Failure is of course something everyone wishes not to experience, but there are people who are so obsessed with this that they lose their appetite, lose sleep, and their heart beat abnormally fast even just thinking about their failure. This is the manifestation of Atyphobic fear of failure. The effects of Atyphobic affect both mentally and physically of each person, so it should be detected and overcome as soon as possible.
What is Atyphobia?
The fear of failure syndrome, scientifically known as Atyphobic, is a combination of Latin atyches (attached Latin word) meaning “unhappy” and Greek – “fearful”. According to scientific documents on psychology. Atyphobic is described as “the abnormal, unwarranted, and persistent fear of failure”. Where ‘Abnormal’ is unusual and ‘unwarranted’ is for no good reason. In simple terms, Atyphobic means an unusual, unclear and persistent fear of failure.)
Atyphobic makes these people always obsessed with the word “failure”.
Atyphobic belongs to the group of anxiety disorders, which are manifested by irrational, unrealistic or excessive fears. The phobia now covers the entire mind of the patient. Patients themselves often do not realize that they are having a psychological problem, and without proper intervention, the disease is also difficult to disappear on its own, which is becoming more and more serious.
In fact, in each of us, no one wants to fail, but sometimes in life, this is inevitable. “Failure is the mother of success”, only after each failure do we know where we are wrong, where we are lacking, thereby correcting and improving. But there are people who become overly obsessed with the two words of failure, feeling suffocated at the thought of these two words.
Manifestations of fear of failure
Atyphobic symptoms may not manifest continuously but appear based on the situations the person is facing. For example, when preparing for an interview, preparing to participate in a competition or when arguing with someone or in general all matters related to competition, rankings. Feelings of anxiety and fear appear that gradually overshadow confidence, making the person unable to keep calm.
Feelings of anxiety to insomnia, abdominal pain often appear before presentations, competitions
Some symptoms of the fear of failure are:
- Feeling anxious all the time, heart palpitations, rapid breathing, trembling limbs, nausea, sweating or even feeling dizzy and a tendency to increase blood pressure when preparing for exams or presentations. There are even people who say that they feel pain in the heart area, it feels like suffocation
- Often distracted, thinking too much with problems related to success or failure
- Frequent problems related to digestive disorders or insomnia, especially before exams, interviews or presentations
- Tends to deny, lie or make excuses if they fail
- Easily excitable, angry, annoyed when someone mentions his failure
- Always have a feeling of helplessness in front of all problems, a feeling of inferiority, low self-esteem and own abilities
- May commit dishonest acts to achieve the intended success
- Before interviews, contests or presentations, people with Atyphobic may fall into a state of insomnia throughout the night, awake, vomiting, heart palpitations, abdominal pain ..
- Do not dare to participate in competitions and presentations because of fear of failure
Causes of fear of failure
In fact, it is still not possible to find out exactly what causes a person to have such unreasonable fears, but temporarily studies have been able to point to some factors that lead to the fear of failure. These factors can appear from childhood, affecting the patient’s mind leading to obsessions throughout childhood and into adulthood.
In childhood, parents often put a lot of emphasis on learning, exams, rankings, and criticism, making these people lose faith in themselves.
Specifically, a few factors affecting the mind easily lead to Atyphobic such as:
- Childhood problems: often being scolded by parents every time they got bad grades, dropped in rank, even received heavy punishment; being teased by friends or people when they do not do well or teachers often use words that disparage students’ ability.. All these effects can make a person obsessed with failure. Especially if parents often push, always force their children to study well, have high grades, and be too strict when their children fall in school, it will be deeply imprinted in their children’s minds. According to experts, in childhood, if a person receives little praise, they will tend to have low self-esteem in adulthood.
- Lack of confidence: people who lack confidence often do not dare to express themselves because they are always afraid that people will notice, will laugh if they do not succeed. At first, these are just normal worries, but when these people often fall into situations where they have to show their ability, it can cause the anxiety to spread throughout the mind and gradually form a fear of failure.
- Perfectionism: For those who always promote perfection, a failure also makes them feel extremely frustrated, like a dirty ink stain on a glossy paper. Therefore, they do not want to do anything that fails, beyond their own intentions so that their image is always perfect in the eyes of others.
According to experts, the fear of failure is formed from a background of self-doubt from childhood or adolescence. Children are influenced by the perceptions from their parents, teachers always think that only high scores, only the top is considered success, making children carry this thought, forming pressure for themselves. obsession for it.
Effects of fear of failure
Many people think that when they are afraid of failure, they will try harder to succeed, but the reality is quite the opposite. Due to the fear of failure, they often focus on only one area of expertise that they are best at, very limited in recklessly attacking new fields because they think they will not succeed, will be laughed at by others. Because of that, people with fear of failure often miss out on their own development opportunities, always limiting themselves to a familiar loop.
The fear of failure makes these people just live in a familiar loop, not daring to break through
Besides, in life, of course, it is still inevitable that these people have to take part in a test, an interview or a presentation. Before such competitive events, they often fall into a state of extreme panic as if standing in front of an abyss, even losing sleep. This makes people with Atyphobic become listless, lack of vitality, the ability to do well decreases, making the results not as expected.
On the other hand, people with a fear of failure also tend to give up rather than fight for something. For example, in love, if they are in love with someone and suddenly a rival appears, even though they have a greater strength, these people will give up to not have to compete, because they are worried that they will be the loser.
The fear of failure affects all aspects of the patient’s life, from health, mental health, work and relationships. For example, a marketer can be successful in making the company’s campaign grow, become known, win many big contracts, but cannot join in the fun of the people because the humor is not like that. strong, so he often chooses to hide.
Another problem that can occur in people with a fear of failure is that they can sometimes engage in inappropriate behaviors, often choosing to avoid them so as not to face their own failures. . Because they cannot accept it, they are also often angry and annoyed if they have to endure the teasing and ridicule of those around them.
In general, of course, people with a fear of failure are still often competent in some area. However, their obsession is so great that they do not dare to break the circle that surrounds them, this makes their spirit always in a state of being clamped, tired, tense, uncomfortable.
How to overcome fear of failure?
As mentioned, the fear of failure is a psychological problem that is caused by external influences, so medication alone will not be able to eliminate the disease. Psychotherapy, stress reduction, especially support from the family will greatly contribute to the relief of phobias for the patient. The treatment process for Atyphobic patients is not simple and also takes a very long time, requiring great perseverance and determination from the patient himself.
Use medicine
There is no drug that can eliminate the obsessive anxiety of failure of a person, but it can calm the mind, temporarily improve the symptoms of insomnia, high blood pressure or some other problems. other topic. Patients should visit a doctor specializing in neurology to be prescribed the appropriate drugs, absolutely not self-administered.
Beta-blockers that block adrenaline from beating the heart, sedatives to help ease sleep, or classes of antidepressants may be prescribed for people with a fear of failure. However, it should be noted that most of these groups of drugs are accompanied by many side effects, so absolutely do not abuse. Use exactly as prescribed by your doctor for the best results.
The use of this drug can also be applied to Atyphobic patients to use before participating in events, presentations or competitions to prevent dizziness, shortness of breath or increased blood pressure due to anxiety.
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is the primary targeted treatment for people with Atyphobia and has actually resulted in significant improvement. The main counselor is the one who will go deep into the subconscious to find and untie the knots that make them carry too deep obsessions about failure as they are now. When the knot is removed, the mind will become light, relaxed, and see reality more clearly.
For people with fear of failure, measures such as situation modeling are often applied today; cognitive-behavioral therapy, cognitive therapy or other exposure and response prevention therapies. Patients will learn how to stay calm, control their emotions in the face of stressful situations, and accept the reality of themselves.
However, to do this requires cooperation from the patient. The therapist can learn about childhood, about events and situations in which they were the one who was punished or scolded. At the same time, the patient also needs to describe in detail about the emotions they are experiencing, because only then can the therapist find the root of the problem and find the best solution for each person.
In addition, counselors can also arrange conversation sessions for patients with people who are in a state for group therapy. When everyone has the same feelings, it is easier to share and empathize with each other, so the psychological recovery process is more effective.
Patients who respond well to therapy will gradually regain confidence, improve self-esteem, understand that failure is not so scary, it is important to know how to stand up, correct mistakes. mistakes to succeed in the next time. At the same time, the patient also dares to break the defense to give himself more opportunities to change and develop in the future.
Home care and family support
For people with fear of failure, most of them are prescribed treatment and care at home without needing to stay in the hospital. During this time, the patient can be encouraged to rest and care at home to relax mentally, away from all competition, so that excessive anxiety is also minimized.
Meditation helps the patient’s mind to relax and become more relaxed
Families need to give the patient the best relaxing space to relax, limit mentioning or discussing issues related to ranking, winning or losing. Consult with psychiatrists and psychologists to learn how to best support patients. In addition, some of the following issues should be noted to support people with fear of failure in the home care process
- Make sure to get enough sleep, from 7-8 hours a day, avoid staying up too late
- Stay away from issues that cause anxiety and stress, let your mind relax
- Absolutely do not use alcohol, tobacco, alcoholic beverages or other stimulants
- Practice sports every day to train a stronger mental health
- Meditation and yoga can offer people with phobias a lot of benefits in terms of reducing stress, maintaining calm, controlling blood pressure, and improving sleep quality.
- Practicing mindfulness can also provide similar benefits, with Buddhists likely to refer to this method.
- Learn to be optimistic, think positively in all situations, even when you fail.
Oliver Wendell Holmes- Former US Supreme Court Justice has a very good saying that “It is not important where we get in life, but where we end up.” . Success or failure is like an inevitable thing in life that each of us must learn to overcome, but it is not possible to assert who we are. Failure is the mother of success, failure today does not mean that we will also fail tomorrow. So just live your life to the fullest, believe in yourself, keep trying, don’t give up on failure, luck will surely smile at you.
Fear of failure is a disease that many people face because as life develops, the pressure to succeed, the pressure of status also increases. Every family, parents or teachers themselves need to encourage their children to develop naturally, avoid putting too much emphasis on these issues so that their children have the happiest and most joyful childhood.
