Macrophobia is the intense and irrational fear of long waits. Someone who is experiencing this condition may suffer extreme episodes of anxiety when they find themselves in a long line or when they are being put on hold during a phone call.
You can tell that the reality of these people is out of touch with reality, and they may find it quite difficult to cope with the intense emotions that are linked with macrophobia.
People with this phobia may, in fact, be aware that their fear of long waits is not realistic. Still, amid a situation that provokes anxiety or a full-blown panic attack, such persons will often be unable to think realistically enough to rationalize their way out of their phobia.
This may be a large factor as to why they experience the amount of mental anguish that they experience.
The intense fear that a person with macrophobia will suffer may have an influence on their day to day life choices.
For instance, someone who deals with macrophobia may deliberately decide to get groceries at midnight rather than doing so at a much more convenient time because they need to lessen the risk of them being faced with a long checkout line.
These people may also find it quite painful to go to public places like restaurants, theme parks, concerts, or other places that typically require people to wait for a long time in queue.
Depending on how severe their symptoms are, someone who deals with macrophobia may find that they are stuck at home deliberately more than they would actually like to.
They may find themselves doing this as an attempt to “avoid” that which causes them anxiety.
Macrophobes may feel like if they remain indoors and avoid places that may cause them to stay in the queue for a long time; they would successfully avoid episodes of anxiety.
Though this may be a great escape route in the short term, doing so will only promote the intense fears that they suffer. Thus, causing their macrophobia to worsen in the long term.
Symptoms of Macrophobia
As is the case with almost all types of phobias, anxiety is the most common symptom to expect people with macrophobia to experience.
Someone who deals with this condition may suffer anxiety that is so intrusive that it causes them a full-blown panic attack that may require hospitalization.
However, it is important to note that this may not be everyone’s reality, but there is a huge chance that this may happen if their anxiety turns out to be intense enough.
Depending on how macrophobia affects a person, they may also deal with additional symptoms of the condition aside from anxiety.
If patients find themselves avoiding public places where they may need to wait, they may begin to feel inadequate or even begin to hate themselves because they cannot stay calm when faced with the back of a queue or when they have to deal with a long wait.
Withholding convictions such as this over time may bring forth extra symptoms such as feeling depressed or sad.
Though it is definitely realistic for a person with macrophobia to often experience depressive symptoms or some other unfavorable emotions, such as anger and shame, it is without question that these people will encounter very intrusive anxiety that will influence their overall well-being greatly.
Below, you will find some of the common symptoms of macrophobia:
- Great anxiety when faced with long waits on the phone, in offices, or in queue
- Anxiety when they think of a long wait
- Unable to cope with all forms of intense emotions
- May suffer panic attacks
- Increased breathing rate and heart rate
Possible Causes of Macrophobia
There is no known cause for any known phobias, including macrophobia. However, factors like genetics and a person’s environment may play major roles.
For example, someone who has a family history of anxiety or any other mental illness may have a greater chance of developing a condition like macrophobia.
This has a lot to do with their high risk of having a genetic predisposition to suffer mental illness.
If a person were to have already a genetic predisposition to suffer from a mental illness, all it may take for them to develop a phobia such as this is some form of traumatic experience.
Many possible scenarios of a traumatic experience may cause a person to develop macrophobia and one of those may be that a person was forced to wait for an extremely long time on the phone or in a line.
They may have had to wait for so long that they were tense and unable to control the emotions that built up inside them. Such an event may have very well left an imprint that will last permanently on them.
Though this may not seem like a “traumatic” experience for most people, it may be one for a person who is highly anxious and has a genetic predisposition to develop a mental illness.
Though we can look at the wide range of potential causal factors of macrophobia, the reality is that nobody knows what could make someone develop this disorder.
Like all other phobias, macrophobia is very complex and will almost inevitably vary from individual to individual.
Nevertheless, the best conclusion that anyone can come to at a time like this is that environment and genetics may be very pertinent factors for developing a phobia like macrophobia.
Macrophobia Treatments
No treatment has been specifically designed for any phobia, and that includes macrophobia. However, there are options, such as exposure therapy, that may prove to be very beneficial.
This is a form of therapy that is a very common method for treating people suffering from various forms of phobias.
However, this method of treatment may not be for everyone because it evokes very intense anxiety.
Also, it must be carried out by a licensed therapist who has diverse experience with treating cases of phobias.
Just as the name of this method of treatment implies, someone who has macrophobia who chooses to undergo exposure therapy will be slowly exposed to the object of their fear by a repetitive but non-violent exposure process.
Such exposure over time may help to reduce the impact that anxiety has on them. Theoretically, the more a person is exposed to a specific fear, the less it will bother them. So, that is essentially the main aim of exposure therapy.
Though it may not be very effective or even realistic to expose a patient who has macrophobia to long waits during a one-on-one therapy session because the patient may have the fore-knowledge that the session will only last about an hour or so.
In a situation such as this, the patient may not feel the real anxiety associated with the macrophobia.
So, what the therapist can do instead is to help the patient learn some simple coping skills for when they are eventually exposed to long waits in real life on their own time.
Also, the therapist has the option to have their patient put themselves in some situations where they will have no choice but to wait, thus exacerbating the anxiety they feel.
Can I Take Medication?
When it comes to phobia, medications are not exactly a treatment option. While it is true that your therapist may prescribe some medications, these drugs are only designed to offer temporary relief for some of the symptoms you deal with.
There is no drug specially designed for the treatment of macrophobia.
If you think you or anyone else may have macrophobia or if you have noticed some of the symptoms listed in this article, all you need to do is seek professional health and do not self-medicate.
