This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 at 2:50 pm and is filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Manic Monday: Gelotophobia is Nothing to Laugh At
No one likes to be the butt of jokes and humiliated by being laughed at. But for some people, the fear of being laughed at is so debilitating it can cause isolation. This fear is known as gelotophobia - a disorder that was not named until 10 years ago. Willibald Ruch of the University of Zurich said that studying the negative effects of being laughed at is something entirely new.
A person with gelotophobia can hear a stranger laughing and they automatically assume the stranger is laughing at him or her. With extreme cases of gelotophobia, the affected person can break out into a sweat, have heart palpitations, trembling or even freeze up in social situation.
Ruch and his team of colleagues surveyed 23,000 people in 75 countries and found that gelotophobia was present in each nation. They found it affects between 2% and 30% of the population.
You can read more posts by Sandy Robinson at her other health blogs: Fighting Fatigue & IC Disease. Sandy also writes for the American Idolist site on WebbleYou.
Posted by Sandy Robinson | Chronic Health Blog | WebbleYou Blog Network | © 2008 |
Permalink |
Comments