Enochlophobia or simple anxiety issues?

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Hello, I am new to this parts and I am questioning myself on to why I get this feeling of anxiety/nervousness/stress. I am not always sure of how I feel and cannot make the difference between them nor can I figure out if all 3 comes at once.

I usually get anxiety issues when I am mostly within a crowd of people and the noise from chit-chat seems to make it worse. I have no sensory issues and I never had anxiety when surrounded by strangers, until but a few months ago.

I never had any traumatic experiences, such as, getting trampled, but I do remember 2 years ago, when I was still with my ex-fiance at the time, he ended up having a heatstroke and no matter how many time I asked for help, no one did anything.

Also, as a teen, I was bullied and there have been one instance that an entire class ganged up on me to throw balls of paper all at once. I don't know if those experiences are the roots of my anxiety within a crowd of chatty individuals today.

Here are the symptoms that I can describe with certainty:

- Stimming
- Occasional trembling hands
- Fast breathing (maybe hyperventilation?)
- Occasional teeth chattering/often teeth clenching
- Throat squeezing
- Dry throat (the same feeling when you have a cold or flu)
- Occasional chest contraction or "sting"
- Occasional wanting to walk/run away ASAP (I get this tingling sensation)
- Verge of crying
- Meltdown (sitting in a corner with my head in between my knees)

The anxiety also happens sometimes out of the blue, when I am alone, focused on programming or another activity.

It seems that some tones of voice irritates me, makes me rage deep inside to the point of having intrusive thoughts of hurting myself or others.

Can anyone relate to this? I know, I am probably asking for some sort of diagnosis but I would like to see the possibilities that can come out from a person's thought.

Thank you.

Hi, Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Whether you are Spectrum, or Spectrum-lite, or just open to people who are different, I think you will often find us to be a helpful bunch.

Okay, I know with my own struggles with OCD, if it gets to the second-order thing where I worry about the worry, that's bad. And my guess is that it's the same thing with fearing the fear. And the remedy is zen. I mean, if I can get to the place, alright, maybe my OCD worry will happen and maybe it won't, and either way is okay and I will be able to handle this. And in truth, maybe this only works 70% of the time, but I will take that 70%.

And I would ask you to respectfully reconsider whether you might have sensory issues. Being bothered by some tones of voice, that does sound like a sensory issue.

I would almost say the defining trait of Autism Spectrum is sensory issues. And stimming is a healthy response and part of the solution (of course I'm open to time and place and lower-key methods for public).

The part with your fiance having heatstroke and you asking for help and no one doing anything, that's brutal. They've done studies with bystander effect, and if there's more bystanders, each person is then less likely to do anything to help. And if one person ignores, and this is just my own guess, maybe there's a contagion efffect. I'm open to pretty much anything to get away from the conclusion that people are callow, shallow, selfish---because they sure seem that way a certain percentage of the time. This runs deep and is a big issue.

And then, maybe thinking about medium disclosure to friends. Perhaps something of the sort, you know, I think I'm struggling with anxiety attacks, some people do. And if the friend is receptive, try and keep it medium length. Try not to overwhelm the friend all at once. I sometimes am not able to do this and fall into this trap. And please trust your gut feelings regarding which different friends you might be able to tell first.

PS And if you don't mind, what is enochlophobia?

Thank you for the welcome and your reply.

Enochlophobia is basically Fear of Crowds... maybe I spelled it wrong? That was something I googled up. I know Agoraphobia is similar since it referred crowds but I have no problem in being in an open space.

As for the sensory issue, why I said that I do not have this problem is because I do not hear sounds that are amplified 10 times louder like some do. I suppose it is more than that? I am rather clueless, to be honest. I can listen to music just fine but I do have a preference for instrumentals, although there are a few songs out there that I really love and listen repeatedly everyday, that contains singing.

Tomorrow I will experiment once more, within my huge family (we're gathering up for my grandmother's birthday and we'll be over 20 individuals) and see if it's really a sensory issue with hearing or something else.

okay, so fear of crowds. I think fairly common, both among people on the spectrum and not.

And if I'm understanding about your hearing, in some areas you cannot hear louder than average but in other areas, maybe instrumental or favorite songs or maybe certain pitch ranges, average volume works just fine?

And I am familiar with family gatherings, shall we say, being challenging. I hope good things happen for you tomorrow.

Well, the party went alright since it was outside. Although, the anxiety did come a little but went back down rather quickly. However, the feeling came back much more strongly, once everyone went inside the house, since it was dark and cooler.

I have a big family and all of them are loud when conversing (I wont deny that I can be too when talkative) and because of hearing many conversations at once, I bolted to the kitchen to give my ears a break, which seemed to have helped until the voices picked up again. Ugh... it seems highly likely that I do have sensory or filtering issues after all, but I consider myself lucky that the sounds are not amplified x10.

I had a bit of a ear pounding when I was heading home. DX

For sensory issues that develop for the first time in adolescence or adulthood, I would see a professional.

Mostly likely, I will! I have an appointment in July.

Thank you for the concern.

I have an ability where I can almost memorize a movie the first time I see it. So, you can imagine, after I get filled up, how overwhelming social interaction can be.

It's like I have an A game and a C game, but not much of a B game. And that's okay, I can accept this and work with this. Sometimes I do forget the content of a conversation and it's almost a relief when I do.