Dystychiphobia- Fear of accidents
Dystychiphobia is a pathological fear of accidents very often caused by a past traumatic event in the past of the sufferer. The event whether major or minor has caused the sufferer great fear and causes the person to take unusual and unnecessary steps to protect themselves subconsciously from any event which might trigger this fear. A common trigger can be a car accident, which leaves the person hyper aware of everything to do with driving, whether the accident was his/her fault, the sufferer will be so oversensitive and cautious, that the possibility of an accident increases rather than decreases. The accident does not have to have been major, but the event itself causes such trauma for the individual that they are crippled by the fear of it happening again.
The most common symptom of this fear is avoidance or over cautiousness. However, like other phobia sufferers, the symptoms might also be nausea, palpitations, excessive sweating, etc.
Cognitive based forms of hypno-psychotherapy can be very useful in treating this condition. the reason being is that these forms of treatment endeavor to help clients to master the fear through re-learning how to deal with the stimuli, as of course accidents can happen, it is essential for these sufferers to live with that knowledge and be okay.
