What is Decidophobia: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment

Phobia means an irrational fear of an object or a situation. Decidophobia is one such phobia. People suffering from this disorder suffer excessive fear and anxiety while making any decision. Let’s take a look into its symptoms, causes, diagnosis, treatment methods and more.

Decidophobia is a mental disorder that creates overwhelming anxiety when one tries to make a decision. People with this phobia find themselves entangled in doubt and confusion before making a decision. As a result, most of the time, they fail to decide independently.

This can often turn into such a condition where the act of formulating decisions can even lead to a panic attack. As a result, people who have decidophobia usually try their best to avoid taking any decision at all to avoid pain or suffering.

However, decidophobia symptoms set in whenever they get triggered and have to confront a situation that needs instant decision-making.

Anxiety and Panic

A person with a fear of decision-making can have a panic attack while making a choice. Excessive anxiety can accompany physical symptoms of chest pain, irregular heartbeat, shaking, sweating, dry mouth, nausea, breathlessness, light-headedness etc.

Procrastination

People keep on trying to avoid such stressful encounters by avoiding making decisions altogether. Hence, important decisions and choices get procrastinated. This affects their flow of life significantly.

They prefer to live a life of uncertainty while unknowingly stacking up stress factors.

Decreased Self-esteem

Depending on others to make personal choices is detrimental to an individual's self-esteem. In this condition, one pays attention to others' decision-making abilities. Unfortunately, it makes them forget about their own specific needs.

Continuous external dependence makes people doubt themselves to the degree that other anxiety disorders start to appear.

With these symptoms, one can identify someone suffering from decidophobia. However, it would be better to prevent panic attacks altogether. Let's look at the triggers of this phobia to take preventive actions.

Past Traumatic Experiences

One can develop this disorder due to a past unpleasant or even traumatic experience. For example, a decision that turns out to damage oneself or someone close can create a fear of making a decision.

One tries to avoid making a choice to keep away from repeating such incidents. This way, it can develop into an anxiety disorder.

Childhood Education

In many cases, decidophobia may develop from learned habits. In childhood, one might be habituated to letting others make all decisions for them. This trait might also have continued in later years in someone to result in dependency on others while making a decision.

However, at some point in life, one must make decisions for oneself. The inability to do so can result in decidophobia.

Family History

Family history, or genetics, can also be responsible for the development of such thoughts and behaviour patterns. It is possible that a parent’s learned phobia can transfer into one’s child and develop further into a phobia.

Personality Disorders

The fear of making decisions can stem from several personality disorders too. For example, people with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), having severe self-image issues and problems managing emotions and behaviour can get decidophobia. People with Dependent Personality Disorder (DPD) are also at risk of getting this phobia.

Other Phobias

Decidophobia can be triggered by other closely related phobias. For example, atelophobia, an excessive fear of imperfection, or atychiphobia, an overwhelming fear of failure.

Here are some risk factors that can cause decidophobia:

• Genetics is a major risk. The presence of anxiety and lack of confidence can be passed across generations.
• Extreme anxiety and a fear of tough situations can be a risk factor.
• Past experiences of making mistakes or facing judgements can also be one of the risks contributing to this condition.
• A lack of trust in a certain situation or peer pressure can also be risks leading to this condition.

If you fail to take any measures to treat decidophobia, it can lead to the following complications:

• Loss of opportunities: People suffering from decidophobia often fear the possibilities of major changes. As a result, you might lose good opportunities related to your career if you fail to make a bold decision, which will stagnate your life and capabilities.
• Problems in relationships: This health issue can lead to problems in personal life and relationships. It can also cause you to refrain from entering into a relationship simply out of fear of a change. As a result, you might lose good relationships, or end up causing conflicts.
• Financial trouble: People suffering from this condition fail to make decisions on investing or saving money. They can also miss good employment chances out of paranoia. They therefore might face major financial troubles and problems.

First, a professional psychiatrist or therapist would investigate if the symptoms of a patient match the criteria for diagnosing the phobia. The criteria for this phobia include the following:

• Continual fear of decision-making for more than 6 months.
• An irrational fearful response towards specific situations.
• Strong physical or mental reaction towards situations involving decision-making.
• Unavoidable deterioration of daily life activities.

A mental health professional would also try to investigate several triggers of decidophobia to find the dominant cause behind it.

Finally, a professional will devise a customised treatment plan based on specific individual needs.

1. Medication

Treatment can include medication, usually to control the symptoms. It might also help during the therapies to help an individual minimise anxiety. However, medical professionals try to use minimal medication for the treatment.

Some of the common medications for treating the fear of making a decision are:

• Beta Blockers: Beta-blockers help patients handle anxiety responses better by preventing adrenaline from taking its effect.
• Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs): Doctors use SSRIs to lessen the anxiousness in a patient. These drugs can help a patient to maintain a proper amount of dopamine in the brain.
• Sedatives: Sedatives like Benzodiazepine can help an individual get relief from decidophobia agitation. However, these drugs can have addictive effects if not used correctly.

2. Psychotherapy

The crux of the treatment may be solved by psychotherapies that involve accepting the fear, identifying the triggers and changing one's outlook to face one's fear. The methods that professionals use are outlined below.

• Exposure Therapy

Exposure therapy aims to replace one's unrealistic beliefs about the situation one fears with realistic beliefs. It will try to reduce the fear response bit by bit and build self-confidence.

A therapist would start exposing the patient to a mild stimulus; in this case, it can be an easy decision for the patient. As the patient starts to get more habituated with the process, he or she would have to start taking serious decisions.

The length of exposure therapy depends on individual circumstances, severity of fear and on specific health metrics of individuals.

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

CBT aims to change one's thoughts and behavioural patterns to eliminate the fear response. It has shown great improvements for various mental disorders, from insomnia to eating disorders.

To treat decidophobia, CBT will try to identify the thoughts and thought patterns that are creating the fear response.

In CBT, one has to dive deep into oneself and gain better self-knowledge, the discovery of secret fears, real motivations etc. Patients will also learn how to develop helpful thoughts and create new thought patterns consciously.

With the right treatment, one gets relief from this phobia with minimal setbacks or complications. However, it is important to know when to involve a doctor.

Decidophobia is a condition paralysing the patients from making sound decisions as a result of fear and lack of confidence. If left untreated, the effects of this condition can last a lifetime. Even if you get treatment, this condition can take a long time to treat, about a couple of years.

An individual or someone close to the patient should contact a doctor if one identifies the following in the patient:

• Panic attack.
• Deterioration of quality of life due to failure in decision-making.
• Anxiety or depression.

However, one should always take precautionary measures and prevent the phobia from getting critical.

Here are 9 tips for coping with decidophobia:

Tip 1: Take Fewer Decisions: One should start their journey slowly when there is a physical and mental resistance to a situation. One can start by fixing a small number of decisions one has to make in a day.

Tip 2: Change Perspectives: When one is paralysed between probable right choices, it can be useful to change the point of view. Using someone else's perspective or diverse outlooks can be helpful in some situations.

Tip 3: Build Intrinsic Security: Making the right decisions can be tough at times; however, one with high intrinsic security can take decisions without fearing the outcome. One should learn how to build intrinsic security.

Tip 4: Don’t Think About Outcomes: If one cannot be fearless about outcomes, learning how to detach oneself from the outcome can be of great help. Focusing on work more than results is another way of practising this.

Tip 5: Prioritise Activities: Doing first things first can be very effective in managing stress and fear responses. Doing one important thing at a time can be beneficial to manage your timeline and activities while meeting the deadlines.

Tip 6: Use Fear to Grow: Confronting fear can bring out a lot of hidden potential within individuals. One can think of fear as a controllable dosage of a healthy diet and start using it to unlock dormant capabilities.

Tip 7: Take It Slow: When someone is on a journey facing their fears, it is better to take it slow. It will be counterintuitive to pace up and cause burnout.

Tip 8: Relax: Individuals can learn some relaxing techniques to aid their new growth. Relaxation can be different for everybody. For some, it can be a rock climbing session; for some, it can be listening to music.

Tip 9: Take the Next Step: One can take a step further when one becomes a bit comfortable with how things are going on. It can mean intensifying the process or getting more involved.

Decidophobia can be detrimental to one's quality of living, career and relationships. So, it is imperative to take professional help when situations get out of control. Also, proper treatment for a phobia can bring other positive changes and improve life experience.