Haphephobia:Fear of being touched
Does anyone know how to deal with this?
My family, mostly my mom and her side of the family, are physically affectionate. I'm not comfortable with being touched and try to avoid touching people I just met, my family or my friends unless I trust them with my life. I flinch or freeze when people touch my shoulder or any part of me. After people touch me I can still feel their hand on whatever part of me they touch (neck or arm usually). I'm trying to over come this by being with crowds, even though I'm scared of small spaces. It doesn't really affect my life unless you count my inability to flirt due to fear of flinching and scaring away my crush and the occassional arguments with my family because I keep removing their hand from my back or moving away when they try to hug me.
@rainbowturtle
Maybe imagine rain or water droplets touching a leaf. Are you okay with rain water falling down on you? If you're comfortable with that image, then you can think of people's hands like water droplets. It might be unconventional but it might help.
@Cenozoic Ah well, I think I'm just not used to being touched so I shy away from situations that require me to touch another human being. But I'll try your idea. It might help :)
Thanks! 😀
@rainbowturtle Thank you for sharing. You are brave for sharing this. I am also afraid of being touched. Also struggle with need for comfort, which causes conflict with the fear of being touched. Traumas number in the dozens for me, and they have added more fears, triggers and panic attacks as each trauma complicated the previous ones. I HEAR YOU, rainbowturtle...
@rainbowturtle I am trying to meet people who are scared of being touched. I keep looking on the anxiety groups here, and the PTSD groups, and questioning if this could be on the autism spectrum... this is haphephobia and I"m trying to figure out what this is
