Everything You Should Know About Gnosiophobia

Gnosiophobia, as its name suggests, is a fear of knowledge. “Gnos” means knowledge, and “phobia” means fear. So, in this mental illness, the patient faces extreme anxiety and stress while acquiring knowledge and learning something new. There is no specific age at which a person can have such mental illness. Most of the time, it is noticed that people suffering from such a kind of fear usually try their best to avoid contact with books and people around them. However, In Gnosiophobia, a person avoids the things that trigger it and the thoughts that can make them uncomfortable and anxious. This article will elaborate all about Gnosiophobia in detail. 

Gnosiophobia Symptoms 

Many patients are seen with this kind of symptoms that can occur in the case of Gnosiophobia. Gnosiophobia falls under the category of anxiety disorders. It means that a person who is suffering from this sort of disease can experience the following physical and psychological symptoms. 

Gnosiophobia Physical Symptoms 

Physical symptoms generally include panic attacks. A person who has Gnosiophobia can experience panic attacks sometimes. These panic attacks can be very frightening to the person experiencing them. 

Gnosiophobia Physical Symptoms 

Before these panic attacks, there are no signs that are being experienced or revealed; they are like sudden actions that a body can experience while having Gnosiophobia. A panic attack can cause actual physical symptoms that are listed below:

• Sweating
• Tachycardia(rapid increase in the heartbeat) 
• Hypoxia(shortening of breathing) 
• Chest pain
• Trembling
• Nausea 
• Numbness
• A sudden increase in blood pressure
• Headache
• Confusion
• Suffocation
• Dizziness
• Feeling of faintness
• Need to toilet frequently
• Dry mouth

Gnosiophobia Psychological Symptoms 

Either than physical symptoms, a person can experience psychological symptoms also, which are as follows:

• Fear of losing something
• Fear of fainting
• Fear of dying
• Feeling of self-destruction
• Feeling sad 
• Lack of hope
• Lack of awareness
• Lack of interest
• Feeling alone sometimes
• Feeling confused and unable to connect and learn to concentrate on things properly. 
• Feeling guilty, shame, and adapting self-blame and faults. 
• Feeling of anxiety
• Occurrence of sudden mood swings

According to the above symptoms, it is considered that a person can even experience multiple fears or phobias. 

Gnosiophobia Treatment 

Gnosiophobia can have a severe effect on a person’s physical and mental health because these symptoms can limit a person’s life so much that a person becomes unable to achieve a peaceful and everyday life again, and all this can lead to a known life-threatening disease that is depression. 

Treatment of Gnosiophobia 

People who have Gnosiophobia do not always need medical treatment, as this medical help can only help a person control the problem. 

Counselling 

Among all other treatments for Gnosiophobia, counselling might be a significantly better and more effective option to choose. If a patient chooses this option, it is ensured that he gets a counselling session through a professional. There could be a lot of different kinds of counselling, but they are meant to complete the following needs of a patient:

• It helps patients find out all the unnecessary thoughts in a patient’s mind and how to tackle them and throw them out of mind—finding simple ways so that a patient’s behaviour can change to be alright. 
• Find ways to solve the complicated thoughts or find simple ways to live with them.
• It helps a person know his worth and understand how to make sense of things. 
• It helps the patient to find out all the unnecessary thoughts in his mind and how to tackle them. 

Counselling is similar to psychotherapy, psychological therapy, and talking treatment in most cases. 

Medications 

Medications are not suggested to take without the permission of a professional doctor first. Usually, medicines are not suitable to take in case of phobias. Some medicines are used to get short term relief from the psychiatrist’s problems like anxiety and depression. there are three main kinds of medications for treating Gnosiophobia are given below:

• Antidepressants
• Tranquilisers
• Beta-blocker

Meditation 

Other than taking professional help and medications, a person can perform meditation to get help to get out with these issues. Meditation is one of the best natural treatments for such issues. One can perform meditation without any expert consultation. So, instead of switching to doctors and consultants, one can perform meditation to get better results. Only the difference is that meditation gives an outcome after a long time, while therapy and consultations act instantly on the brain. 

Conclusion

Gnosiophobia is simply a situation where a patient has a fear of knowledge. A person who has Gnosiophobia can experience panic attacks sometimes. These panic attacks can be very frightening to the person experiencing them. Gnosiophobia falls under the category of anxiety disorders. The possible treatments for this disease involve counselling, Medications (if directed by a professional doctor) and meditation. 

From all of the above treatments, self-help is the most important and best way to get out of this situation. One can perform meditation in any stage of Gnosiophobia, as it is the best natural treatment.