Business owners are being encouraged more now than ever before to let their employees know when they do a good job. Because individuals are receiving less and less affirmation it has become very important to help show workers the value you place on their efforts. It’s safe to say that most employees love being encouraged, but there are some that find the idea of being praised a fearful thing. When this becomes a phobia it is known as Doxophobia.
This fear name also extends to expressing an opinion. This can also be very difficult for the doxophobe. It may seen far-fetched to believe that an individual would neither want praise nor to express a firmly held opinion, but it happens.
What Causes Doxophobia?
There may be self-esteem issues involved, and this is a social phobia, but one of the keys to this is the individual simply wants to refrain from being on anyone’s radar. They want to be virtually invisible. They don’t want the eyes of others on them either for their opinion or to draw the attention of others to something they may have done right.
For reasons they may not fully understand themselves the doxophobe would rather endure self-doubt than to be the focus of very uncomfortable attention.
This fear may be learned through times when the individual became embarrassed over what they felt was more attention than their efforts merited. It might also have developed when the individual shared an opinion that was cross examined and discussed for longer than they wanted. In the end they simply sought to be left alone and then began to fear those moments when they might not be.
Like all fears, Doxophobia could also be a fear-based response that exists in those that observe and then imitate the response they have seen in another trusted individual. Believe it or not this is how many phobic personalities discover the many paths to fear.
Symptoms of Doxophobia
It is possible that an individual with this fear can achieve high levels of success. Simply being a doxophobe does not mean the individual lacks skills. It does mean they will never promote themselves and they refuse the limelight. So the biggest symptoms is avoidance of situations in which they will be praised, or prodded for their opinion.
Other symptoms may include…
- Nausea
- Elevated heart rates
- Trembling
- Weeping
- Air hunger
- Dizziness
- The need to get away
- Panic attack
The social anxiety that comes with this phobia is hard to miss and difficult to dismiss.
How to Overcome Doxophobia
It might help the phobic personality to understand that in all likelihood they want to know they are doing a good job, and they want others to value their opinion. The difficulty may be in getting past reminders of how they have felt in the past or the hurt others inflicted verbally and emotionally as a result of public praise or in voicing their opinion.
A therapist is a helpful advocate in learning the roots of fear and the ways you can combat it effectively.
The fear of receiving praise is also referred to as:
- Receiving praise fear
- Fear of expressing an opinion
- Doxophobia
