14 DAY TRIAL // A new scientific study demonstrates that one of the reasons why people may be suffering from claustrophobia is the fact that their brains have a distorted perception of the space around.
What this means is that some individuals may simply perceive their surroundings as having other dimensions – lengths, width and height – than they have in reality. This is one of the things that favors the development of the debilitating condition.
Claustrophobia is a condition where sufferers suffer panic attacks when they find themselves in confined spaces. These may include an elevator, a garage, a mine, a small room or apartment and so on.
Some reported experiencing symptoms related to these disorders while they were in a crowd. These individuals do not suffer from agoraphobia (the fear of crowds), but were rather confined to moving in only very tight places by the other people around.
Scientists say that all people have what is called a personal space, which is an area that is roughly the same size as our comfort zone. This space is usually defined as being within an arm's length of the body. When others enter this area, many feel uncomfortable and anxious.
In the newest study on the topic, experts were able to demonstrate that people who extend what they perceive as their personal space far beyond an arm's reach are more likely to experience claustrophobia.
“We’ve found that people who are higher in claustrophobic fear have an exaggerated sense of the near space surrounding them. At this point, we don’t know whether it’s the distortion in spatial perception that leads to the fear, or vice versa. Both possibilities are likely,” says Dr. Stella Lourenco.
The expert, who holds an appointment as a psychologist at the Emory University, was the leader of the new research, PsychCentral reports. An estimated 4 percent of the general population suffers from full-blown claustrophobia, with another few percentages experiencing the fear only in passing.
“Increasing our understanding of the factors that contribute to claustrophobia may help clinicians develop more effective therapies for what can be a highly debilitating fear,” explains study coauthor Dr. Matthew Longo.
Determining the root causes of this condition is made all the more difficult by several findings made in past studies, such as that not all people who experience traumatic events in confined spaces develop the condition. Theoretically, they should, yet not all do.
“That led us to ask whether other factors might be involved. Our results show a clear relation between claustrophobic fear and basic aspects of spatial perception,” Lourenco concludes.