherapist. This phobia is rare and does not have pronounced symptoms.

In each European country, the fear of young children manifests itself differently. Parents develop fear of their own child. Married couples are afraid to become parents again.

According to recent studies, people are more likely to restrain themselves so as not to punish or scold their children. Teenagers can react violently, this causes phobia in their parents. Therefore, many simply remain silent and refuse to have children again.

For some people, the fear of young children is associated with the fear of discovering pedophilic tendencies. This is due to the ban on relationships with people of childhood, the idea of ​​asexuality of children.