Gerontophobia Naghmeh Mokhber Professor of Psychiatry

Gerontophobia has a few different definitions: irrational and persistent fear of growing old, hatred or anger toward the elderly, or fear of the elderly.

Gerascophobia has one definition: irrational and persistent fear of growing old. Everyone has experienced or does experience a fear of growing old and facing one’s own mortality, but only people with gerascophobia become horrified and obsessed with the idea.

Symptoms of Gerontophobia Symptoms of gerontophobia are seen commonly throughout many anxiety disorders. When faced with their fear, sufferers will usually feel symptoms similar to panic attacks. These may include excessive sweating, a drop in blood pressure, shortness in breath, general anxiety and the inability to think clearly or speak normally. A fear of the elderly is usually unfounded and may cause more severe problems to occur later in life. This may include seclusion from the rest of society, in an effort to avoid the elderly, which may lead to more serious side effects like depression.anxiety disorderspanic attacksdepression

The symptoms of gerascophobia and gerontophobia include: breathlessness, sweating, anxiety and panic attacks when thinking about growing old obsessive fear about losing one’s appearance with time obsessive fear about a loss of independence in older age self-withdrawal and isolation from others

women make up the majority of cases, and that the symptoms often set in when the individual reaches his/her early to mid-30s. This would be the time a person is recognizing that their youth is slipping away, and they become faced with fears of inferiority loss of identity and self-worth

WHAT CAUSES GERONTOPHOBIA? The cause of gerontophobia is usually tied in some way to a fear of death, which can be symbolized by being elderly. Becoming older also brings one closer to fears associated with one’s own mortality. Another cause of gerontophobia can be a traumatic experience with the elderly

HOW IS GERONTOPHOBIA TREATED? A psychological technique that is very helpful in treating gerontophobia is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in which people learn to change their thoughts to change their resulting feelings. The person learns, for example to focus more on the positive aspects of becoming older than the negative aspects.psychological CBT is the most common form of treatment

desensitization in which a person is taught how to relax (e.g., deep breathing) when being near the elderly or when seeing signs of personal aging (e.g. a picture of an elderly person, walking near an elderly person, talking to an elderly person). The person is exposed to more intense forms of the stimulus as they master the fear at the less intense level.

Sometimes, the more intense form of the stimuli is based on amount of the stimuli whereas in other cases it may be based on the duration of exposure (e.g., one minute, two minutes, three minutes, etc, such as the length of time one can calmly converse with an elderly person). CBT is often combined with desensitization and typically works within a few months.

Another treatment technique is a behavioral method known as flooding in which the person is immersed directly in the feared stimulus (e.g., a visit to a nursing home) to demonstrate that the fear is irrational. The fear is replaced by realization of this and the application of relaxation techniques. Flooding is a faster but more traumatic form of treatment than desensitization

A more insight-oriented technique involves exploring the original cause of the phobia (e.g., fear of death) and trying to resolve issues surrounding this. This may involve use of CBT techniques and/pr other counseling methods.

Group therapy with other people sharing the same phobia or other phobias may also be helpful.

Gerontophobia can be treated by an anti-anxiety medication designed to decrease anxiety. Sometimes, antidepressant medications may be used because some anti-depressants are useful for treating anxiety as well as depression.