With apologies to anyone who suffers from Pithecophobia- the fear of monkeys and apes.
Where I live, there's an idiom that, loosely translated, says “Don’t fetch the monkey from behind the mountain.” It means don’t fetch your irrational fears from the future. Yet we do, all the time.
Another local word, “Eish,” is a word used to express several emotions like surprise, annoyance, or resignation, and sounds a lot like the Atch of Atychiphobia, or fear of failure. We look at the ways we could fail and allow the negativity to dictate our path, resigned to fail, and fearful of the consequences of the failure, without stopping to consider whether the fear of failure has any rational basis.
We just continue doing things the same way, kind of like monkey see monkey do. We fear failure, and then become magnetically drawn to fail. I thought we were more evolved than monkeys, but sometimes I wonder...
Atychiphobia Meaning
Intense fear of failure, Atychiphobia is derived from the Greek word “atyches,” which means "unfortunate,” and appropriately sounds like aches- as in the aches and pains that fear of failing in the future brings to the present. Atychiphobia is an anxiety disorder that affects an estimated 2-5% of the population according to research, but the number may be far higher.
Atychiphobia can also be the driver behind:
Perfectionism:
Low self-esteem: Negative self-talk or low self-confidence makes it difficult to pursue goals.
Procrastination: With a weak motivation, it's tempting to say, "Why bother, it will fail anyway."
Increased stress and anxiety: Fear of failure can promote persistence and effort, but can push you to your breaking point.
These are aspects that a high percentage of people struggle with. Fear of failure is hard to acknowledge and harder to admit to in a world of fake everything and unrealistic expectations where failing just isn’t an option.
Atychiphobia Risk factors
Different phobias can affect both adults and children and Atychiphobia can occur in both. Children's fears tend to be of the monster under the bed, and as they get older, they fear failing a monster of a test. Atychiphobia risk factors include:
Past failures: especially if the experiences were traumatic or had serious consequences, such as being fired or starting a business that doesn’t succeed.
Perfectionism
Observational learning: Watching someone else fail can contribute to a phobia and may be more pronounced if the person was close- such as a child watching a parent fail.
Informational learning: After reading or hearing about someone else’s experience, a fear of your own failure can develop.
Genetics: Although there isn’t enough research to link fears to genetics, biological changes could occur in the brain and body in response to feared stimuli.
Symptoms of Atychiphobia
Symptoms of an irrational fear of failure range from mild to extreme and could be debilitating enough to be unable to engage in daily tasks at home or attend meetings at work. Symptoms are triggered when you think about certain situations in which you might fail and often seem to come out of nowhere.
Emotional symptoms could include:
Intense panic or anxiety
Feeling detached from yourself
Thought that you may faint or die
Overwhelming urge to escape the situation.
Feeling as though you lost control over the situation
Feeling powerless over the fear
Physical symptoms could include:
Rapid heart rate
Tightness or pain in your chest
Difficulty or rapid breathing (hyperventilating)
Trembling or shaking
Sweating
Lightheadedness or dizziness
Digestive problems
Hot or cold flashes
Self-sabotage or self-handicapping is also common with atychiphobia, making it difficult to start something because you believe you will fail. And the mind is a powerful motivator.
If you believe you can or believe you can’t, you’re right.
- Henry Ford
Atychiphobia Diagnosis
An atychiphobia diagnosis may be made if:
The symptoms have been present for six months or longer.
You recognize the fear as irrational and severe.
The anticipation of fearful situations is excessive.
Situations and objects that may bring on anxiety are avoided.
These are immediate fear responses or panic attacks to situations that bring on fear
Fear of the Future and Other Phobias
While psychiatry excels at identifying and treating specific disorders, fear of the future is often more complicated that just fear that you may fail in the future. The fear that you may succeed can be just as debilitating, as a general fear of the future and other phobias. Phobias that keep you from living your best life include:
Chronophobia:
Fear of the future, chronophobia is defined as the fear of the future or the fear of passing time and comes from the Greek word 'chronos' meaning time, and phobos meaning fear. Being an irrational fear, the phobia brings things from the future to the present, immobilizing opportunities right in front of us.
Achievemephobia:
Fear of success, or "success anxiety," Achievemephobia is an underrated fear and shows up in a lack of self-esteem, confidence, and the lack of courage to believe in yourself. Children of narcissists- particularly those trained to be the scapegoat, know all too well that their success will never be tolerated, leading to an often lifelong strategy of self-sabotage and fear of success.
Agoraphobia:
Fear of open spaces or crowds where escaping is impossible or problematic, agoraphophic is a complex phobia derived from the Greek word, "agora," meaning a place of assembly with the suffix "phobía" meaning 'fear'.People with agoraphobia see danger in the environment and feel unsafe with no easy way to escape, even where no danger is present.
Cherophobia:
Fear of happiness is an aversion to happiness, derived from the Greek word “chero,” which means “to rejoice.” People with Cherophobia deliberately avoid experiences that invoke positive emotions or happiness and are unable to participate in activities that are fun or would make them happy.
Xenophobia:
Fear of the unknown, xenophobia has more recently been defined as the fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners, and in ancient Greece, xenophobic individuals were literally "stranger fearing." Xenophobia comes from “xenos” meaning "stranger" or "guest." It is the fear of anything strange, alien, or unknown.
Self-hatred / Insecurity:
Fear of being yourself. Fear for many is a lack of self-confidence and the habit of valuing the opinion of others over our own.
The fear of fear or phobias, is the fear of the sensations brought about by fears- such as panic attacks and heart palpitations, or fear of having one of the long list of phobias. It comes from the Greek word, “phobos,” which means "fear," "morbid fear," or "aversion."
Much like the 3 monkeys who hear no evil, speak no evil, and hear no evil, fear can make us shut down, shut up, and shut out the world.
Perhaps we just shut down, don't speak, don't see, and don't hear anything when fears paralyze us.
Confucius, The 3 Monkeys, And Other 3's
Part of Confucius’s Code of Conduct, the iconic 3 monkeys are part of a work covering 8 panels in man’s life cycle. It is thought that the figures represent the three dogmas of the so-called middle school of the Tendai-Buddhist sect legend but all forms and sects of Buddhism ascribe to the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the dharma or law, and the sangha or monastic order, but each sect has their own interpretation and practice.
Three jewels or Triratna in Buddhism are verbalized in the words said on becoming a Buddhist: “I go to the Buddha for refuge, I go to the Doctrine for refuge, I go to the Order for refuge.”
The three jewels (ratnatraya) in Jainism are understood as samyagdarshana or “right faith”, samyagjnana or “right knowledge,” and samyakcharitra “right conduct” which all exist together as a group and are all required for spiritual liberation.
In Christianity, the 3 key elements are the Father or source, the Son who is given the fullness of divinity, and the Holy Spirit in one divine nature.
The significance of 3 existing concurrently, in each case representing perfection, is unmistakable, and the 3 monkeys may be trying to tell us how to live a perfect life.
Phobias And The 3 Monkeys
Our fears- the monkeys on our backs, hold us back from embracing our lives, our joy, and our fate. Fearing failure- or many other things, we hold tight to our fears instead of letting them go and walking boldly into our intended futures.
Unable to solve vexing problems, we stay in the uncomfortable comfort zone with the familiarity of our fears, unwilling or unable to loosen the hold until life becomes too difficult to live, or too unbearable to bear. It makes no sense.
We tell ourselves we want to be happy, to live life to the fullest, then we place obstacles in our own way to prevent us from achieving it. Looking into the eyes of fear itself may be a fear of itself, one more difficult to conquer or manage than many other phobias, despite that we are the ones in control of the fear.
In Erica Jong’s controversial book, Fear of Flying, the protagonist, Isadora fears flying in all possible senses of the word- she fears her life taking off, allowing her fears to prevent the journey. Finding liberation by losing her fears takes risking everything- her marriage and her existing life. But she makes a meaningful point hilariously.
In The Wizard of Oz, the wicked witch of the West puts flying monkeys under a spell to control them, much the same way that flying monkeys is a term for people who carry out the work of a narcissist or abusive person. Ironically, it’s often the flying monkeys among us who need a team of at least 3 monkeys to fly our fears away.
Or perhaps we need to turn our fears into flying monkeys and watch them fly off into the sunset, leaving us to embrace our best life, instead of going to fetch problems behind the mountain.
Tips On Healing Atychiphobia
Advice from the mainstream on dealing with Atychiphobia includes:
Make a choice: Choose to indulge your fear or not.
Set realistic goals to heal, starting with small steps to build confidence, then celebrating successes and building on them.
Challenge any negative thoughts that crop up.
Practice positive thinking.
Have a strategy to evaluate fears as they appear and include ways to minimize or alleviate them rationally.
Develop self-acceptance, including forgiving yourself for past mistakes.
Lifestyle changes may help with mild atychiphobia.
Psychotherapy can help most people overcome this fear and there are several treatment options available.
But whether it’s failure or other fears that are behind the mountain in front of you preventing your progress through life, don’t go fetch them behind the mountain. Leave them there. Perhaps some kind flying monkeys may pick them up and fly off to never be seen again. But it does not matter where- as long as they leave your life. Eish!
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