What Is Geniophobia? (A Summary)

In this blog we will summarize the causes, symptoms and treatments of Geniophobia.

What is Geniophobia?

Geniophobia refers to a phobia or fear of people’s chins. The word Geniophobia comes from a Greek word genio which means “chin” or “jaw”, and anyone who has Geniophobia may sometimes fear people who have prominent chins, for instance double chins. People with Geniophobia may experience an obsessional fear with chins, particularly imperfect chins.

Geniophobia is an irrational fear of chins. It is simply a fear of the anatomical chin, either one’s own or the others.

It is one of the rare phobias and the people who suffer from Geniophbia suffer a full-blown panic attack at the thought or sight of chins.

Geniophobia is an intense fear of chins and the person does not like to look at them or even touch them.

They go through a racing heart and palpitations if they are exposed to chins.

Symptoms of Geniophobia

To avoid the experience of anxiety itself the individual may develop Geniophobia, so as to avoid the very cause of the uncomfortable condition.

Anxiety at the thought of chins.
Anxiety when seeing other people’s chins.

Physical Symptoms

These are intense and can begin without any prior warning.

The person suffering from Geniophobia experiences the full physical intensity of either all of these or some of these in combination with others.

hot flashes or chills
headaches
sweating
trembling
shortness of breath a choking sensation
rapid heartbeat (tachycardia)
nausea
dizziness
feeling faint
numbness
dry mouth
ringing in ears
confusion
hyperventilation
raised blood pressure

The Psychological Symptoms

During panic attack the person suffering from Geniophobia may experience the following

fear of looking at a chin
feelings of dread
Socially withdrawn
fear of losing control
feeling of hopelessness
feeling of disconnect
confusion
lack of concentration
anger
irritability
mood swings
afraid of rejection
Fear of touching own chin

Causes of Geniophobia

As with most phobias and anxieties, there is no clear consensus about what causes Geniophobia, but still a very plausible cause could be a fear of chins.

The most common explanation is a childhood traumatic episode involving hurting a chin either through an accident or in a fight.

It could also be related to being a victim of bullying, during which the person got a knock on the chin, or got hurt by somebody’s chin.

Scientists believe that a combination of genetic tendencies, brain chemistry, and other biological and environmental factors could cause such fears to develop.

As is common in specific phobias, the cause Geniophobia may lie deep in the person’s childhood or its onset may be due to an environmental factor.

Genetics also plays a pivotal role in the cause of developing Geniophobia.

Other causes can be as follow:

• Learned behavior

• Traumatic experiences

Etiological Models of Geniophobia

1. Biological (Genetic) Model

Genetics also determines how a person reacts and feels. Therefore, people inherit fears and phobias as well from their families.

The brain cells (neurons) release certain chemicals called neurotransmitters.

Serotonin and Dopamine are two neurotransmitters that in depleted states can cause anxiety like symptoms.

2. Psychodiagnostics Model

If a person has suffered from a traumatic experience in early childhood it can have a severe dire impact on his later life.

A childhood traumatic experience could be where children experienced a negative impact of events due to a change in their life.

This may leave a long lasting impression. Reading books that have a detailed account of face surgeries or cosmetics surgeries gone wrong can also cause Geniophobia.

3. Behavioral Model

According to this model, irrational fears may be caused through behaviors that are learned by replication.

Children often replicate unique behaviors of their adults, parents or a favorite aunt or uncle.

Treatments of Geniophobia

Geniophobia can be treated through different treatments.

These include Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Exposure Therapy, Neuro Linguistic Program (NLP), Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction MBSR) and forms of meditation.

1) Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)

In CBT the therapist helps the client to amend his thoughts so that a desirable behavior can be achieved.

This therapy is effective, because if the thoughts or cognitions alter then there will be a lasting impact on behavior.

The therapist helps the client to discover the reason for this thought, his behavior in regards to changes in life.

This therapy is goal oriented and short termed. Therefore, the results are seen soon. It changes the way a person thinks and feels.

CBT does not focus on probing the past to resolve current problems, rather it concentrates on the present situation.

Our thoughts determine how we act or react to certain stimuli and situations.

Therefore, negative thoughts bring about a negative behavior response or an undesirable behavior.

Whereas, positive thoughts propagate desirable and healthy attitude and response.

For the treatment of Geniophobia, the therapist separates the problem into parts.

These may include: thoughts, feelings and actions.

What thought is invoked at the thought of chins?
How do you feel when you see people’s chins?
What do you do when you have to touch your chin?

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is a form of CBT and designed by Albert Ellis.

According to Ellis, “people are not disturbed by things but rather by their view of things.” This is what subjective perspective is.

2) Exposure Therapy

It is one of the most frequently used ways of treating patients with Geniophobia.

In this therapy, the patient is exposed to the source of his fear over a certain span of time.

To begin with the therapy, the therapist exposes the patient to the least triggering stimuli.

As the therapy progresses and the patient is able to control his anxious feelings, imagery can be used to take the treatment a step further.

In this part of the treatment the patient is asked to visualize/imagine a situation that makes him anxious.

During this process of imagery, one actually feels being in that particular situation or place, experiencing various senses.

Once the person successfully, without feeling anxious clears this step of the therapy, he is then exposed to real life situations.

While the patient is being exposed to different intensities of stimuli during the various stages of therapy, the therapist simultaneously teaches them coping exercises.

These include, breathing techniques or muscle relaxation methods to lower their anxiety, when in an actual fear/anxiety causing situation.

This teaches them how to remain calm when exposed to the fear stimuli.

Before actually starting the exposure therapy, the therapist needs to figure out the intensity of the patient’s fear, as to deduce whether they will be able to undergo this treatment, without any physical or psychological harm caused to them during the exposure processes.

3) Neuro Linguistic Program (NLP)

In this therapy the client is asked to

Access the phobia in a safe environment.
Help them to replay the phobia along with happy emotions.
Disassociate from the phobia.

4) Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

MBSR involves being aware of one’s own thoughts, feelings and reducing the interference from around the environment.

We do not pay attention to how we process the various stimuli that affect us.

We do not process the way our bodies feel and respond, there is no focus on our thoughts and how these thoughts are influencing our emotions.

In MBSR, the client is ‘woken up’ to actually experience the various senses. ‘Focus’ is the keyword!

In Geniophobia treatment, the client is made conscious to pay attention to his thoughts when he is thinking of what he is afraid of.

Awareness helps to alleviate the stress symptoms.

5) Meditation

For meditation to be effective during treatment, the mind is cleared off all the clutter of random thoughts.

The mind and body are made to be ‘in sync’ with each other, so that the feared stimulus does not invoke a negative thought.

The client will meditate during the thoughts of death and concentrate on his breathing patterns in the presence of the feared stimulus.

6) Self-Help Groups

Self Help groups are an effective type of therapy, in which the client does not find himself as a lone sufferer.

These groups are individuals who are afflicted with the same types of phobias. They come together to share their thoughts, experiences and their coping strategies.

This also helps in developing a ‘sense of I am not the only one’ suffering.