Currently there is great pressure in society to be successful and not make mistakes. All of us have ever been afraid of making mistakes in different areas of our life, but sometimes this fear it can get us not to show our full potential or avoid certain situations for fear of not having a performance well. If you want to know more about what fear of failure is and what can be done to stop being afraid of it, keep reading our Psychology-Online article: How to overcome the fear of failure, where you will find 10 effective psychological tips to overcome the fear of failure.
The fear in psychology is a basic emotion of human beings. It is a mechanism whose function is to adapt to the environment and its dangers, with the aim of favoring the preservation and conservation of the species. However, fear can stop being adaptive and become dysfunctional, assuming an obstacle and limiting our normal functioning. Within the different maladaptive fears we find the fear to fail. This fear of failure is a
Causes of fear of failure
Why am I afraid of failing? Fear of failure may be due to:
- Interpretation that is made of the situation, so it is valued in an exaggerated and unrealistic way. This inadequacy in reading the situation can lead to an avoidance of it, because it is considered to be a risky situation and we lack the capacities to face it.
- Anticipation of consequences, consists of an anticipation of results from a negative and catastrophic point of view. This negative anticipation limits and slows down the ability to act.
- Self-assessment derived from the results, so self-esteem depends on whether you achieve success or failure. You can avoid a situation as a way to protect your self-esteem if you think you are going to make mistakes.
- The concept of failure, the subjective conceptualization that is made of failure is erroneous and exaggerated, so that the slightest error can end up being valued as failure by a person.
- Exaggerated expectationsThey are unattainable goals and objectives that cause anxiety in the person due to the fear of not being able to fulfill them.
- Assessment of the whole and not of the parts, the performance and the process are not valued by parts or in a segmented way, but only the final result. Complete and exclusive focus on the result.
- Dichotomous thinking, refers to thinking in terms of black or white, so that the person's performance only it is labeled as a success or failure in absolute terms, there is no room for mistakes or successes partial.
Types of fear of failure
The fear of failure can be found in different areas of life. Among the most common fears of failure we find the following:
- Fear of success: refers to the fear that a person experiences before the possibility of obtaining success in a certain area of his life. Faced with this fear, self-sabotage arises, by which, consciously or unconsciously, efforts are made to hinder this possibility of achieving the goal. Related to this fear of success is low self-esteem and assessment of lack of own abilities, fear of not being able to maintain the situation of success, fear of suffer rejection by other people and consider that success is undeserved due to feelings of inferiority.
- Fear of job failure: It consists of the fear of not obtaining the expected performance in the professional and work environment. It is usually caused by an environment and culture of pressure and demand at work, by which it develops fear of making wrong decisions and being reproached by the responsible people in the job.
- Fear of love failure: fear that affective relationships and sex will be disappointing or that the person himself is not up to the task. The most frequent causes are previous and repeated negative experiences in the sphere of the couple, as well as low self-esteem for which fear of rejection develops.
- Fear of school failure: fear that occurs in childhood and refers to fear of performance in academia and studies. It arises in environments of excessive pressure for academic results, this pressure can be cultural, family and / or school. As a consequence, people may not develop their full potential and lose motivation for studies, leading to school dropout.
The fear of failure can appear at different times in our lives and in a moderate way it can help us to pay more attention and effort to the tasks we do. However, when this fear becomes irrational and appears recurrently, persistently and too intensely, it is considered phobia of failure or atychiphobia.
Atychiphobia
This fear of failure it is paralyzing for the person who suffers it, so you avoid doing the activities you fear. In this phobia, in addition to avoidance behaviors, unconscious self-sabotaging behaviors are quite frequent.
Symptoms of atychiphobia
Symptoms that include atychiphobia when carrying out a new task in which there is a possibility of failure are:
- The physical symptoms, which include muscle tension, palpitations, rapid heartbeat, stomach and headaches, nausea, temporary memory loss, and panic attacks.
- Between the psychological symptoms they are a high level of self-demand and rigidity, excessive perfectionism, problems of self-esteem, as well as anxiety and negative anticipatory thoughts.
Causes of atychiphobia
But why am I afraid of failing? Regarding the causes of atychiphobia, high levels of demand since childhood, having previously experienced a failure for which you felt ashamed or suffered humiliation, developing trauma conditioning, personality characteristics As the perfectionism and low self-esteem, as well as the pressure from the prevailing culture to achieve perfection and success in the different areas of our lives.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
